Deukmejian Treads Lightly as He Nears the Tape

Gov. George Deukmejian was dressed as if for a dangerous mission. Wearing a hair net, a hard hat and a lab coat, he stepped into the cool air of the cheddar cheese room at the Dairymen’s Cooperative Dairy in Tulare.

As the television cameras rolled, he sampled a piece of 10-day old cheese. He pronounced it “good.”

And then it was on to the next event in a campaign that has been about as exciting as, well, 10-day-old cheddar cheese.

In the closing month of his contest for reelection, Deukmejian is running a cautious campaign designed to protect his lead in the polls and minimize the possibility of costly mistakes.

With millions of dollars on hand for television advertising, the Republican governor has limited his personal appearances largely to giving speeches before friendly audiences made up of volunteers and faithful Republicans.

At the same time, he has broadened his attack to take on more opponents than just his Democratic challenger, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley. In speech after speech, he has lashed out at California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) and even former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.

And Deukmejian, tired of taking a beating from the Democratic-controlled Legislature, has launched a crusade to help Republican legislative candidates win office. He has given a boost to the campaigns of dozens of candidates in key Assembly and Senate races by appearing at their fund-raising events.

“It’s not often you can see the governor for just $50,” enthused one loyal supporter after Deukmejian spoke at a country and Western-style fund raiser for an Assembly candidate in Bakersfield.

Refusing to debate Bradley, Deukmejian has devoted many of his public appearances to raising money, either to add to his own bulging campaign chest or to give to other Republican candidates.

Traveling around the state on private jets donated by his supporters, Deukmejian has sought to keep his distance from the press, usually speaking to reporters once or twice a day in brief encounters between events. Occasionally, he refuses to talk to reporters at all as he travels from town to town.

“What’s driving our campaign at the close is to go out to our base (of supporters), to energize our base and tell them what’s at stake in the election,” said Larry Thomas, Deukmejian’s campaign director.

“No one is pretending that any candidate for statewide office can go out and shake the hand of every registered voter in the state. You don’t take the governor into wino park trying to get a marginal voter or address a group of voters who may not vote,” Thomas said.

Attempting to capitalize on his front-runner status in the polls, Deukmejian has made the election of other Republicans a major element of his own campaign.

Donation to Party

He has helped raise money for the GOP’s slate of statewide officeholders and he has given $300,000 to the state Republican Party to promote the use of absentee ballots.

More important, he has attended fund raisers for 26 legislative candidates this year, many of them during the final months of the campaign. At times, as he travels from district to district, Deukmejian seems to be stumping as hard for Assembly candidates as he is for himself.

“It’s getting kind of lonely up there (in Sacramento) having to battle the opposition, Willie Brown in the Assembly and David Roberti on the Senate side,” Deukmejian said at a typical fund raiser in Lakewood for Assembly candidate Paul Zeltner. “If you help Paul Zeltner, you’ll be helping me in my second term.”

During his four years as governor, Deukmejian has had little success winning approval from Democratic lawmakers for many of his major proposals. As he runs for reelection, he has few key legislative accomplishments he can point to--a situation he would like to change.

“I’m very happy to do what I can to help elect good candidates and people who agree with my policies and programs and hopefully get a little more help in Sacramento,” Deukmejian told reporters. “I’ve been pretty badly outnumbered.”

Local Highlight

Frequently, the governor’s affairs have raised more than $20,000 for the candidates and have been the highlight of local GOP efforts.

“In each of these campaigns, the biggest factor for building enthusiasm has been the governor’s event,” said Assembly Republican Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale. “This is what really kicks the campaign into high gear and ensures that they are a viable candidate taken seriously by political observers.”

Trice Harvey, an Assembly candidate in Bakersfield, underlined the importance of having Deukmejian appear at a $25,000 fund raiser when he told his 500 guests: “It’s probably the governor’s charisma that brought you here and I’m glad about that. But I get the money.”

As he has campaigned from Yreka to San Diego, Deukmejian has followed the proven front-runner’s strategy of shunning controversy and keeping a low profile.

Well informed about his Administration’s programs and policies, Deukmejian is a master at ducking questions and providing bland but knowledgeable answers that avoid stirring up trouble.

Deukmejian has also avoided perhaps the most risky of campaign activities by refusing to engage in a one-on-one debate with Bradley. The governor has repeatedly defended his decision by noting that he and Bradley trade charges regularly in the news media. “We’re debating every day,” he says.

Raises Millions of Dollars

At the same time, Deukmejian has raised a record amount of money to carry his message directly to the voters, a whopping $13 million as of Oct. 18. From July to mid-October, he spent more than $4.7 million just on broadcast advertising, leaving him with $2.5 million in the bank.

Thomas said the campaign’s strategy in the final week will be to focus on the differences between Deukmejian and his Democratic rival, particularly on the issues of taxes, crime and education.

“We are using a variety of communication tools to reach the broad electorate with a reminder of what the governor has accomplished, what he stands for and how he differs from Tom Bradley,” Thomas said.