Eu Breaks the Insiders’ Mold as She Ponders Bid for Senate

She is the highest-ranking and longest-playing woman in California politics. And if you start with a clean sheet of paper, March Fong Eu’s story comes out full of promise for her dream to become the first woman U.S. senator from California.

But among those who follow politics and are supposed to know these things, few believe what they see on this paper. Few are taking California’s secretary of state all that seriously as she sniffs the early breezes in the 1988 Senate election.

Nowhere else in the political leadership of California is there such a strange gap between how someone looks and how they are seen.

“Just because I have great Havana seeds doesn’t mean I can grow great Havana cigars,” shrugs Democratic political consultant Joe Cerrell in dismissing Eu’s potential.

But Eu’s fans carry on impressively about how she has overpowered foes by bigger margins than anyone running for state office in her four statewide elections. And how, years ago when she represented Oakland in the Legislature, she viscerally connected to her public through populist campaigns to outlaw pay toilets and permit emergency phone booth calls without coins.

Storybook Rise

And then, her supporters demand, what of her storybook rise from the back of her parents’ Chinese hand laundry in the San Joaquin Valley town of Oakdale to be a dental assistant, an Alameda County school board member, an assemblywoman and now the holder of high office in Sacramento and a mansion in Los Angeles? What makes a better political yarn than that?

As she approaches her 65th birthday, Eu says she has decided to try to prove the doubters wrong and enter the Democratic race for the U.S. Senate--for the seat now held by first-term Republican Pete Wilson, who is preparing to seek a second term.

This is only the most recent of occasions Eu has looked for advancement. At least five times since she became secretary of state in 1974, she has pondered whether to try for a higher office and then backed down. Given that record, there are doubts whether she will stay in the Senate race.

She has, however, gone further than before toward a serious candidacy. She has established a federal campaign committee, hired back her veteran 1974 campaign manager, Sandy Weiner, who also managed actor George Murphy’s 1964 campaign for the U.S. Senate from California.

“She knows she can’t wait any longer. As far as she’s concerned, it’s now or never,” said Anthony Miller, her top deputy at the secretary of state’s office.

Timing also favors Eu this election. Her 68.8% margin of victory in November (after previous margins of 60%, 63% and 61%) guarantees her position in Sacramento until 1990 even if she is defeated for the Senate in 1988.

Aftermath of Beating

A final factor that cannot be discounted in pushing her ahead is the psychological aftermath of the savage beating she endured Nov. 10. A mugger entered her Hancock Park-area mansion, clubbed her with the blunt edge of an ax and yanked her around the house by her hair--all for $300--while her husband was upstairs showering. The accused assailant awaits trial.

Like other traumatized victims, Eu emerged from those terrifying moments with a new appreciation for her mortality.

“I think anybody who had gone through the experience I’ve gone through does have somewhat of an energizing feeling in the sense, God, you’ve come so close to death, time is really very precious and very valuable, and you’ve got to make the most of it. I’m certain that enters into it,” Eu said in a recent interview. “But that certainly wasn’t the basic premise of my decision. I had made my decision early on.”

If Eu has decided to enter, she has not, however, offered a rationale for voters to elect her to the Senate or for contributors to support her.

Think of what she could have said: I am an Asian woman from California, I’ve spent years traveling and lobbying for 21st - Century trade policies. Who better in the United States Senate could get things going in Washington and abroad?

Instead, she says there is no need to offer a rationale.

“What is biting me inside to make me want to became a senator? I think being a senator in the United States is one of the best ways I can serve my country,” she said.

Strong Test Ahead

For the time being, this may be adequate. Her base of Asian support may not need to know more about her than that she wants help. But reaching beyond that group for broad financial support could be the strongest test Eu has faced in 30 years of electoral politics. Not only will she have to produce a compelling reason for someone to support her, she will have to convince doubters that she is up to such a demanding race, and she will have to overcome her deep dislike and reluctance to ask people for money.

She has never had to raise money anywhere near the scale of a $15-million Senate race, where federal election contributions are limited to increments of $1,000 for individuals and $5,000 for political action committees.

“I’m going to do it. As much as I don’t like it, I’m going to do it.” Eu vowed.

This pressure to raise so much money in such small chunks forces politicians to begin preliminary campaigning many months before the June, 1988, primary. And money, Eu conceded, is also the chief reason she might have to back out of the race, if she cannot prove her fund-raising capabilities. Eu has set a goal of accumulating her first $500,000 by summer.

“She enjoys generally positive support in the Chinese community. . . . It will be a new test for her to see if she can stretch that into the millions of dollars so she can go to non-Asian sources and show them momentum,” Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Woo said.

A major--perhaps pivotal--complication is that a fellow Asian politician, Rep. Robert T. Matsui of Sacramento, says he is growing increasingly serious about entering the Democratic primary for the Senate. He also relies on Asian support in his political career and surely would dilute some of Eu’s appeal in her own community.

“This would be a major, major problem for her,” said one Asian political leader in Los Angeles, speaking on a not-for-attribution basis.

Matsui added: “I don’t think either of us will make our own decision on what the other does. But if we both get in, each of us will wish the other wasn’t. That’s obvious.”

Also standing back and eyeballing his chances in the Democratic field is Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy of San Francisco.

Daunting Challenge

If Eu satisfies herself that she can raise enough money to make a game of it, another daunting challenge awaits her.

“She is one of the very last hands-on campaigners we’re ever going to see. She goes to grocery stores and hands out her brochures. We don’t see that in other politicians anymore,” Michael Gagan, a political consultant who served for years as Eu’s deputy, said fondly.

