Called ‘Cancer in the Campaign’ : Bradley Pressed to Speed His Decision on Rose Bird

“To me, this is the cancer in the campaign, or it will develop into that if it isn’t gotten out of the way,” said a friend of Tom Bradley who has been telling the mayor to make up his mind about California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird.

A torrent of that type of advice has been hitting the Democratic gubernatorial candidate and may influence him to speed up his announcement of whether he will endorse the reconfirmation on the November ballot of Bird for a 12-year term on the state’s highest court.

Another Bradley friend said he believes that the Los Angeles mayor will announce a decision well before the 60-day limit that the mayor set on Feb. 24 for disclosing what he will do.

The subject is so sensitive in the Bradley camp that no one would permit the use of names in discussing details of the decision making.

The sensitivity increased Monday after Republican Gov. George Deukmejian, who opposes the chief justice, attacked Bradley on Saturday for “trying to escape from his past record” by saying that he did not endorse Bird’s election in 1978.

Bradley had said on Friday, “I was not the one who was endorsing her. We were part of a committee for an independent judiciary.”

Bradley campaign chairman Tom Quinn said Monday that he believes the mayor’s statement left him open for a Deukmejian attack. He said he told the mayor of his view on Saturday.

What the Democratic candidate for governor should do on the Bird issue, according to friends, is a dilemma that is highly political and is shaped by Bradley’s fear that Justices Cruz Reynoso, Joseph Grodin and Stanley Mosk--also under fire from anti-Bird forces--will go down to defeat with Bird.

The mayor’s supporters say Bradley does not want to tie himself to the Bird campaign, because her go-it-alone campaign strategy has made her too controversial.

Expressing unhappiness with the chief justice’s unwillingness to take part in a campaign with the other justices, Quinn said, “The real problem is that Rose Bird has her own committee to raise money. She looks like a political candidate, not a chief justice.”

Yet if Bradley, who in 1978 backed the confirmation of Bird and other high court justices, criticizes her now, he is certain to be attacked by Deukmejian for flip-flopping on the issue.

Bradley supporters have argued that a 1978-style independent committee on behalf of the court would allow the mayor to downplay the personalities of the justices and focus instead on the civic-minded principle of “independence of the judiciary.”

Idea Circulated

However, the idea of a blue-ribbon committee has circulated in Democratic political circles for weeks without bearing fruit, chiefly because it is strongly resisted by Bird.

“We can’t have people running off in all different directions,” Bird told The Times in a recent interview. “ . . . If you turn it all over to an independent committee, then you yourself have no say at all in what goes on. It’s an enormously difficult problem.”

However, two Democratic sources said Monday that they were 10 days to two weeks from announcing the creation of just such a committee.

“We’re off and running,” said one of the sources.

Both sources asked not to be identified and emphasized that they are not working as agents for Bradley but instead are part of a group of Democrats who, while supporting Bird and the other five members of the seven-member court up for election, fear that the campaign against her has become too personalized. They said they hope to secure endorsements from credible public leaders in various walks of life.

Political Cover

Even if such a committee is formed and endorsed by the mayor, it is uncertain whether it would offer Bradley much political cover, in view of Deukmejian’s attacks last weekend.

However, some Republican strategists who have watched Bradley’s discomfort over the issue began warning themselves at last weekend’s state GOP convention in Santa Clara that the mayor might find a surprise way to turn the issue around. One of the Republicans, who asked not to be named, said if Bradley endorsed such a committee and Bird disavowed it, the mayor would have an opportunity to make a pro-court stand and then disassociate himself from the recalcitrant Bird.

Bradley has been reviewing the Bird record since last month. Bradley had said he would consult a wide range of attorneys and others, but interviews indicate that much of the research has been done by his staff.

Last month, Bradley began reviewing notebooks on cases and recent court history assembled for him by three attorneys on his staff: campaign manager Mary Nichols; assistant counsel Mark Fabiani, who went on leave from City Hall for the project, and campaign staffer Michael Feuer.

Examing Records

Deputy Mayor Tom Houston, also an attorney, said Bradley is examining the records of all the justices and studying “the collegiality” of the court and “how the court is being led.”

The latter two points are important in the debate over Bird. Even attorneys who agree with some of her decisions have criticized her as a poor leader who has permitted a decline in cooperation and good feelings among the justices. Bird supporters disagree, saying Bird has spent much time improving the administration of the court and has not impeded cooperation between her colleagues.

Among the material given Bradley is a critique of Supreme Court death penalty decisions prepared by the California District Attorneys Assn. and a rebuttal to the attack by the pro-Bird Committee to Conserve the Courts.