McDade: Trying to Shake Profound Disillusionment

J. Michael McDade had the imposing title of “chief of staff to the mayor” during most of Roger Hedgecock’s tenure at City Hall. But even that appellation seems inadequate to describe a man who was, in many ways, Hedgecock’s alter ego, a kind of shadow mayor whose clout arguably eclipsed even that of most City Council members.

So it is hardly surprising that his close friend’s fall from political grace had a profound impact on McDade.

“The wound has been pretty well cauterized by the passage of time, but it’s left some scars and memories that I suspect will last a lifetime,” McDade said. “It sure changed my outlook on a lot of things. I used to be one of the most idealistic people that you’d ever run into in politics. Now, a very strong dose of cynicism has been added.”

Being caught up in Hedgecock’s protracted legal struggle may have left the 46-year-old McDade with more than psychological wounds. Last summer, he was treated for a heart condition that doctors theorized may have stemmed in part from stress. After a period of rest that included a vacation in Hawaii, he says that he now is “back close to 100%.”

Long one of the city’s most respected campaign strategists--a role that he has deliberately put on hold since Hedgecock’s conviction--McDade admitted that he once harbored aspirations of one day stepping out from the background and having his name appear on the ballots and yard signs. That notion was irrevocably shattered, however, by Hedgecock’s nearly two-year-long legal battle, which concluded with his forced resignation after his 13-count felony conviction on campaign-law violations.

“I thought that my future might lie in elective office, but that idea has been totally put aside,” McDade said. “I still feel that politics offers the prospect for doing good things. But more than ever, I think you have to be crazy to make the sacrifices. You take a lot of flak with little tangible return. It’s a very dangerous profession, and I’m not sure anymore whether the people who go into politics should be admired or pitied.”

Although McDade left the mayor’s office between Hedgecock’s first and second trials to enter a private law practice, he remained inextricably entwined with Hedgecock’s sagging legal fortunes to the end. He helped Hedgecock’s attorneys plot strategy, and was deeply involved in pursuing jury-tampering allegations that the former mayor believes still may ultimately overturn his conviction.

Reiterating a sentiment often heard among Hedgecock’s allies, McDade argues that Hedgecock’s prosecution and ultimate conviction stemmed from “an extreme harshness in the way the rules were applied to him” by prosecutors with whom he had clashed in the past, not from any substantial violation of campaign or financial disclosure laws.

“Roger was a very confrontational person,” McDade said. “That made it easier in some ways for people to take pot shots at him and not give him the benefit of the doubt. You have to wonder whether this ever would have been elevated to a life-and-death struggle if it had involved anyone else.”

McDade, who remains close to Hedgecock, also has a ready response to the bottom-line question that torments many of the former mayor’s loyalists: why 23 of the 24 jurors who heard the evidence in the two trials concluded that Hedgecock was guilty.

“I have some difficulty reconciling that to the facts as I know them,” McDade admitted. “But the prosecution threw out a mountain of information in this case. It’s easy to understand how a jury could feel . . . that there must be a flame with that much smoke.”

McDade’s recollections of Hedgecock’s mayoralty and his own service at City Hall are tinged with a sense of unrealized potential.

“During those first eight months in office, Roger generated an excitement that was very catching,” McDade said. “While that’s somewhat intangible, there was a feeling that San Diego was in a ‘can do’ mode. Politicians with the ability to inspire and generate those kinds of emotions don’t come along every day. I think it’s going to be some time before San Diego recaptures that. And that’s the real tragedy of all this.”