Mate’s Arrest Surmountable for Golding : Silberman Woes Called a Short-Term Problem

Millionaire businessman Richard T. Silberman’s arrest for allegedly trying to launder drug money could scuttle his wife’s chances for statewide office next year, but may not prove to be what one consultant labeled “a terminal political disease” for San Diego County Supervisor Susan Golding, political observers said Saturday.

With Silberman, a successful entrepreneur who held several top posts under former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., facing arraignment on the laundering charges early this week, attention in political circles temporarily shifted Saturday from shock over his arrest to questions over its implications for Golding’s career. Silberman, who was taken into custody by federal agents Friday, posted bail Saturday evening.

The arrest of Silberman, a co-founder of the Jack in the Box fast-food chain who has been a major figure in state and local politics for 15 years, could seriously harm--and perhaps even end--Golding’s flirtation with a possible 1990 campaign for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, many political observers argued. Most added, however, that they doubt that the lasting damage to Golding’s career will be so severe as to permanently block her path to higher office.

“Regardless of what eventually happens, I don’t think this means Susan Golding has gone as far as she ever will in politics,” said Dan McAllister, who was Golding’s administrative assistant when she served on the San Diego City Council in the early 1980s. “To see this as the end of a political career or some kind of a plateau is without foundation.”

Since returning to San Diego five years ago after serving briefly in Sacramento as deputy secretary of business, housing and transportation under Gov. George Deukmejian, the 43-year-old Golding has rivaled Mayor Maureen O’Connor for preeminence in San Diego politics. Last year, Golding weighed a possible race against O’Connor--whose husband, Robert O. Peterson, ironically was Silberman’s partner in Jack in the Box and other business ventures--but finally opted to seek an uncontested reelection to a second four-year supervisorial term.

Most consultants interviewed hedged their assessments of how Silberman’s legal woes might affect his wife’s political plans by stressing that it is still much too early to gauge the potential impact.

“This is such an incredible bombshell that it’s going to take a while for it all to settle in,” said Otto Bos, a friend of Golding and a close adviser to Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), who was mayor of San Diego when she served on the council.

That caveat notwithstanding, the consensus among many political activists was that Silberman’s case, though damaging on the surface to Golding through the kind of taint-by-association process common in politics, might not irreparably damage her aspirations for statewide or national office.

“This is a personal problem that has no direct relationship to Susan’s ability or integrity,” said Dan Greenblat, a former congressional staffer who managed Golding’s successful 1984 supervisorial campaign. “The fact that she has an impressive public record that allows her to stand on her own to a great degree should minimize the damage.”

Democratic consultant Nick Johnson added: “In the short term, she probably can stop worrying about packing for Sacramento. But in a few years, who knows?”

Golding, who received the news of her husband’s arrest while in New Jersey for her mother’s funeral, was reported to be still on the East Coast Saturday and unavailable for comment. There were no answers throughout the day at the couple’s San Diego home.

In announcing Silberman’s arrest Friday, federal law enforcement officials said that Golding apparently had no knowledge of the alleged laundering scheme, which involved money that undercover FBI agents told Silberman came from Colombian drug traffickers. Assuming no revelations to the contrary are forthcoming, voters may keep Golding’s personal life largely separate from her public career, many consultants said.

“It’s almost like there are two separate entities: Susan Golding the politician and Susan Golding the wife-mother-person,” McAllister said. “Under these circumstances, I’m not sure that a personal problem necessarily means major political damage.”

What damage there is, however, may well force Golding out of next year’s lieutenant governor’s race before she is even officially in it--as much for personal as political considerations, consultants said. For months, Golding has been seriously pondering a possible bid for the state’s No. 2 post, perhaps on the same ticket with Wilson, who is seeking the 1990 Republican gubernatorial nomination.

“Running for office while your spouse is on trial on criminal charges would be inopportune timing, to say the least,” political consultant David Lewis said. Noting that Golding relied heavily on her husband’s wealth in her 1984 race--loaning her campaign $243,000, nearly half of her total contributions--Lewis added that the potential expense of Silberman’s trial could preclude Golding from again tapping into personal funds to underwrite a political contest. Although his wife is a Republican, Silberman has primarily been active in Democratic politics.

Moreover, in the months ahead, Golding’s focus may be more on her husband’s case than on mounting a possible statewide campaign, other consultants said.

“I suspect that a race for lieutenant governor seems a lot less important to her today than it did 24 hours ago,” Lewis said.

Silberman, 59, was arrested Friday in a San Diego hotel while negotiating to launder $1.1 million from an undercover federal agent posing as a representative of Colombian cocaine dealers, according to Thomas Hughes, head of the FBI’s local office. Over the past five months, the same agent arranged two “test run” money-laundering operations--one for $100,000 last November and a second deal for $200,000 in February--with Silberman, Hughes said.

Culminating a 2 1/2-year investigation, FBI agents also arrested Chris Poulos, 62, of San Diego, commonly known as Chris Petti. Two Los Angeles men were still being sought Saturday on similar money-laundering allegations. Hughes described Petti as an associate of the Chicago Cosa Nostra, an organized crime group whose operations in Southern California and Nevada triggered the investigation.

Political consultants and her fellow supervisors unanimously agreed that Silberman’s arrest will not impair Golding’s leadership of the Board of Supervisors, which she chairs and clearly dominates through the force of her personality. Intelligent, hard-working and with sharp political instincts, Golding will, however, undoubtedly come under greater scrutiny in the weeks ahead as observers watch for signs of whether her husband’s problems distract her attention from her job, they explained.

Golding’s handling of the added pressure, they added, could help shape public opinion on the critical question of the political consequences of Silberman’s legal troubles.

“How Susan handles herself will be important,” McAllister said. “I wouldn’t expect her to allow this to get in the way of doing her job one bit. If people see that, it would be one more reason to keep the political and personal sides of her life separate.”

If Silberman were to be acquitted, the long-range impact of the incident would be minimal, the consultants and others said. On the other hand, should he be convicted, Golding would find herself in a situation similar to that of former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, whose own reputation was besmirched by criminal charges against her husband, John Zaccaro. In 1987, Zaccaro was acquitted of charges that he solicited a bribe from a cable television firm seeking a franchise in New York. Three years earlier, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of taking part in a fraudulent scheme to buy several Queens apartment houses.

However, opponents who attempt to inject such issues into a campaign often are harmed more than helped by doing so, Greenblat said.

“I think it would be seen as a cheap shot,” Greenblat said. “Any opponent who tried to do that against Susan Golding probably would regret it.”

Even Greenblat, though, conceded that Golding’s future opponents might not need to personally remind voters of Silberman’s situation in order to perhaps benefit from whatever misgivings it causes them to feel toward Golding.

“When it’s on page A1, your work’s done for you,” said Greenblat, referring to the front-page play that Silberman’s arrest received in San Diego’s three major daily newspapers.