But is Eu also quick enough on her feet to cope with the hurricane pace and unrelenting public scrutiny of a modern Senate campaign?

For whatever its lofty, diplomatic-sounding title, the secretary of state in California is really the chief election clerk and keeper of business and archival records. It has not been an office that spawns closely watched or particularly intense campaigns. Eu’s tenure has been characterized as so quiet it might be called sleepy--a low-profile public figure backed up by a highly regarded, professional staff to keep the hounds at bay.

Friends as well as foes are almost cruel in describing Eu’s awkwardness in meeting the public on her own, fielding questions about complex issues and reacting to swiftly changing developments.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) served with Eu in the state Legislature and calls her “my candidate for U.S. Senate.” But even he said: “She is a terrible public speaker. She reads her speeches. She never lifts her eyes off the page. And I mean never.”

Another Democrat of note, free to speak on the condition he will not be identified, issued this harsh judgment: “Because of her race and sex, she is kind of interesting. But anyone who has watched her in public knows why she isn’t being taken seriously. Ha, the first time she walks into a controversy they’ll tear her up like lawn clippings.”

Eu’s supporters insist that she is not necessarily weak, just untried.

Untested ‘in That Context’

“She has not been tested in that context before,” said her deputy, Miller. Eu herself acknowledged the doubts of others and responded: “I will be as glib as I can.”

At her best, Eu has proven herself able to touch a populist nerve in the public with skill even her enemies respect.

She did not like fumbling in her purse for dimes at pay toilets and pay phones, so she took on both. Emergency pay phone calls without need of coin was a quiet accomplishment. Not so her assault on the coin-locked bathroom door.

A long and noisy campaign included a Mariachi band parade to the steps of the Capitol, whereupon she bashed a lock--and accidentally the toilet too--into rubble with a sledgehammer. The event made news around the world in 1969. Later, the Legislature acquiesced and outlawed pay toilets in public buildings. Then-Gov. Ronald Reagan signed the ban Sept. 26, 1974.

Using that single issue, Eu overpowered much more heavily financed and favored opponents in the 1974 race for secretary of state.

Today, Eu draws snickers as a trivial politician with this memorable stunt on her resume. But what is not easy to forget is that most serious and substantive state officials serve without ever being known by the public.

As for Eu, even now, 13 years later, her office receives calls from alarmed citizens reporting discovery of pay toilets. Callers usually are not aware that pay toilets remain legal in privately owned buildings, including department stores. But they still connect the issue with Eu.

“If I was Pete Wilson, I’d be shaking in my boots,” said Speaker Brown, her most enthusiastic booster among officeholders. “People trust her to do them no damage. She is not, and will not be, measured by the same standards as others of us. . . . People aren’t going to ask her what she stands for, what she wants or what she’s done.”

‘Unorthodox’ Campaign Likely

Eu probably will not be so lucky. Still, she and others in her brain trust appear determined to prepare a campaign for the U.S. Senate that is substantively “different” and “unorthodox” to emphasize her down-to-earth and populist strengths.

There will be less time spent trying to draw distinctions between Eu and her opponents, her advisers hint, because it is thought that being a woman and an Asian makes her different enough for voters. And it is widely anticipated that Eu will continue her policy of avoiding debates with opponents. What surprises they have in mind, they are keeping to themselves.

Whatever the strategy of her campaign, she will have to do without two of her meatiest forums for capitalizing on her pet issue--international free trade.

During the two terms of Democratic Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., from 1975 to 1982, Eu served as chief of protocol for California. As such, she represented California here and abroad in meeting scores of foreign dignitaries. The position gave some credence to her early advocacy for trade policies that looked east to the so-called Pacific Rim, and policies that called for resistance to domestic protectionism.

This job ended with the election of Republican Gov. George Deukmejian. But it led in 1983 to Eu being named to chair the brand new California World Trade Commission.

Here, California’s top elected leaders gathered for purposes of speaking in a single voice behind export promotion for California products, chiefly agricultural commodities.

But effective in January, Eu was stripped of the chair and reduced to a non-voting ex-officio member. This was the result of Deukmejian’s desires and the recommendation of a fact-finding committee appointed by Eu herself.

On the other hand, Eu is likely to endure some close interest about the activities of her husband, international businessman Henry Eu.

Husband Isn’t Citizen

Unlike his wife, who is a third-generation Californian, Henry Eu is not a U.S. citizen and is not credentialed to work in this country. He carries a Singapore passport and is part of a wealthy Chinese family with interests in Asian mining, real estate and herbal medicines.

But the secretary of state professes to know little else about the activities of this man she met in Hong Kong and who she says spends “very little” time at the couple’s home in Los Angeles. She says his wealth is kept to himself and not commingled with her much more modest assets, and she pledges that his money will not find its way into her campaign.

The loss of her position on the World Trade Commission and inquiries about her husband are so much insider conventionalism to Eu. She has never been part of what she calls “the old boys network” of politics. “I have been successful politically not being part of this club,” she said.

But, sure enough, with the perverse destinies of politics dictating the next chapter in her story, outsider March Fong Eu now finds her interests drawn to the nation’s premier insider’s club, the U.S. Senate.

The experts handicap it as a long shot.

Some of those around her think that with a little luck and some fortitude, Eu can generate interest enough to leave the old-boy experts up at night worrying and sweating over their easy bets.

“When she’s on, March has a lot of spark,” said her longtime press aide, Caren Daniels-Meade. “They still remember in the Legislature the time when a bill legalizing prostitution was about to come up for debate. A member asked her, ‘March what do I do about this prostitution bill?’

“Pay it,” she quickly deadpanned.