2 Groups Join Forces in Seeking Bird’s Defeat

In an unexpected turn of events, the two major campaign organizations opposing the reelection of California Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and other members of the court have joined forces to present voters with a unified message and a more moderate image.

Spokesmen for the formerly competing groups, Californians to Defeat Rose Bird and Crime Victims for Court Reform, confirmed the alliance Tuesday and said that from now on, the combined campaign efforts would be directed at Bird and only two of her colleagues, Justices Cruz Reynoso and Joseph Grodin.

Justice Stanley Mosk, often described as a member of the court’s four-member liberal majority, will no longer be targeted for defeat by either group, the spokesmen said.

Unlike the other three justices who have been targeted, Mosk has not formally launched a reelection campaign and has said he may not run.

Los Angeles lawyer Richard Riordan, a co-chairman of the Crime Victims for Court Reform finance committee, said Tuesday that the alliance will ensure “a well-run campaign, with the same goals, the same message and a moderate image.”

Riordan, a Democrat appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley to two city commissions, said that one thrust of the campaign now will be to counter claims by Bird that court critics are “a bunch of right-wing fanatics.”

As part of the agreement, the Butcher-Forde political consulting firm, one of the more controversial directors of the campaign against Bird, will drop out.

Overall supervision of the unified efforts will be assumed by veteran political consultant Bill Roberts, whose firm, Dolphin Group Inc., has been running the campaign for Crime Victims for Court Reform. Roberts managed the unsuccessful presidential campaign of Gerald R. Ford in 1976 and helped direct Ronald Reagan’s successful first campaign for governor of California in 1966.

The two campaign organizations will continue to exist separately, Californians based in Orange County and Crime Victims in West Los Angeles.

Spokesmen said that the joining of forces will prevent the two major anti-Bird groups from producing competing radio and television advertising campaigns between now and the November election. There are other, smaller, anti-Bird organizations that are not part of the agreement.

While agreeing with Riordan that the campaign would be “balanced,” the Dolphin Group’s Lee Stitzenberger said that Californians to Defeat Rose Bird would continue to provide a haven for conservatives. Californians was founded by anti-tax crusader Howard Jarvis and a handful of Republican politicians.

“Certainly conservatives might be more comfortable in the ‘Californians’ niche,” Stitzenberger said.

Stu Mollrich, campaign manager for Californians to Defeat Rose Bird, called the alliance a “positive development that will allow us to make the most effective use of all the resources to defeat Rose Bird.”

Stitzenberger also said that Butcher-Forde, a firm that specializes in raising money by direct mail, has agreed to turn over to the combined campaign its file of 100,000 donors. And he said that list should give the campaign the ability to raise $750,000 to $1 million.

To date, Stitzenberger said, Butcher-Forde’s fund-raising efforts, which have financed 5 million anti-Bird mailers, leaves behind a balance of about $55,000, but he added that he was not disappointed by that amount.

“I’m not surprised at all by the low net dollars. It’s very costly to put together one of those lists, and the important thing is that we have it and that it will serve us well in the future,” Stitzenberger said.

Steve Glazer, a spokesman for Bird’s reelection campaign, characterized the alliance as “a retreat, a desperation move by two groups that are losing steam.

“They are consolidating under a consultant who says it’s OK to lie.”

The reference was to a statement attributed to Roberts several years ago that he thought it permissible for a consultant to lie during a campaign.