Rebounding Bradley Puts ‘Worst Year’ Behind Him

Buoyed by indications that his once-plummeting popularity has rebounded, Mayor Tom Bradley expressed confidence this week that problems which plagued his Administration for the last 18 months have come to an end.

In his first interview in nine months, Bradley said this week that he would not rule out a run for an unprecedented sixth term in 1993. Such prospects seemed extremely remote only a year ago when, buffeted by allegations of misconduct, Bradley squeaked through a primary race with the smallest victory margin since he was first elected mayor in 1973.

Bradley described 1989 as “the worst year of my entire life,” saying he felt “helpless” in the face of “the accusations, the allegations, the speculation.” There were times, despite attempts to paint a business-as-usual picture, that the Bradley Administration seemed paralyzed by the controversy.

Now, Bradley said, questions about his personal finances and use of political influence are rarely raised at public appearances, and the 72-year-old mayor said he is “absolutely confident” that he will be cleared of wrongdoing by an ongoing federal investigation into allegations against him.

Bradley’s upbeat outlook stems in part from a poll taken for former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein last month during her successful primary campaign for governor. The poll showed that Bradley’s popularity among voters has returned to its early 1989 level, when he was one of the most popular politicians in the nation.

As evidence of Bradley’s standing, the Feinstein campaign incorporated his photo in a pre-election mailer and asked him to introduce Feinstein at her post-primary “Democratic unity” press conference.

Relaxed and cheerful as he sat near the coffee table in his office, Bradley spoke at length late Wednesday afternoon about a range of public and private matters, from homelessness and illegal drugs to his future and the recent past. He reserved most of his sharpest comments for the press and its investigations of him.

“I’ve seen various people who’ve taken a bashing in the press,” he said, “and if you immediately, on the heels of that kind of political bashing or general public criticism in the press, ask people their reaction, they’re going to remember what they last saw in the paper or in the press.

“So it surely must have some impact. Then you move away in time from that particular period in your life . . . and I think you come up with a more normal reaction.”

Of the last year, Bradley said: “It was the worst year of my entire life. It went on and on, day after day, and you know you’re literally helpless to do anything except ignore it and go about your business and wait for an official finding to come out of some inquiry. You start by denying it and the stories continue. You’re almost without any ability to put it to rest.”

The cycle of scandal began early last year with reports that, while mayor, Bradley had served as a paid adviser to two financial institutions that had dealings with the city. One of the institutions, Far East National Bank, received $2 million in city deposits the same day that Bradley telephoned then-City Treasurer Leonard Rittenberg to inquire about the bank’s status. Both Bradley and Rittenberg have denied that Bradley attempted to influence the deposits.

Bradley was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing after an investigation by City Atty. James K. Hahn. In a scathing report, however, Hahn declared that Bradley had become “indifferent to . . . ethical concerns.”

In a dramatic public admission in May, 1989, Bradley told a stunned City Council that he made “an error in judgment” in creating the appearance of a conflict of interest between his employment by private firms and his simultaneous mayoral actions.

“I was insensitive not to realize that accepting outside employment could create the perceptions we see today,” Bradley said. “In retrospect, my decision to engage in outside employment was a mistake because of the perceptions it created. I now recognize that error, and I will always regret it.”

Questions also arose about whether Bradley used undue influence to help associates--including Abraham Spiegel, chairman of Columbia Savings & Loan; Mary Anne Singer, a lobbyist who was a Bradley friend, and Allen Alevy, a campaign fund-raiser. Bradley’s stock portfolio, including junk bonds acquired through Drexel Burnham Lambert, also became a source of controversy.

A federal grand jury investigation was initiated and Hahn filed a civil lawsuit against Bradley for failing to disclose personal investments worth $160,000. Last December, the mayor agreed to pay a $20,000 fine to settle the matter.

In March, 1989, Bradley returned $18,000 he had earned in 1988 as an adviser to Far East after he learned that the bank had received deposits from the city.

Los Angeles Times polls taken in that year showed that Bradley’s popularity had plummeted. By September, the percentage of people who had a favorable impression of Bradley had dropped to 45%. In early 1986, the number had been 75%. During the same time period, the share of people who had an unfavorable impression of Bradley had climbed to 46% from 12%.

The Feinstein campaign poll, conducted last month, gave Bradley an approval rating of more than 65% and a favorable-to-unfavorable rating of 3 to 1, according to Hank Morris, a Feinstein campaign consultant.

“If you weren’t here in the middle, then you wouldn’t know there was a middle,” Morris said. “He’s very, very popular with the voters. It’s striking for someone who’s been in public life as long as he has.”

In the interview, Bradley would not address in detail any of the allegations that had been brought against him in the course of the year.

Bradley said his office has supplied federal investigators with all the documents requested, and said he has not been questioned by them or asked to testify before a grand jury.

Asked about the performance of the press, Bradley said: “In all candor, I’ve been concerned about news stories that are based upon what is largely speculation about various things. And maybe somebody’s trying to win a Pulitzer by being another Woodward and Bernstein.”

Bradley said he does not think that press attacks against him are over and added: “I don’t think this is a Los Angeles phenomenon. I think it is something I’ve observed all across the country.” Other than the press, people in Los Angeles seem uninterested in the matter, Bradley said, and have difficulty grasping the allegations.

“They don’t understand what this whole thing was all about,” Bradley said. “People who have known me, who have watched me, would say to me from time to time, ‘That is so completely different than the Tom Bradley we know that we just ignore it.’ ”

During his frequent public appearances throughout the city, Bradley said, people complain of the same problems they brought up 20 years ago: crime, lack of housing, drugs, gangs and joblessness.

His agenda for the next three years will place more attention on the lack of affordable housing--”a huge, huge problem,” he said.

Another high priority, Bradley said, is expansion of an after-school program now in place in 20 public schools.

“I want to see it in every elementary school,” he said. Such programs are the wave of the future, he said, “if we are to break the cycle of failure and returning to gangs and crime that are so much a part of the scene all across this country.”

Bradley said his health is “terrific. It never changes.” He rises each morning at 5:40 a.m. to ride an exercise bicycle for 20 to 25 minutes while he reads the newspaper. “I make maximum use of my time,” he said. His days generally end with several personal appearances in the evening, he said.

Bradley travels often on city, port and airport business, but said he almost never takes vacations.

“The only real vacation that I planned was one to France in 1974,” Bradley said. “It turned out after three days everybody discovered I was in town, in Paris, and they began bombarding me with requests for official and semi-official visits. So I gave up . . . and I have not planned or taken a vacation since.”

While he said he has made no decision about the 1993 election, Bradley said he has no plans to retire either. “I don’t even think about it,” he said.

Regarding 1993, he added: “If you’ve got three years before you need to make a decision, I see no point in rushing. In the meantime I’m happy, I’m enjoying my work.”