Speaker Calls for Democratic Unity in Governor’s Race

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, predicting that Republican Sen. Pete Wilson would win the California governor’s race if it were held today, called on Democratic leaders Monday to return to the days of back-room politics and unite behind a single candidate.

The Democratic Party’s standard-bearer should be chosen sometime this year--well in advance of the primary election in June, 1990--by top Democratic officeholders, party officials and labor leaders, among others, Brown said.

And the San Francisco Democrat called on Sen. Alan Cranston, California’s leading Democratic politician, to begin the brokering process by bringing together the state’s top Democrats.

“It may be undemocratic but it sure is a practical way to make sure we have a better chance of winning,” said Brown, who is visiting Washington this week with a delegation of California legislators.

Cranston, however, quickly splashed cold water on Brown’s plan.

“As desirable as it would be to have only one major Democratic candidate in the primary, I don’t foresee it happening,” the senator said in a statement issued by his office.

Added Cranston spokesman Murray Flander: “He (Cranston) certainly would not take the lead as Willie proposes.”

Brown’s proposal, which he floated to reporters at a luncheon session, illustrates the disarray in which the Democratic Party finds itself as it heads toward the 1990 elections.

Unlike the Republicans, who have a proven vote-getter in Wilson, the Democrats are divided among three candidates: Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein and State Controller Gray Davis.

“Our Democratic candidates are not as strong,” Brown said. “We’re not as unified. Pete Wilson has made few mistakes and he is a U.S. senator. Pete Wilson at this moment would have to be considered the favorite if you were trying to handicap the race.”

If all three Democratic candidates remain in the race through the primary, Brown said, new fund-raising rules that took effect with the passage of Proposition 73 will make it even tougher on the Democrats.

That is because the winner of the primary, who presumably would have little money left over, would have to raise vast sums between June and November without exceeding contributions limits that range from $1,000 to $5,000. By the same logic, if Wilson avoids a bruising primary as expected, he can save his money and have far more to spend in the general election.

Brown predicted that Wilson would spend as much as $30 million to win the governor’s race. Last year, Wilson spent more than $15 million to win election to a second term in the U.S. Senate.

The Assembly Speaker said he has not decided whom he would support in a Democratic primary. “I don’t have a candidate for governor,” he said.

But in all likelihood, his plan to broker the nomination would most help Van de Kamp, who is the candidate favored by much of the Democratic political Establishment.

Under the Speaker’s proposal, Democratic leaders such as Cranston, Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy, Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), party chairman Edmund G. Brown Jr., as well as leaders of such Democratic constituencies as organized labor and environmental groups, would attempt to select the nominee.

The Speaker also suggested that any candidate who has not managed to raise $2 million by September should back out of the race.

“Our candidates literally need to have somebody pull together an operation that convinces at least two of them to drop out,” Brown said.

Cranston, in his statement, reiterated his proposal that the Democratic candidates adhere to a voluntary spending limit in the primary so that they can save some of their cash for the general election.

“I share Willie Brown’s concern that Democrats be unified and should husband their resources for the governor’s race against the Republican nominee,” Cranston said. “It is extremely important that we win in November. . . . But a brokered pre-primary is a totally different matter.”

Despite Brown’s attempt to keep Wilson out of the governor’s office, the Speaker said the former San Diego mayor would compare favorably to the current occupant, Gov. George Deukmejian.

Wilson would be more flexible than Deukmejian and more in tune with some Democratic positions, such as opposing offshore oil drilling, he said.

“He would be far better to get along with, and probably a bit more practical,” Brown said. “Pete Wilson clearly is not inflexible.”