For Prop. 103, Biggest Selling Point May Be the Salesman

It was early morning as the two young campaign volunteers alighted from a weathered sedan parked in front of City Hall and unfurled a crudely lettered banner: “Ralph Nader Appears Here.”

As a handful of city workers and a few curious passers-by gathered in the open plaza, America’s best-known consumer advocate stood stiffly in his dark overcoat and rumpled blue suit, clutching his ever-present accordion file and regaling the faithful with tales of lies and greed.

He talks of “thick Persian rugs” gracing the floors of the big insurers in Hartford and “million-dollar salaries” that have his fat-cat rivals “laughing all the way to the bank.”

Making His Pitch

“Don’t be confused,” he exhorts his audience, “Proposition 103 is the only one that will roll back rates on every insurance policy for every person in California.”

In a political battle where the populist theme of lower insurance premiums and more regulation of the industry is the central message, it is the messenger who has emerged as the campaign’s most potent weapon.

With less than a week until Election Day, polls show Proposition 103 with the best chance of winning among the five insurance initiatives on the ballot. And in a state where the level of campaign spending often determines the outcome, that in itself is something of a political miracle.

Insurers and trial lawyers have collectively spent about $54 million so far to support their own measures while the Proposition 103 campaign, which remains heavily in debt, has spent only about $2.2 million, relying mainly on small, individual contributions.

Although he did not write the initiative, did not gather the signatures that gained it a place on the ballot and neither lives nor routinely spends much time in California, Nader is highly popular in the state, among Republicans as well as Democrats.

“I think a lot of people in this country know I’ve been fighting for them for 25 years on issues of auto safety, environmental pollution control and now insurance,” Nader said. “The same conservatives who may applaud Ronald Reagan when he attacks government regulation will applaud us when we get their lemon cars recalled free.”

On Tuesday, Nader completed a grueling six-day, 2,500-mile campaign trek that took him across California, from the Grand Central Market in Los Angeles to San Francisco’s cable cars and up the sunbaked Central Valley to a giant truck stop along Interstate 5.

At his final stop in Sacramento, Nader faced charges that voter approval of Proposition 103 would play havoc with the California economy. Kirk West, president of the California Chamber of Commerce, charged that the 20% across-the-board premium rollbacks the measure would require for all auto, homeowner and liability policies would force a number of smaller insurers out of business and “severely harm California’s economy.”

Nader, who wrapped up the tour with a press conference on the steps of the state Capitol, countered that West was engaging in “scare tactics” and doing the bidding of his “insurance industry membership” while “ignoring the hundreds of thousands of small businesses and stores all over California who will get a 20% reduction if Proposition 103 passes.”

State Controller Gray Davis, who joined Nader, likened West’s claims to the kinds of warnings issued by government officials in 1978 before passage of the landmark Proposition 13, which cut property taxes. “I’m convinced the sky will not fall and . . . insurance will still be provided in a reasonable fashion,” Davis said.

Throughout the six-day tour, Nader campaigned like a man possessed, skipping meals, grabbing naps in the back of a car and bunking at a Salinas farmhouse with a corps of admiring volunteers who seem convinced that they are about to pull off the political coup of the decade.

‘Eye on the Objective’

“I keep my eye on the objective,” Nader declared of his near obsession with the campaign. “The means to the end, however wearying they may be, are very important. And if anything is important, it is done now, no matter how tedious.”

Tall, lean and most often intensely serious, Nader is an engaging storyteller who lights up when told he is admired by even one or two of those who gather to listen at brief stops along the tour. “You know, I never get this kind of feedback,” he said, his eyes wide with pleasure.

At each stop, he is pestered for autographs, and inevitably at least one person would ask why he doesn’t run for President. To that, Nader, who in a recent interview declared that politicians “are all opportunists,” shrugs his shoulders and patiently speaks of the importance of someone remaining pure, untouched by a political system that seems to taint even the well-intentioned.

It is in these personal, one-to-one contacts that Nader is at his best. But he also served as an effective billboard during the kinds of media events carefully staged by the campaign to portray the Proposition 103 organizers as the common Davids of the world battling the Goliath insurance industry.

