Democrats Convention --It’s Not Necessarily One Big, Happy Family

It was hard to figure what was more incongruous as the state Democratic Party gathered downtown Saturday--the sight of perennially buttoned-down John K. Van de Kamp strutting into the Convention Center to the tune of “Johnny B. Goode” or the painted blue skies and fluffy clouds curtain that backed a stage of fussing and feuding politicians.

“Joyful,” intoned Jacques Barzaghi, the baldpated guru of convention visuals, when asked to explain the meaning of the 3-stories-tall painted curtain, 15 live trees and dozens of flags that draped the stage. “Happy.”

It was only those emotions if one ignored the occasional mayhem between the two gubernatorial candidates, Atty. Gen. Van de Kamp and former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, and the fraternal bludgeoning by other candidates competing for the party’s weekend endorsements.

It was, however, what all conventions are: equal parts speechifying and back-patting, orderly structure and unyielding disorganization, irreverent hokeyness and blinding optimism.

Major candidates paraded through the convention area with their entourages of aides; volunteers unleashed blizzards of partisan flyers.

Minor figures such as Franklin R. Geraty--a much-ignored gubernatorial candidate who said he was “working to bring back family values”--competed for space with celebrities such as actor Ed Begley Jr., an environmental activist and mass transit booster who apologetically admitted he still owns a car.

“It’s up for sale,” he said Saturday morning, wincing. “You want to buy a nice Volvo?”

If the mood the Democrats tried to espouse was all chumminess and success, there was ample evidence that not all was well.

Feinstein was roundly booed when, in a convention address, she spoke of her support for the death penalty. She and Van de Kamp exchanged veiled snaps at each other while former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. pleaded publicly for the two to cool their increasingly heated war.

There were also reminders of the party’s past disappointments.

Along a promenade of tables groaning under heaps of position papers and souvenirs, delegates could pick up memorabilia left over from some of the least successful endeavors in political history: buttons from Michael S. Dukakis’ 1988 and Hubert H. Humphrey’s 1968 presidential efforts or a long-expired membership in George S. McGovern’s 1972 Million Member club.

Best-sellers were predictable. “Kennedy, of course,” said Max Hobbs, a political souvenir seller, pointing to remnants from John F. Kennedy’s campaign of 30 years ago.

Dukakis buttons, he explained gently, were not much in demand. “There are so many of them,” he said.

As conventions go, this weekend’s was far smaller than the Democratic national convention that ushered in Kennedy’s nomination in 1960 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Little more than 1,100 of the 2,700 delegates showed up, although party officials did receive the proxies of about 500 others, according to party chairman Brown. He blamed the small turnout on the expense and travel schedules.

The convention did, however, live up to the party’s reputation for, well, disorganization. Saturday’s first session opened more than an hour late, and voting on endorsements threatened to last late into the night.

This was supposed to be a showcase for elected officials and party leaders, but they did not always fare well amid the gibes of their peers. At a morning breakfast for environmental activists, state Controller Gray Davis thanked absent entertainers who work on behalf of environmental issues.

Including, he said, turning to Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), “your ex-spouse there, Jane Fonda.”

Hayden reddened and stared ahead.

Later, however, he got in a slap of his own. Segueing from a reference about wildlife to his introduction of Brown, Hayden cracked: “Speaking of bald eagles.”

Brown, 52 on Saturday and his hair a tad thinner than when he left the governor’s office eight years ago, did not appear amused.