Cleator, O’Connor Shun Party Aid : Mayoral Candidates Emphasize Race Is Nonpartisan

Local Democratic and Republican party leaders said Friday that they are eager to provide manpower and other assistance to the two San Diego mayoral finalists, but both Democrat Maureen O’Connor and Republican City Councilman Bill Cleator expressed reservations about accepting their respective parties’ overt help in the June runoff.

Saying that an O’Connor victory would be “a tremendous shot in the arm” for the local Democratic Party, Tom La Vaut, chairman of the Democratic Central Committee, said he is “prepared to roll out the troops” to aid the former councilwoman, who led the 14-candidate primary with 46% of the vote, 4% short of the margin needed for outright victory.

However, O’Connor, concerned about jeopardizing her campaign’s nonpartisan emphasis, strongly suggested Friday that she might adopt a thanks-but-no-thanks attitude to that offer.

Similarly, local Republican leaders say that they could coordinate a massive get-out-the-vote effort and provide volunteers to assist Cleator, who qualified for the runoff by finishing second with 30% of the vote in Tuesday’s primary. But, like O’Connor, Cleator said that he is not sure that he necessarily wants that help.

The irony of a candidate reacting with anything other than enthusiasm to any offer of assistance illustrates how the two major political parties’ aid-in-waiting poses a ticklish dilemma.

One reason for the candidates’ reservations is that they both aggressively sought support across party lines in the primary and are leery of any move that could make that effort more difficult in the runoff.

In addition, while the mayoral race is nonpartisan more in theory than in fact, the two candidates, if only for the sake of appearances, are reluctant to do anything that could be perceived as injecting partisanship into the election.

Arguing that “partisanship just doesn’t belong” in the mayoral race, O’Connor explained that she has “some doubts and questions” about the local Democratic Party taking an active role in the runoff to determine who serves the remaining 2 1/2 years in the term of former Mayor Roger Hedgecock, who resigned in December after his felony conviction.

“I feel strongly that this is a nonpartisan office and want to keep the race as nonpartisan as possible,” O’Connor said. “I welcome all the help I can get from individuals. But as far as the party making an endorsement or doing something else, I’m not sure . . . that would be a good idea. The Democratic Party stayed neutral in the primary, and I think maybe that’s also the proper course for the runoff.”

Cleator, meanwhile, said that while his “first inclination is to go after every single endorsement I can get,” he does not want to “turn this . . . into a Democrat versus Republican thing.”

“I really don’t know what role the parties are going to play, and it’s not something I’ve really thought about,” Cleator said. “But my first reaction is that I want this to stay a nonpartisan race. People in San Diego feel this is a nonpartisan office and that’s the way they’d like to keep it.”

For their parts, Democratic chief La Vaut and Robert Schuman, his Republican counterpart, say that they understand the candidates’ position and, in La Vaut’s words, “won’t be bothered in the least” if their offers of help are discouraged.

La Vaut, for example, said the local Democratic Party could provide O’Connor with about 400 volunteers--about 10 each from the nearly 40 Democratic neighborhood clubs--to walk precincts, make telephone calls or perform other campaign tasks on weekends.

“This is an army we could activate for Maureen,” La Vaut said. “We’re ready to support her, if she wants it. If she thinks this isn’t the proper thing to do, since this is a nonpartisan race, that’s fine, too. My feeling is, it’s Maureen’s decision. We wouldn’t want to do anything that she thinks might discourage Republicans from crossing over and voting for her.”

Schuman predicted that the wealthier and better-organized Republican Party could help enlist about 1,000 campaign volunteers for Cleator, adding that the GOP Central Committee also may consider formally endorsing Cleator.

“But we’ll be taking some direction from the Cleator campaign,” Schuman explained. “They may think that an endorsement would smack of partisanship.”

Cleator also would benefit from the Republicans’ voter registration drive and get-out-the-vote campaign planned for the June 3 election.

“Those are things we’d be doing even if there wasn’t a mayor’s race,” Schuman noted.

La Vaut, who kept his party neutral in the primary because of the presence of two other Democratic candidates on the ballot, added that he would like for his Central Committee to endorse O’Connor in the runoff as a “show of unity.” Such an endorsement, La Vaut said, could help dispel the notion that O’Connor, who has been criticized by prominent Democrats as being aloof and inattentive to the local party’s needs, might not receive the party’s “wholehearted help” in the runoff.

“This race means almost as much to the Democratic Party as it does to Maureen,” said La Vaut, noting that Democrats hold less than 10% of the more than 700 elected offices throughout the county. “Winning a citywide race, winning the mayor’s office, would be a real boost to this party’s future. I’m not saying that some people might not have had legitimate gripes about Maureen in the past. But what I’m telling people is that the party’s future is the goal we have to keep in mind.”

O’Connor, though, expressed concern that the Democrats’ endorsement could hamper her efforts to attract support from Republicans and independents.

“It could be an obstacle,” O’Connor said. “The party label itself turns off some people. I haven’t made any definite decisions, but I probably would lean toward neutrality. That might be the best thing for the party to do.”

Nick Johnson, a local consultant to Democratic Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, argued that O’Connor’s skepticism toward such an endorsement is “100% on target.”

“She’s got something to lose and not a whole lot to gain . . . if the party endorses her,” Johnson said. “I don’t see that as a sign that she’s rejecting the Democratic Party. It’s a sign that she’s showing some political sophistication.”