Few Spectators

In San Jose, for example, there were only about a dozen genuine spectators. But roughly 20 campaign volunteers, armed with hand-lettered signs, crowded behind Nader and in front of the two local television cameras to give the impression of a large and responsive crowd.

Nader, reveling in the role of the underdog, looked into the cameras and deadpanned: “I’ve heard of a quarter beating a dollar in an initiative campaign, but I never heard of a penny beating a dollar. And we’re winning.”

Then, with a self-conscious apology to his audience, he lapsed into a series of silly-sounding rhymes that appeared oddly out of character. “103 is the one for me,” he said in a staccato cadence. “The one to nix is 106. You pay more with 104.”

On cue, a middle-aged woman stepped forward and, holding aloft what was purported to be a copy of her liability insurance policy, set fire to the document while declaring to the television cameras, “I am angry.” No matter that the same woman would appear at two other stops that day and twice send the same policy up in flames.

Approaching Nader from the sidelines, Reed Sparks, who has been selling insurance for 15 years, offered his hand in a friendly gesture, then told Nader, “We’re scared of you guys a little.” Later, Sparks told a reporter that he opposes Proposition 103 because it could devastate the insurance industry in California.

“But you’ve got to respect him,” Sparks said. “It’s like Proposition 13. People are really upset and want something done. This (ballot measure’s) success is 3,000% Nader. He doesn’t take money, and he seems to work for the common man.”

Career Began at Princeton

The son of Lebanese immigrants, Nader, 54, said his career as a consumer advocate began at Princeton when he was unable to convince the editor of the university’s newspaper to print an article about the routine spraying of DDT in trees around the campus. At the time, the pesticide was not known to be harmful to humans.

“The editor leaned back with his feet on the desk and said, ‘We’ve got some of the best chemistry and biology professors in the world here, and if there was any problem they would have told us about it and stopped it.’ That was an interesting lesson,” Nader said.

Over the years, Nader gained worldwide attention with his published articles and books on auto safety, most notably his muckraking “Unsafe at Any Speed,” which directed fire at the sporty Chevrolet Corvair.

By 1971, a Harris poll reported that Nader was the sixth-most-popular figure in the United States.

In recent years his visibility has dropped somewhat. But in 1986, Nader found himself in the midst of his first California insurance battle when a powerful coalition of businesses and insurers succeeded in passing Proposition 51, an initiative that restricted so-called “pain and suffering” lawsuits under certain conditions.

Nader opposed it but began his campaign late and during a time when he was afflicted with a rare malady, Bell’s palsy, that distorted his face and forced him to wear protective sunglasses even while doing television interviews.

At first, he declined to become deeply involved in the current battle, but he acceded at the request of Rosenfield, who insisted that his name and presence were critical to offset the money that would be raised by the insurance industry. “I just wanted to launch this thing and turn it back to them,” Nader said.

Fighting Spending Binge

Should it win, however, Nader said he intends to play a major role in making sure its provisions are properly instituted. For now, Nader said his main priority is to ensure that a last-minute spending blitz by the insurance industry does not defeat his measure.

As the motorcade made its way along Highway 99 in the Central Valley, Nader realized he had his work cut out for him. Billboard after billboard depicted ordinary citizens declaring their opposition to Proposition 103.

At one point, Nader pointed in amazement at the sight of perhaps 20 skip-loaders parked along the freeway, every other one spray-painted with large red, white and blue “Bush” signs. According to the Los Angeles Times Poll, there is no section of the state that is more conservative than the Central Valley. This would be no easy sell.

Finally, the caravan pulled into a huge truck stop in Santa Nella, a town along Interstate 5 that provides fuel and food for travel-weary motorists.

Here, under the glare of bright lights, Nader declared that the insurance industry is “high on the narcotic of its own gluttonous profits.” There was no television or radio around to record the moment, although a few truckers agreed to place bumper stickers on their big rigs.

Still, Rosenfield said he was able to pick up $200 in contributions from Nader fans happy to see a famous person in so desolate a place. “Enough to pay for our gas,” he said.