Change Facing Democrats as State Convention Opens

The California Democratic Party opens its 1989 convention here today more powerful and full of promise than in years. And also more uneasy with itself.

This is a party to which few things come without a fight, certainly not change. And change is what the Democrats are here to confront this weekend--change in leadership, change in direction and change in standing.

After welcoming receptions and caucus sessions tonight, the fulminations erupt Saturday with the election of a new party chairman.

Comeback-minded Edmund G. Brown Jr. has campaigned for the office with the same zing he brought to two successful campaigns for the governorship and two Quixotic runs for the presidency. He has built an army of field organizers, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, papered the town with buttons and banners--bringing spotlights to what would otherwise be a piddlingly small footnote of an election.

Brown is the favorite of the Establishment, which welcomes his pledge of Democratic renewal and new purposefulness for the 1990 and 1992 elections. And he is likewise the favorite of the star-struck and casual Democrat, those bored with the party’s withdrawn, club-like existence in the shadows of politics.

“With your help, we’ll have the most exciting Democratic party in the country!” he enthused.

Few doubt Brown on this particular promise.

Old-line party regulars, however, fear too much change all at once. They have backed the rival candidacy of up-from-the-ranks investment banker Steve Westly of Menlo Park. Westly does not promise to forestall the make-over of the party, only to manage change with less fireworks and with more of a mind to keeping current insiders from being trampled in the stampede.

Even though Brown is believed to be a shoo-in, Westly supporters cheerfully remind themselves they have beaten the odds and the Establishment before. And Westly is not without his own share of Establishment support, with backing from 14 state lawmakers.

Either way, everyone agrees the California Democratic Party of 1989 and beyond will be different and more important than it has been for several generations.

The reason is simple, as you might expect. Money.

This is the first party convention since voters approved the June, 1988, ballot initiative that imposed campaign contribution limits of $1,000 per donor per year in state races. No more will kingmakers shell out $10,000 and $50,000 and $250,000 contributions.

It is widely presumed, though, that the political party apparatus will be enlisted to pick up some of the slack and become a meaningful, independent force in the election of candidates.

Through fund-raising, by way of voter registration drives and in any number of other as yet-unexplored ways, the potential of the parties to influence elections emerges as a tantalizing lure. And it has attracted the interest of Brown and other politicians who can smell power the way a wolverine smells lunch.

“Now the parties are going to be co-equals in the election process,” outgoing Chairman Peter D. Kelly said.

Brown’s candidacy is a measure of the party’s spirited potential.

The former governor emerged from six years as a near-recluse with a promise to transform the Democratic Party into an important weapon in expanding the influence of liberals. He hopes to follow the path of conservatives and employ modern technology to build large mailing lists and raise millions of dollars in small amounts from thousands of contributors.

And beyond that, Brown, always the dreamer, has spoken in private with friends about more elaborate ideas--such as establishing a permanent Democratic Party television telethon, full of entertainment and excitement, to try and engage more people in politics and raise more money.

Some of this transition to power for the Democratic Party is under way.

Part of the agenda for the 2,802 delegates will be to say thanks and goodby to Kelly, a Los Angeles lawyer and twice chairman of the party. Often caught in the small wars between party regulars who are suspicious of elected officials and vice versa, Kelly nonetheless endeavored to bring Democrats into the modern age of fund-raising. In his most recent term, telephone fund-raising resulted in expanding the party’s list of proven, small-scale donors from 25,000 to 115,000.

“The next chairman can now count on raising $1 million a year without getting out of bed,” Kelly said. “We’ve laid a lot of the groundwork for the future.”

The future really begins with the 1990 elections. Democrats might have been expected at this convention to show off their bench of talent for the upcoming elections. By almost every measure, it is deeper, more experienced and better positioned than the Republican lineup. But Brown is expected to dominate much of the convention, and rising stars have been cast in lesser roles.

Brown’s sister, Kathleen, for instance, will not even address the convention, even though her budding candidacy for the office of state treasurer is one of the most talked-about topics in Democratic political circles. She is content to remain behind the scenes trying to sign up supporters one by one, offering herself as a “different shade of Brown.”

Additionally, the Democratic lineup of 1990 contenders remains unexpectedly bottlenecked at this convention. State Controller Gray Davis and Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy have not yet decided whether to seek reelection or run for governor. And this has put a hold on the ambitions of any number of men and women farther down the ladder.

As it stands, McCarthy and Davis will give back-to-back speeches Saturday, along with Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, the party’s only contender who says he has crossed the point of no return in the governor’s race.

Former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein is a fourth would-be Democratic governor. Only at the last minute has she decided to attend the convention. Officials said she had not yet asked for time to make a speech. Instead, she told supporters she just wanted to meet and woo delegates one by one and “make her presence felt.”

Her relations with Democratic activists are strained, to say the least, as a result of the comfort she gave Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson in his 1988 reelection. In that race, Feinstein took the rare step of refusing to endorse the Democratic nominee, Leo McCarthy, and instead expressed her fond feelings for Wilson and all he had done for the betterment of San Francisco.

Oddly enough, Wilson seems the likely GOP nominee for governor in 1990.

Looking still farther down the election calendar, the Democrats will hear from two of their likely 1992 presidential contenders--Jesse Jackson and Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri, both losers in 1988. They will also speak Saturday.

“This is a very hungry group, these Democrats,” said convention spokesman Steve Hopcraft. “We’re going to try here to define the issues of 1990 and 1992 in ways that favor Democrats rather than in ways that keep us on the defensive.”

Others, however, ridicule the party for squandering its agenda at this convention, which is one of the few political events of 1989 that is sure to attract coverage by California television stations.

Critics point to a scheduled keynote speech from a virtually unknown physicist, S.B. Woo, the former lieutenant governor of Delaware. His subject is competitiveness. Three representatives of defeated presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis address the delegates. And until House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) canceled at the last minute, he held a prime speaking slot, never mind the congressional pay raise fury.

Critics also complain that Kelly has listed himself on the program seven times and given his allies roles far surpassing their importance in the upcoming elections.

“It’s a choreography of pratfalls,” sniffed one Democratic consultant. “What they ought to be doing is more to highlight their candidates for 1990.”

In the era of swirling change for the party, however, traditionalists are not to be denied entirely. The convention promises a pair of old-fashioned, knuckle-busting, sour-stomach resolution fights in the classic traditions of the Democrats.

One battle sure to raise blood pressures, particularly among Jews, would put the party on record favoring a Palestinian homeland. The other reaffirms the Democratic Party’s pro-choice platform--a move that stems from Brown’s recent declaration that he opposes abortions.

“We’re Democrats. It doesn’t always look pretty,” Hopcraft said. “But that’s why we’re not Republicans.”

Times political writer Keith Love contributed to this article.