Golding Advised to Ax Welfare for Publicity : Politics: Her campaign adviser in San Diego Mayor’s race urged move in memo 2 weeks before Golding acted.

Two weeks before San Diego County Supervisor Susan Golding proposed removing nearly 2,000 people from local welfare rolls, her campaign pollster recommended the move to “create a storm of publicity” that would bolster her bid to become San Diego’s next mayor, according to an internal campaign document.

Attempting to help Golding dispel her public image “as just another typical politician,” pollster Dick Dresner also advised that “because the proposal is illegal, Susan will be in a position to stand up to the government bureaucracy and fight for something most people would like.”

Dresner’s Nov. 26 memo to Golding raises doubts about her repeated assertion, first outlined at a Dec. 9 news conference with Supervisor Leon Williams, that the welfare cuts are necessary to save the county millions of dollars in the midst of a fiscal crisis.

“What a way to get elected mayor,” said Eleanor Slaughter, executive director of the San Diego County Welfare Rights Organization. “It’s a sad day when you have to beat up on welfare recipients to get elected.”

“If accurate, it’s very disturbing,” said Anson Levitan, a Legal Aid attorney who has filed a lawsuit to block the removal of 1,940 people from the $291-a-month welfare program. “I think it speaks for itself.”

The leak of the memo to the media Wednesday also represents the escalation of negative campaigning in a race that has become bitter and personal more than three months before the June mayoral primary. Nevertheless, it was difficult to assess how the release of the information will affect Golding’s status as the early front-runner in the few public opinion polls taken so far.

In an interview, Golding adamantly asserted that she did not take her stand against the welfare payments on Dresner’s advice, and said she had been working on her proposal before the memo was written.

“Yes, I pay people to give me their opinions,” she said of Dresner’s memo. “It doesn’t mean I have to agree to them, accept them or act on them.” Golding said her staff met with county Social Services Department officials Nov. 6 to discuss the idea and that she authored a Nov. 20 memo to Chief Administrative Officer Norman Hickey suggesting the cuts.

Golding also maintained that the welfare cuts are legal, noting that a Superior Court judge has refused to block them despite the Legal Aid lawsuit.

“It’s not illegal,” Golding said. “And I would never, ever do anything that I thought was illegal. And I never will.”

Judge Judith Haller’s refusal to grant the injunction requested by Legal Aid is not equivalent to a determination on whether the county action is legal. On Wednesday, Legal Aid attorneys appealed Haller’s refusal to immediately block the elimination of the recipients from the last-resort welfare program, a decision finalized by the Board of Supervisors on Jan. 14.

“I don’t even remember reading the memo,” Golding said. She said Dresner sat in on two campaign strategy sessions and that she hasn’t seen him “for at least a month.”

Golding announced her welfare proposal on the same day Gov. Pete Wilson revealed he would ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment to reduce welfare benefits to some poor families by nearly 25%.

Both Golding and Wilson employ Dresner. Golding and a spokesman for Wilson called the timing of the two proposals completely coincidental and said there was no coordination between them.

Bill Livingstone, the governor’s spokesman, said he knows of no advice from Dresner on the welfare issue. Dresner could not be reached for comment.

The six-page Golding strategy memo, which summarizes information in a survey Dresner and pollster Robert Meadow were hired to conduct, also contains an evaluation of the political liabilities posed by the 1990 conviction of Golding’s husband, Richard T. Silberman, for his role in a money-laundering scheme.

It offers solutions to “the Silberman problem,” which, Dresner warned, will be a factor in the minds of “something like 20% to 30%” of voters in the race to become San Diego’s next mayor.

“By focusing on issues that involve crime, drugs and ethics, we may be able to overcome some underlying skepticism about Golding’s own ethics and Silberman’s drug conviction,” Dresner wrote.

The memo also urges Golding to “secure environmental endorsements, especially the Sierra Club,” to make a proposed centrist stance on growth “believable” and overcome developer contributions that could “weaken the credibility of our commitment in the voters’ minds.”

Golding’s opponents in the mayor’s race said the revelations of campaign strategy show she is motivated by political ambition, not a desire to formulate public policy.

“I’m not surprised that her motivations for this initiative, this policy, were political,” said John Wainio, a consultant to San Diego City Councilman Ron Roberts, one of Golding’s rivals for mayor. “There’s been a pattern on her part of treating elective office as a rolling opportunity for news conferences and treating policy as a tool in a never-ending campaign for higher office.”

“What she is driven by is polls and political expediency, not what drives a lot of people in this world, which is moral, ethical and philosophical beliefs,” said growth-control advocate Peter Navarro, another candidate.

Though she did not specifically accuse the Roberts campaign of providing the memo to reporters, Golding said the councilman’s operatives have engaged in a pattern of dirty tricks against her.

Golding said she has been told that Roberts’ campaign aides telephoned local television stations to erroneously inform them that Golding’s news conference announcing her entry into the mayoral race had been delayed.

“This is clearly released from one of my opponents who can’t find a better way to win a campaign than pilfering memos,” Golding said. She added that “there’s one campaign that has been doing this kind of dirty tricks from the beginning: the Roberts campaign.”

Roberts said the accusation that his campaign aides telephoned television news departments is “absolute bull----.” He said he questioned his staff and is satisfied no members were not involved.

“I will swear to you it wasn’t me, (and) to the best of my knowledge, in questioning people in my campaign, I don’t have any reason to believe any of them are involved.”

The section of the memo on Golding’s welfare proposal is headed “Anti-incumbency” and begins: “Everyone is worried that Golding is seen as just another typical politician, and we all feel that it will be necessary to dispel that image. . . . The way to deal with this is to stand out from the crowd . . .

“To date, Golding has no such vehicle. Her record has been excellent from an insider point of view, but the public is certainly not aware of it,” the memo reads. “There are three things we discussed which I think tackle the problem.”

Under the first of these, erroneously headlined “General Welfare,” Dresner wrote:

“A strong stand against continued payment of General Welfare benefits to people who are mainly white, able-bodied males clearly will create a storm of publicity. First, the public is strongly in favor of reducing welfare payments, and they would much prefer to cut welfare than other parts of the county’s budget.”

He also recommends emphasizing Golding’s success at creating a “drug court” and urges her to “take the lead in establishing the rules for the upcoming campaign. She could propose spending limits, she could propose the campaign be decided by debate without 30-second commercials, and she could take the lead on calling for an initiative to limit the mayor and council to two terms.”

On the first page, he summarized “The Silberman Problem” this way: “The question thus becomes: How do we get beyond Dick Silberman, because a campaign that focuses on Silberman focuses on Golding’s weaknesses? In addition, the voter would be given no reason to vote for Susan Golding.”

In other sections, Dresner outlined Golding’s strengths and weaknesses among various geographic, ethnic and demographic groups. He concluded that Golding can be expected to do well among women, minorities and moderate, older, longer-term residents of San Diego.