VP Deukmejian? No Way, He, Aides Say

Gov. George Deukmejian is “flattered” and “amused” by increasing speculation that he is a logical prospect for the Republican vice presidential nomination, but there is no way he would accept such an offer, he and most of his advisers adamantly insist.

It is not that Deukmejian agrees with former Vice President John Nance Garner’s famous description of the job as “not worth a pitcher of warm spit.” It is just that for Deukmejian to become vice president, he would be forced to turn California’s government over to a Democrat.

And in Deukmejian’s view, that would be unforgiveable sacrilege, contrary to years of commitments to the public, the party and himself.

‘I Wouldn’t Be Able to Take It’

“Even if they did ask me (to accept the vice presidential nomination), I wouldn’t be able to take it,” the governor said at his most recent press conference on March 9, echoing a long-held position he finds himself repeating at almost every public appearance these days .

Still, at least one politically savvy adviser, Kenneth L. Khachigian, told The Times: “I don’t think it should be taken off the table completely. We shouldn’t dismiss anything out of hand. We should listen, think and talk. There’s always time to rule something out. You can’t always rule it back in.”

Another trusted adviser, former chief of staff Steven A. Merksamer, does not go as far as Khachigian. But he said that because the vice presidency “has been considered to be so impractical, so out of order, so unrealistic, we haven’t sat down and given it any serious talk. And there’s going to have to be some serious talk about it.”

Nevertheless, he concluded, the vice presidency simply “is not in the cards” for Deukmejian.

The third member of Deukmejian’s troika of inner-circle political advisers--besides Khachigian and Merksamer--is Los Angeles attorney Karl M. Samuelian, the governor’s chief fund raiser. Samuelian is emphatically opposed to Deukmejian handing over the governor’s office to a Democrat--and he said he is “very, very certain” Deukmejian feels the same way.

“He really feels that way very, very deeply,” Samuelian stressed. “Whenever we talk about this, he just shakes his head.”

Top gubernatorial aides--the staffers who are around Deukmejian every day, hour by hour--basically agree with Samuelian.

Statements Rarely Categorical

“In the seven years I’ve worked for him, the governor has rarely made categorical, unequivocal statements,” said press secretary Kevin Brett. “But he has in this particular instance because he has thought it through and realized it just is not feasible. He can’t turn over the executive branch of the largest state in the union to the Democratic Party.”

Ever since his first election as governor, Deukmejian has been mentioned as a potential running mate for a GOP presidential candidate. That principally is because California has the nation’s largest bloc of electoral votes, and the popular governor, presumably, would be a big help in carrying this state for the ticket--even if he is “dull, dull, dull,” as Washington television commentator John McLaughlin characterized him last weekend.

History fuels the speculation: In seven of the last nine presidential elections, a Californian--Richard M. Nixon or Ronald Reagan--has been on the Republican ticket. And the ticket has carried the state each of those times. (However, the formula is not foolproof: The GOP lost the state in 1948 when Gov. Earl Warren was the vice presidential candidate, and it won the state in 1976 when no Californian was on the ticket.)

Speculation about Deukmejian intensified four weeks ago after The California Poll, directed by Mervin Field, released a statewide survey showing Democratic Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts beating Republican Vice President George Bush by nine percentage points in a hypothetical presidential race. The same survey found California’s two-term governor to be enjoying a highly favorable job rating, even slightly higher than President Reagan.

Khachigian, a San Clemente attorney who has been a speech writer and confidant of Nixon, Reagan and Deukmejian, theorized that Dukakis would appeal to California’s “yuppies, techies and ethnics” and also create name confusion about the two “Dukes.” Some voters would think Dukakis was Deukmejian, he observed.

McCarthy Would Move Up

But if Deukmejian were to go on the ticket, get elected vice president and leave the governor’s office in mid-term, he would be succeeded by Democratic Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy. And even if McCarthy were to win his present race against Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson, the person next in line of succession to the governor’s office would be Democratic state Senate leader David A. Roberti of Los Angeles.

There are all kinds of fanciful scenarios about how Deukmejian conceivably could appoint his own successor if McCarthy were to resign as lieutenant governor to become a U.S. senator before Deukmejian took the oath as vice president. But under the California Constitution, the Legislature must confirm the governor’s nomination of a lieutenant governor. And the reality is that both houses now are controlled by Democrats, who would be extremely unlikely to confirm a Republican.

Besides all the usual powers a governor wields, including the naming of approximately 100 judges each year, the position will be especially important politically after the 1990 election when the Legislature--subject to the governor’s approval--again reapportions the state’s congressional and legislative districts. Deukmejian is regarded as a strong potential candidate for reelection, if he does not leave Sacramento for Washington.

Myopia in the East

“A number of us are completely amazed with the myopia of the East Coast press and political elite--just the fact there’s so much discussion of a Deukmejian vice presidency without any careful examination of why it’s not in the cards,” said the governor’s chief speech writer, Jim Robinson.

California Republican Chairman Robert W. Naylor, a former GOP leader in the state Assembly, said that he and party activists “would be greatly disappointed” if Deukmejian were to hand over the governor’s office to a Democrat.

“The broad public probably would support him,” Naylor said. “The public doesn’t care about reapportionment, judgeship appointments and arcane party matters. But he would be severely criticized privately for ‘putting personal ambition ahead of the state and party.’

“He would say, ‘The vice president asked me to do this for the sake of the country and the national party. That’s at least as important as reapportionment in California. I have only two years left in my term, anyway, and I’ve decided not to run for reelection.’

‘Can’t See Him Doing It’

“That’s the rationale. But I can’t see him doing it. I think he’s committed. People in Washington say, ‘Give me a break. It would take him 10 seconds to decide to take it.’ But they don’t know him.”

Merksamer, now a Sacramento attorney and executive vice chairman of the governor’s political action committee, said: “There is a sense in Washington that it is the center of the universe, so if they asked him, he would have to accept it. So he could be asked.”

What Deukmejian has said repeatedly for months is that he does not expect to be asked because the standard bearer undoubtedly will choose his running mate from among the ranks of the losing presidential contenders. If not, he has said, the runner-up slot could well go to a woman. And even if he were asked, he always has concluded, “I couldn’t accept it” because a Democrat would take his job in Sacramento.

Lately Deukmejian has been adding: “That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to be vice president--it’s just not in the cards.”