Architect of Feinstein’s Bid for Governor Heatedly Quits

Dianne Feinstein’s race for governor was torn asunder Monday as her longtime campaign manager up and quit with a snarling broadside saying the former San Francisco mayor lacked the resolve and gumption needed to win.

In this state where success in politics usually requires years, if not a lifetime, of single-minded devotion, campaign manager Clinton Reilly said Feinstein is simply not giving it 100% with the 1990 election creeping up. Reilly criticized Feinstein for being unwilling to devote herself to an adequate campaign schedule or a fund-raising budget.

“We make a 100% commitment to our clients and our campaigns. We expect our clients to give 100% in return. Dianne Feinstein has been unwilling to make this commitment,” Reilly said.

Feinstein, the former mayor of San Francisco who has been sidelined for nearly six weeks recovering from a hysterectomy, was reportedly startled by Reilly’s decision and by the angry tone of his remarks. But she vowed to continue on.

“Frankly, the relationship with Clint simply didn’t work out,” Feinstein said by way of reply. “This in no way deters my determination to continue my campaign for governor.”

Then she added her own barb: “In fact, it redoubles my commitment.”

The falling out of the candidate and the campaign manager, even where the partnership goes back half a dozen years through two previous successful campaigns, is not itself unheard of or necessarily evidence of insurmountable political problems.

But Reilly’s departure is a special blow in Feinstein’s case.

For one thing, Feinstein has been saddled from the start with a reputation as lacking the “fire in the belly” required to triumph in an epic-length gubernatorial run. Until just this year, for instance, she has stayed in San Francisco, aloof from gritty grass-roots organizing and free from the grueling day-after-day campaign travel that other candidates take for granted.

To have this reputation ratified by her own campaign chief is sure to cause damage in her two-way primary election contest with Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp. A third Democrat, state Controller Gray Davis, is still considering whether to make the race.

Reilly’s sudden departure also will push Feinstein back almost to the start in the basics of assembling a credible campaign operation. More than just a manager, Reilly oversaw a “full-service” consulting business with responsibility for strategy, research, advertising and polling.

By midday Monday, Feinstein was reported to be shopping actively for a replacement. But while there is no shortage of potential campaign managers eager for work in a race as prestigious as a run for governor of California, no manager is likely to match Reilly’s close-up understanding of Feinstein’s political base, her strengths, weaknesses and her views on issues. All of this stems from Reilly’s managing her 1983 landslide reelection as mayor of San Francisco and her triumph over a recall attempt that same year, and from Reilly’s long association with San Francisco politics.

On the other hand, few political handlers are likely to be as prickly and temperamental as Reilly.

“I don’t know whether this is the end of her or the best thing that has ever happened for her,” one important fence-sitting Democrat from Los Angeles shrugged.

Reilly has been associated with a large number of election races in California over the years. He is best known as the man who ran the most expensive campaign ever undertaken in a single state--the $62-million insurance industry ballot initiative fight of last November. Reilly lost the fight over insurance initiatives but gained status as undoubtedly the highest-paid consultant in California history, along with one of its most volatile.

He and Feinstein have previously disclosed tension in their relationship. Sources on Monday said the differences between the two had grown more and more heated, and had become deeply personal as well.

In his resignation statement, Reilly said he had “strong differences with Mrs. Feinstein on how much money must be raised in order to win this election and how a winning campaign must be organized.” He called the former mayor “a candidate with immense potential” but said, “to this moment, Mrs. Feinstein has been unwilling to commit to a schedule and a budget capable of electing her governor.”

Feinstein spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers, who is remaining part of the campaign, described the disagreements somewhat differently. “It wasn’t a question of whether things should be done but how,” she said.