State ‘Adrift Without a Captain,’ Bradley Says

Mayor Tom Bradley, in a speech attacking Gov. George Deukmejian as a poor leader, Saturday cited a report critical of the state’s handling of public lands as proof that California is a “ship adrift without a captain.”

Bradley’s appearance before the Orange County Democratic Convention in Costa Mesa was an attempt to heighten his visibility in a conservative area that was a Deukmejian stronghold in 1982 when Deukmejian narrowly defeated Bradley for governor. For their rematch this year, Bradley strategists have made it clear that they need to do better in Orange County--not win, but lose by less. Four years ago, Bradley lost to Deukmejian in the county by nearly 200,000 votes.

Before a group of 200 supporters, Bradley on Saturday referred to a report issued Friday by the Little Hoover Commission, a government watchdog panel, saying that state government attention to the 6 million acres of real estate it owns has been so lax that the state does not even have a current and complete inventory of holdings. The commission concluded that the state is losing millions of dollars in income yearly because it has not kept track of its real estate or aggressively managed it.

“We don’t know what we own, we don’t know where it is, nor do we know what we can get from it,” Bradley said. “. . . We are a ship adrift without a captain . . . headed for the Bermuda Triangle.”

Bradley repeated the “ship adrift . . .” phrase as punctuation throughout the speech, thrusting his right hand forward for emphasis. He also wooed the audience by proclaiming the Democratic Party “alive and kicking” in Orange County, despite the fact that the party has been scrambling to head off a decline in Democratic registration, which dropped from 45.5% in 1978 to 36.5% in 1985.

Harry Hiner, convention chairman, said the gathering Saturday was “one way to fight back” against the dropping registration. Bradley, Hiner said, “is coming here more often and he just needs to keep doing that. People need to see the leadership to get inspired, and he is attending to that much better this time around.”

Hiner said Bradley aides Steve Sulkes and John MacDonald were “instrumental” in putting together the party’s second county convention, which also featured statewide candidates Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy, state Sen. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) and Assemblyman Gray Davis (D-Los Angeles), among others.

Mono Lake represents a perilous political landscape for L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley. (Part II, Page 1.)