For Many in San Diego, a Cloud Is Now Lifted

“People trust me more when I’m not in office.”

So said Roger Hedgecock on Thursday, moments after he agreed to settle his campaign-laundering case, leaving him with a felony conspiracy conviction and a $5,000 fine.

Even though the felony will be reduced to a misdemeanor, and then probably dismissed altogether, the former mayor was as adamant about never again seeking political office as he was about his innocence.

Instead, Hedgecock said, he will push his political agenda through the microphone of his popular radio talk show. Those who know Hedgecock said they believe him when he says he won’t run again, even though some believe he could be a viable candidate. Others say his politics are outdated.

Overall, reaction to Thursday’s settlement was one of relief, that a long legal and political battle has ended, both for Hedgecock and the city.

“I’m glad that this is over . . . this should get rid of the cloud over San Diego,” said Robert Meadow, a former political consultant who was granted immunity from prosecution in the case in return for his testimony.

Meadow, now a political pollster with a wide-ranging clientele, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator by the county grand jury. “It was my perspective all along that there was nothing particularly unusual about these activities,” he said.

Even so, Meadow believes Hedgecock no longer would be a viable political candidate--not because of Hedgecock’s legal problems but because his politics have changed.

Time has dulled the gloss of being “an environmental Republican,” part of the Hedgecock cache a decade ago, and Hedgecock the radio talk show host is much more conservative than he was in office, Meadow said.

“I think he’s actually a little out of touch,” Meadow said, noting confrontational crusades Hedgecock has launched on the airwaves, such as Light Up the Border.

“He is not the same Roger Hedgecock who was elected mayor of all San Diego,” said Meadow, using an old Hedgecock campaign slogan.

Others said the end of the criminal case against Hedgecock puts to rest a volatile chapter in the city’s history in which every page seemed to have a corruption case with characters such as former Councilman Uvaldo Martinez, Nancy Hoover Hunter, J. David (Jerry) Dominelli and Richard Silberman.

David Lewis, a veteran political consultant, said, “I believe him when he says he’s out of this (politics) forever.”

At the same time, Hedgecock has built himself a loyal following through his radio show, and, in the absence of strong leadership at City Hall, he could be a political contender again, Lewis said.

“If Roger comes back in six months and says” he really is innocent and agreed to the settlement to get on with his life, then “if you like Roger, you are going to believe that. If not, you weren’t going to vote for him anyway,” Lewis said.

One person who can identify with what happened to Hedgecock on Thursday is Tom Shepard, founder of Shepard & Associates, the now-defunct firm at the center of the money-laundering case.

Shepard eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge that he conspired with Hedgecock and former J. David & Co. principals Dominelli and Nancy Hoover Hunter to use his firm to funnel illegal contributions to Hedgecock’s campaign. His guilty plea, he said a few years ago, arose primarily from “my need to put this behind me,” not a sense of wrongdoing.

On Thursday, Shepard said, “I know what it feels like to face the infinite resources of the D.A.’s office. I fully empathize with his decision to cut a deal.”

Shepard, who rebuilt his consulting business and is now thriving, said his internal polling and survey information show that Hedgecock remains “one of the most trusted public figures in San Diego.” What Thursday’s settlement does to that, Shepard can only guess.

“What impact pleading guilty would do to this and (what the) certain dislike the Copley Press has for him” would do to a possible candidacy is hard to gauge, said Shepard, who has not spoken to Hedgecock since his own guilty plea in 1986.

Among those taking a harder line was Michael Aguirre, a lawyer who unsuccessfully ran for City Council and represented Latinos and blacks in a class-action Voting Rights Act lawsuit against the city.

Aguirre said that, despite what Hedgecock may say about his innocence, “people should recognize that Roger did plead guilty to a crime. . . . The fact is he did something wrong and (through the settlement) he has acknowledged he did something wrong. He is someone who violated the law.”

Hedgecock’s insistence that he did nothing wrong makes him both a hypocrite and a demagogue, Aguirre said.

“He’s using his position on radio as a demagogue. On the same day he pleads guilty and admits what he did, he maintains he is innocent,” Aguirre said. “You can’t have it both ways. Either what he told the court (in admitting to the felony conviction) is not the truth or what he’s saying (about his innocence) is not the truth.”