Turning Point in State : New Activism Stirring in GOP, Democratic Parties

A week and a world apart, California’s Democratic and Republican parties convened here this month and peered around the corner at a turning point in their history.

What greeted them in their back-to-back conventions were the stirrings of new political activism for the 1990s.

Republicans saw it in a demonstration of abruptly changing visions.

Gov. George Deukmejian, who is leaving the office in 1990, gave his party the same kind of speech that has been the trademark of much of his Administration: a detailed blast at crime that overpowered his bare mention of education, transportation and the environment.

“Our tough-on-crime policies have been highly successful in putting lawbreakers behind bars,” he told conventioneers Sunday morning. “Because of tougher laws and tougher judges, the number of inmates in our state prisons has more than doubled since we took office.”

Many Republicans here were clearly restless with this theme, however, as evidenced by their restrained applause for the governor’s remarks.

Just the night before, by contrast, their enthusiasm flowed freely when U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson announced that he would run for governor next year and outlined an agenda that emphasized quality-of-life concerns.

He declared there was no saying “no” to tackling transportation, health care, AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, child care, school dropouts, clean air and water and more. He used words like “innovative” and “aggressive” and said the GOP must now stand as the party that believes “environmental health and economic health are mutually dependent, not mutually exclusive.”

For anyone who missed the sharp transition in tone from the outgoing governor to the incoming GOP gubernatorial front-runner, Wilson’s handlers were on hand to help.

“It was amazing, wasn’t it?” said one inner-circle Wilson booster at the convention’s end. “Pete’s challenge is going to be to avoid the memory of this one-note crime stuff and present himself as a tough but compassionate quality-of-life champion.”

For Democrats, whose convention occurred the previous weekend in the same civic hall, the new promise of activism was visible everywhere.

Just as the Republicans turned to Wilson for strength in the 1990 campaign, the Democrats went back to former Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. for his excitement and his pledge to capture the imagination of Californians who have dropped out of politics.

“It’s the job of a political party to mobilize the millions and millions of non-voters, and that’s what I intend to do,” said Brown on the occasion of his election as chairman of the California Democratic Party.

As the stars of the two conventions, Wilson and Brown found themselves competing as in the old days.

Back in 1982, Brown was trying to save his national political career and Wilson was trying to launch his in their race for the U.S. Senate.

Wilson won. Now, Brown is trying to emerge again, and Wilson hopes to become the most dominant politician in the state since Ronald Reagan by winning the governorship and appointing his successor to the Senate.

Brown said he will run for no public office during 1990 or 1992, but even so, he managed--at least at the convention--to dwarf the Democratic Party’s field of gubernatorial hopefuls.

Those hopefuls were in step with Brown, however, in their vision of an activist era.

“Today we reaffirm our belief that California is ready to move again,” said candidate for governor and Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp. His speech to the Democrats was sprinkled with words like “restore” and “revive” and “recapture” and “reclaim.”

‘Starting to Revolt’

State Controller Gray Davis, an exploratory candidate for governor, put it this way to the Democrats: “Without leadership in Sacramento, it’s no wonder we had 50 measures on the ballot. People are starting to revolt against that kind of stand-still politics.”

At this stage, 21 months from the election, both parties are still obviously struggling with their lineups for the 1990 statewide races.

For the Republicans, Wilson’s decision to run for governor after just being reelected to the Senate last November has dramatically narrowed the field in that race.

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates wants to stay in as a law-and-order candidate, but GOP glamour contender Peter V. Ueberroth sent a strong signal over the weekend that he was losing interest.

When asked what he would do when he retires as commissioner of baseball March 31, Ueberroth told a New York Times sports columnist: “Straight answer? I don’t know. I won’t start looking until I finish this job. I hope to stay in New York and make a living.”

Before Wilson jumped into the race, Ueberroth said he would return to Southern California and might be interested in running for governor.

The lesser offices of lieutenant governor, attorney general and others have been a problem for the Republicans in past elections. Often they have fielded incomplete or weak slates. But party leaders vow to do better in 1990.

State Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) was among the first to obtain an audience with Wilson at the convention to discuss the remainder of the ticket. Seymour emerged and said he was “very seriously looking at the lieutenant governorship.”

Sen. William Campbell (R- Hacienda Heights) said he was weighing his prospects for the same office.

More than a half a dozen other officeholders were openly campaigning for consideration for a spot somewhere in the GOP statewide slate.

Democrats, because of intense early competition at the top of the ticket and Brown’s dominant profile, spent much of their convention talking about how to win the governorship.

Besides Van de Kamp and Davis, the party has potential candidates in former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein and Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy, the man Wilson beat last year in the Senate election.

For lesser offices, Secretary of State March Fong Eu has indicated her desire to stay in place, and Brown’s sister, Kathleen, is well along in a campaign to challenge Republican state Treasurer Thomas W. Hayes.

The extra interest in this year’s conventions reflects significant changes in law and in political trends. These potentially increase the importance of party organizations, which have been sideline players for most of the century.

Voter-approved political reforms now limit candidate fund-raising, so parties will be called on for help by office seekers. At the same time, organizers of both parties say that the ground game of California politics--voter registration and get-out-the vote drives--is becoming increasingly important.

Some things, however, are unchanging about California’s two parties.

The Democrats stayed at the union-organized Holiday Inn. Many delegates arrived from around the state by bus. Their schedule kept them at the convention hall from early morning until late at night.

The Republicans crossed union pickets to stay at the non-union Hyatt Capitol Park. Most long-distance delegates came by airplane, and the convention program lasted barely longer than the raucous hospitality suite receptions.

Republican political consultants and staffers proudly wore their gold Rolex wristwatches. Jerry Brown, though, left his at home and wore an inexpensive black digital.