CAPITOL JOURNAL : Wilson Downplays Effect of Aides’ Departures

Gov. Pete Wilson thought the world of the late Otto Bos, both as a trusted adviser and a close friend. But the governor bristles these days at the suggestion that he might be acting differently and more wisely if the widely respected “media maestro” were still at his side.

Bos’ sudden death from a heart attack in June, coupled with the later exit from the governor’s office of veteran political aide Marty Wilson, has led to widespread theorizing that Wilson is suffering from premature loss of his first team.

Normally, the senior advisers a governor brings with him into office stay around for at least a year or two, if not the entire first term. But of the half dozen or so seasoned politicos who surrounded Wilson before his election a year ago, only his longtime chief of staff, Bob White, now works alongside him in the governor’s office.

For various reasons, mostly having to do with making money, other insiders--such as political advisers George Gorton, Stu Spencer and Marty Wilson, pollster Dick Dresner, fund-raiser Jack Flanigan and former press secretary Larry Thomas--all are only a phone call away, but not able to conveniently walk across the hall and up to the governor’s desk on a moment’s notice.

Wilson’s allies and adversaries alike are increasingly hypothesizing that the governor’s lack of immediate access to an astute, experienced first team that he strongly trusts has handicapped him and contributed to his plummeting in the polls.

“I hate to puncture peoples’ pet theories,” Wilson told The Times, “but I don’t think that’s much of a story, to be candid.”

Most of the ruminating focuses on Bos, who already is regarded in the Capitol as a legend and is spoken of almost in superhuman terms. The comment frequently heard in hallways, elevators restaurants and bars--wherever politics and the governor are discussed--is: “He’s really missing Otto.”

Many people inside and outside the Administration, for example, fervently believe that Bos, who had served Wilson 14 years as a spokesman, media adviser and campaign strategist, probably would have spared the governor some of the turmoil still swirling around his vetoes of bills aimed at protecting homosexuals from job discrimination and permitting damages for victims of job-related sexual harassment.

They speculate that Bos would have softened the impact of the gay rights veto by first announcing the governor’s signing of popular legislation requiring major employers to allow workers four months’ unpaid leave to care for newborn children or seriously ill family members. Instead, the governor first announced the gay rights veto, kicking up a political storm, then got relatively little attention when he signed the family leave bill.

They also figure that Bos, realizing that the public had become sensitized to sexual harassment after being mesmerized by a weekend of televised Clarence Thomas hearings, would have cajoled the governor into signing the sexual harassment bill. Instead, Wilson vetoed it immediately after the hearings.

“That never has worked with Pete Wilson at any time, ever,” said White, the chief of staff, when asked whether he believes Bos would have leaned on Wilson to sign the bill for political reasons.

But the governor agreed that Bos might have orchestrated a more politically advantageous timing to the signings and vetoes. “That may have been the case, though it also may be exaggerated,” Wilson said, noting that his maneuvering was restricted by a deadline for acting on the legislation.

One thesis that Wilson especially rejects is that Bos, a liberal on most social issues, might have talked him into signing the gay rights bill, AB 101. Before his death, they had talked about the legislation, Wilson said, “and he certainly didn’t urge me to sign it. If anything, he was on the other side.”

In fact, insiders say that no Wilson staffer urged him to sign the bill. And all of his political advisers pushed him to veto it. Asked how heavily politics played into his decision, the governor answered: “Not very much, because it was clearly a ‘no winner.’ ” Wilson reiterated that he ultimately concluded that the bill would be a burden on business.

As for Bos, Wilson said: “He not only was a close personal friend, but a valuable adviser who had good instincts and good judgment. . . . Without being an ideologue, he had a very deep rudder in terms of his own gut. He was also immensely loyal and devoted to me.”

But his loss, said the governor, “meant the most to me personally.”