When These Two Hit Campaign Trail, It’s a Hart-to-Hart Affair

State Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) did a poll for his reelection campaign showing that his name was recognized by virtually all the voters surveyed in his coastal district. The only thing was, the voters appeared confused.

It seems many voters thought they were talking about U.S. Sen. Gary W. Hart--the lawmaker from Colorado who sought the Democratic nomination for President in 1984 and is preparing to run again in 1988.

“People come up and ask ‘Which Gary Hart are you?’ or they say, ‘How many Gary Harts are there?’ ” the state senator said this Saturday in Malibu, where he and the other Gary Hart hosted a fund-raiser for the local lawmaker’s reelection challenge from Republican Santa Barbara County Supervisor DeWayne Holmdahl.

The two senators with the same name have been political friends for 15 years, meeting before either ran for office. Strikingly alike in physical appearance, they also are issues-oriented Democrats who got their start in politics during the late 1960s anti-Vietnam War protest era. And they both have fun with their names.

“I’m just glad my name isn’t Jesse Helms,” the state senator told his supporters in Malibu, referring to the arch-conservative Republican senator from North Carolina.

Santa Barbara’s Hart said that when the other Hart’s campaign for President was going full bore in the spring of 1984, he got the best tables in restaurants and penthouse suites in hotels when reservations were made for “Sen. Hart.”

“People don’t always recognize my face, but when I show a credit card almost everyone recognizes my name,” said Hart, the first state elected official to endorse Gary W. Hart’s presidential bid in 1984.

The Colorado senator helped raise about $30,000 Saturday for the state legislator, who is seeking his second term, at gatherings in Malibu and Montecito, a wealthy Santa Barbara County enclave. It was part of a three-day California swing by the 1984 presidential contender, who also put in campaign appearances for a number of other Democratic candidates, particularly U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston.

Worked Out a Deal

At the the Malibu gathering, attended by about 100 people, Gary W. Hart wisecracked that he and the state senator worked out a deal to reduce the cost of bumper stickers and campaign literature by running during alternate years.

“I try campaigning for Gary when he is running and he has done the same thing for me. It’s worked out to be a pretty sweet deal,” the U.S. senator said, getting a laugh when he added, “He’s done a lot better than I have--when he runs, he wins.”

Gary Hart is such a strong political brand name that it has made it difficult for Holmdahl to mount a challenge against the state senator.

When asked about the state lawmaker’s claim that 99% of the voters in the district recognize his name, Holmdahl agreed. “Even our polls show that. In his district he has the highest name recognition of any politician in the state, even higher than Gov. George Deukmejian,” Holmdahl conceded.

Though Holmdahl said the same polling showed “there are a lot of people who don’t know which Gary Hart it is,” the bottom line is that it spells trouble for Republicans.

A Key Target

State Republican leaders made Hart one of their five key Democratic targets earlier this year when they mapped plans to cut into the Democrats’ 26-14 majority in the upper house.

Republicans thought Hart would be vulnerable because the 18th Senate District, which runs from northern Santa Barbara County, through coastal portions of Ventura County to Malibu and parts of the San Fernando Valley, has the weakest Democratic voter registration of any state Senate district held by a Democrat.

The last official figures, published before the June primary, showed that 48% of the voters were Democrat, 39% Republican, and both sides agree that the Democrats lost even more ground this past summer. Under normal circumstances, considering that Republicans tend to be more conscientious about getting to the polls on Election Day, those numbers would make this a GOP district.

Politically Strong

But Hart is politically strong even without the benefit of sharing his name with a better-known politician. He is chairman of the Senate Education Committee, the author of a landmark school funding bill in 1983, and has drafted major environmental protection legislation, all of which is good politics in the affluent coastal district. He is also politically savvy enough to have reversed himself and come out publicly against the confirmation election of Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird this year when he realized how unpopular she had become with voters.

As a result, Republicans have been forced to back off. While they still consider Hart a target for coordinated GOP opposition, Republicans have not been giving Holmdahl the financial contributions they promised when they asked him to run. Most of the GOP contributions are going to candidates in other districts where party leaders feel they have a better chance.

“All the polls show Hart ahead, strong,” said the disarmingly candid Holmdahl, a two-term county supervisor and farmer from Lompoc who will get help from Gov. Deukmejian later this month at a fund-raising event in Santa Barbara.

Considered Gubernatorial Run

Hart, elected to the state Assembly in 1974 and the Senate in 1982, is so strong that he considered running for governor this year. “I’d still like to be governor, but the timing was not right this year,” he said.

He concedes that he is helped by sharing the same name as the other Gary Hart. He said it forces people to think about him.

“People at first confuse me with the other Gary Hart, but then they say ‘Wait a second, are there one or two Gary Harts?’ If you can get people who aren’t interested in politics to think about who you are for just seconds or just two minutes out of their lives, that’s what it’s all about,” Hart said.

He said a UC Santa Barbara student asked him at a speech recently whether he intends to run again for President, and he was besieged by fans at a baseball game during the 1984 presidential campaign and asked to autograph their baseballs. He said strangers will walk up to him at political events and tell him that they met him in the New Hampshire primary, and he once got a tennis match with former football star O. J. Simpson because someone mistook him for “the other Gary Hart.”

“It’s amazing the confusion that exists,” he said. But he’s not complaining.