Brokering in Governor’s Race Assailed

Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, a Democratic contender for governor, Wednesday assailed as “outrageous and presumptuous in the extreme” a suggestion by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown that power brokers select the party’s 1990 gubernatorial nominee.

A spokesman for former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein another Democratic hopeful, also attacked Brown’s notion as smacking “more of the Kremlin than California.”

Brown, whose influence is felt more heavily in Assembly election campaigns than in gubernatorial races, made the suggestion Monday, saying it was a way to avoid an expensive and divisive Democratic primary that could play to the advantage of the presumed Republican nominee, U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson.

Brown said he believed that if the election were held now, Wilson would win. He suggested that if top Democratic politicians could settle on one candidate and consolidate their financial support behind this individual, Democrats could enhance their general election chances of recapturing the governor’s office.

Van de Kamp, who enjoys the support of many of the state’s top Democrats and would probably be the most likely beneficiary of a brokered nominating process, nonetheless dismissed it, saying, “I find that an outrageous kind of proposal and presumptuous in the extreme.”

“We are not going to have brokered politics for the governorship of California as far as I am concerned,” Van de Kamp said in response to a question at a press conference. “I don’t care who (Brown) supports, whether it is me or anyone else.”

Brown had conceded that his idea might be undemocratic but said, “It sure is a practical way to make sure we have a better chance of winning.”

While Van de Kamp is considered the favorite of the Democratic establishment, he trailed Feinstein in a recent statewide poll. Another potential aspirant is state Controller Gray Davis, who declined to comment on the Speaker’s proposal.

Hadley Roff, a spokesman for the Feinstein campaign, said Brown’s suggestion bore an imprint “more of the Kremlin than California. I think an old-fashioned primary where the issues are discussed strengthens the party more than weakens it because it brings more people and interest into the process.”

Likewise, Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), whom Brown nominated to head up the brokering, indicated he wanted no part of such an arrangement.