Democrats Woo GOP’s Ueberroth : He’s Seen as Party’s Strongest Hope to Beat Wilson for Governorship

Democratic Speaker Willie Brown and three assemblymen met Thursday in Los Angeles with former baseball Commissioner Peter V. Ueberroth to try to gauge his interest in running for public office in California as a Democrat, according to two of those present.

They said the office was never specified, but one source said, “He knew what we were talking about--governor.”

In order to run for governor as a Democrat, however, Ueberroth, a Republican, would have to switch parties and state law may prevent him from running as a Democrat.

Brown was traveling in Northern California and Ueberroth could not be reached after the meeting.

With Brown and Ueberroth at the private luncheon were Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblymen Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) and Charles Calderon (D-Montebello).

According to close associates of Brown, he does not think either of his party’s two candidates for governor, Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp and former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, can defeat Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson in November, 1990.

Brown is also said to be furious with Van de Kamp for introducing a ballot initiative on ethics earlier this month that, among other things, would limit the terms of legislators, an idea that Brown thinks would reduce the Legislature’s effectiveness.

But the idea of getting Ueberroth to run for governor as a Democrat has one big obstacle:

A check of the Orange County registrar’s records found that Ueberroth was registered as a Republican as of September, 1988, and Katz said Thursday, “Ueberroth told us he is still a registered Republican.”

To run for governor in the June, 1990, primary, Ueberroth would have to have been a registered Democrat for one year before the March 9, 1990, filing deadline, according to the secretary of state’s office.

With March 9, 1989, already passed, it is now too late for Ueberroth unless he challenges the election laws.

Caren Daniels-Meade, spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office, said her staff was not certain the law could withstand a challenge.

Katz said: “I think that party requirement is probably unconstitutional if someone wanted to test it. You are only required to be registered in a party 30 days prior to Election Day if you want to vote; why should you have to be registered longer to run in that party?”

In 1973, former Democrat S.I. Hayakawa was ruled ineligible to run in the 1974 U.S. Senate primary as a Republican because his switch from the Democratic Party came too late. In 1976, he ran for another U.S. Senate seat as a Republican and won.

Katz and Calderon said Ueberroth seemed stimulated by the luncheon discussion.

“There was a lot of discussion with Peter about how California needs a risk-taker to take it into the 21st Century,” said Katz, “the same way Gov. Pat Brown was a risk-taker and a builder in his first term.”

Calderon said: “We talked about how we need someone who can answer all the political questions like, ‘Are you for the death penalty’ and ‘Are you pro-choice on abortion’ and get that out of the way and move on to the really important job of leading and managing the state.”

In an interview with The Times in January of this year, Ueberroth, 51, said that after he left the baseball commissioner’s job in March he would take a look at running for governor.

But before that happened, Wilson decided to run for governor even though he had just been reelected to a second U.S. Senate term last year. That appeared to end Ueberroth’s chances since both men are Republicans and Wilson was promised by top party fund-raisers that he would have their support.

Political strategists in both parties view Ueberroth as a potential dream candidate because of the positive name identification he got when he ran the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 1984 and when he took on baseball’s drug problem and got results.

They say the only potential downside is that he has never been tested in a rough-and-tumble political campaign.

‘An Excellent Chance’

“If Peter wanted to run for governor in either party I think he would have an excellent chance,” said Katz, “because he is seen by the public as above politics in a way and as a problem-solver.”

As for Thursday’s lunch, Katz said, “Peter told us he has given a lot of thought to California’s role in the 21st Century and that he would like to serve the public in some way.”

But that was as far as Ueberroth would go at this point, Katz added, and no second meeting was scheduled.