From Lieutenant Governor to Secretary of State : Nestande Trades One Race for Another

After nine months of campaigning for the job of lieutenant governor, Orange County Supervisor Bruce Nestande made a mid-course correction Thursday: He announced he would run for secretary of state this June instead.

Nestande, who at 48 was making his first bid for statewide office, said the decision was forced on him because an unusually strict Orange County campaign ordinance hindered him in raising the $4 million that he felt he needed to campaign for lieutenant governor.

But Nestande said he believed that he could operate within the county law and still raise enough money for an effective, but half-as-expensive, campaign for secretary of state.

‘Fold Over’ Campaign

“I feel I’m a viable statewide candidate,” the Republican supervisor said Thursday in his office in Santa Ana. Nestande and a campaign consultant said they believed that Nestande could easily “fold over” his lieutenant governor’s campaign consultants, money and strategy into the new race.

And if any supporter didn’t want a campaign contribution folded over, “I’ll give it back,” Nestande promised.

The campaign for secretary of state should cost $2 million at most, Nestande said, after what may be an uncontested Republican primary election and then the general election in November.

Late Thursday, one day before the deadline, Nestande was the only Republican to file papers to run against Democratic incumbent March Fong Eu, who is seeking a fourth term.

By contrast, in the lieutenant governor’s race, he would have faced a hotly contested Republican primary against state Sen. H. L. Richardson (R-Glendora) and former Lt. Gov. Mike Curb.

It was Curb’s entry into that race in late February, Nestande said, that put its fund-raising requirements out of his reach.

Raised $600,000

Nestande said his campaign for lieutenant governor was doing well; it had raised more than $600,000 by February and had established a network of volunteers throughout the state.

Then on Feb. 27, Curb, a millionaire record promoter with a vast fund-raising network, announced his candidacy for the seat.

As Nestande saw it, he had to raise nearly as much money in the June primary to beat Curb as he would have had to raise against the incumbent Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy, a Democrat, in November.

In effect, he would have to run two full-fledged campaigns, Nestande said, “but the long-term prospect for fully funding two campaigns is not practical.”

By late February, “I had tapped out my (local) financial base,” Nestande said.

Nestande had the money to start a $1.5-million television and radio campaign, supposed to start in February, he and an aide said. But, concerned that trying to defeat Curb would sap all Nestande’s funds in the primary, they canceled the media campaign.

‘We Needed More’

“We had the funds to do it (the media campaign). We needed more than immediate funds. We needed regular cash flow,” said Douglas Watts, a Nestande consultant with the Sacramento firm of Russo Watts Rollins.

“If you’re on third base and heading home, you don’t go half way. . . . And if you’re unable to see it (the campaign) through, it’s not worth doing,” Watts said.

Watts said the question became: Should Nestande continue in the race for lieutenant governor, or should he “flop over” into another statewide race, such as the race for secretary of state?

Throughout his campaign for lieutenant governor, Nestande said his efforts were hamstrung by an 8-year-old Orange County campaign ordinance called TIN CUP (the acronym stands for Time Is Now, Clean Up Politics). That ordinance disqualifies a supervisor from voting on any matter in which a firm or individual contributes more than $1,534.

Challenged Law

Arguing that the law should not apply in a statewide political campaign, Nestande had challenged it in court last fall. He argued that he was forced to hew to a stricter standard than any other statewide candidate. But a Superior Court judge ruled against him last September, and he did not appeal.

Nestande suggested that he could have stayed in the lieutenant governor’s race if there had been “equity” in the campaign financing laws. He noted that when former San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson ran for the U.S. Senate, “he raised about a million dollars with his (local) political base” in San Diego.

Still, Nestande vowed to run a strong campaign for secretary of state. He promised to campaign on such issues as fair reapportionment, economic growth and campaign reform.

Even with TIN CUP, his Orange County contributors could provide significant support in the new race, he said. And he stressed that he was not bitter that the TIN CUP law had been a factor in forcing him out of the lieutenant governor’s race.

Considered Other Office

Nestande said he had very briefly considered filing for another statewide office, that of state controller.

He quickly rejected that idea, Nestande said, “because to me it’s a nothing job. You got your tax appraisers running around the state. There’s nothing to do.”

Meanwhile, as secretary of state, Nestande said, he could work with Gov. George Deukmejian and still make his own policy decisions on statewide issues. The job would “allow Nestande to be Nestande,” the supervisor said.