Republican Raises a Lonely Voice in Race to Unseat Eu

Sometimes politics is a lonely calling.

On Wednesday, a pleasant man in a pinstriped suit and red silk tie held a press conference in Burbank to announce that he is running for California secretary of state, a job that pays $72,500 and potentially is a springboard to higher office.

One reporter showed up to hear what he had to say.

There were no television cameras, no radio reporters, no political hangers-on, just a friend who brought along his camera and flash.

The candidate, Los Angeles Deputy Dist. Atty. Gordon Levy, left his stack of announcements by the door of the Greater Los Angeles Press Club and strolled to the lectern to face two dozen empty chairs.

When the one reporter asked if there was coffee, Levy rushed to pour some dark, lukewarm glop into a Styrofoam cup.

“Thanks for coming,” Levy said. “I am announcing today that I will seek the Republican nomination for secretary of state in 1990. As my party’s only announced candidate, I expect to have the strong support of all Republicans, and if I win this job, I will bring much-needed legal experience to secretary of state’s administration of elections.

“Any questions?”

One big question, actually.

Why did Levy, a 57-year-old family man with a good-paying job, decide to run for an office held by an incumbent considered so formidable that political insiders have speculated for months that she would have no opponent at all?

(California Secretary of State March Fong Eu, a Democrat, is consistently one of the biggest vote-getters on the ballot. Rising to prominence in the early 1970s by campaigning against pay toilets in public buildings, she has been reelected every time since first winning the office in 1974.)

“It literally happened this way,” replied Levy, warming to the subject. “I was sitting down at the state (Republican) convention in Anaheim a couple of weeks ago and (Garden Grove Rep.) Bob Dornan was sitting near me with his head in his hands. I said, ‘Bob, what’s the matter?’

“He said he had just read in the newspaper that our party couldn’t get anybody to run for secretary of state. It was sad, embarrassing, he said.

“I said, ‘Well, Bob, I’ll run if you want.’

“Bob lifted his head, and you could see that fire in those Irish eyes, and he grabbed me and said, ‘I’ll be your campaign chairman if you do.’ ”

Dornan confirmed Wednesday that he is on board.

From Levy’s comments on Wednesday, it was clear that he will enjoy the pats on the back from party luminaries as his long-shot candidacy stretches out ahead.

If he is the Republican nominee for secretary of state, for example, Levy will be right up there on the dinner podiums with U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson, the party’s expected nominee for governor.

His name will be called out to cheers at party conventions.

And if former President Ronald Reagan hosts a fund-raiser, Levy will even be up there with the Gipper.

Still, what lies ahead may not be pretty.

Raising the millions of dollars Levy will probably need to strongly challenge Eu requires a leap of faith that most campaign check writers find difficult, if not impossible.

Big fund-raising dinners are not realistic for this kind of candidacy. That means Levy will have to resort to “cold calling”--asking for contributions on the telephone from people he does not know, and this can be cold indeed.

Without the money, there won’t be much travel or even many press releases.

And then there is the name-tag prospect.

The California Republican Party’s new chairman, Frank Visco, boasted to reporters earlier this year that his party mounted a strong slate of candidates for statewide office in 1986, starting with Gov. George Deukmejian.

Can you name some of the other 1986 candidates after Deukmejian, Visco was asked.

He looked stricken.

“Well, there was. . . .”

“Right,” said an irreverent reporter. “They all needed name tags.”

But Levy insisted Wednesday that he is undaunted by the potential humiliation.

“I am very excited about my campaign,” he said, looking around at the empty press club.