Roberti Hires Heavy Hitters in Campaign for New Seat : Politics: The arrival of high-powered consultants is seen as a signal that the senator is running a ‘no-holds-barred’ race against Republican Carol Rowen.

Girding for the tough election contest he expects in pursuit of a new Van Nuys-based seat, state Sen. David A. Roberti has shaken up his campaign team and recruited several high-powered political consultants.

Roberti, a Los Angeles Democrat who is president pro tem of the Senate, has hired two consultants he has known for many years: Clint Reilly and Harvey Englander.

Reilly, a political adviser to San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan, will manage Roberti’s campaign for the June 2 runoff. Englander, who managed Hal Bernson’s runoff victory in a Los Angeles City Council race in the San Fernando Valley, will serve as a campaign adviser.

Reilly said Monday that Roberti has also retained the services of Peter Hart, one of the nation’s premier Democratic pollsters.

One Roberti aide, who asked not to be identified, described the new campaign team members as heavyweights whose hiring signals that Roberti is running a “no-holds-barred” drive to stay in the Senate.

Reilly, a veteran of many state campaigns, would not spell out his strategy but said Roberti plans to mount a strong campaign against Republican Carol Rowen.

“We’re taking the challenge very seriously,” Reilly said during an interview Monday. “We expect a tough campaign. We’re doing whatever we have to to win it.”

In a special election this month, Roberti led a field of 10 candidates to replace former Sen. Alan Robbins in the Valley’s heavily Democratic 20th District, which stretches west as far as parts of Tarzana and north as far as Pacoima. But Roberti received only 34% of the vote, short of the 50%-plus-1 needed to avoid a runoff against Rowen and nominees of three lesser parties.

The election was called because Robbins resigned after agreeing to plead guilty to extortion and income tax evasion charges. Roberti, whose Hollywood-area district was carved up by reapportionment, moved to the Valley to run for the remaining portion of Robbins’ term.

With Reilly on board, Larry Sheingold, who was a Roberti strategist in the April 7 special election, has left the campaign to conduct a direct-mail effort underwritten by the California Democratic Party on Roberti’s behalf.

Bob Mulholland, political director of the state party, said the targeted mail campaign was not unusual, citing $500,000 that the party spent in 1991 in special elections.

Sheingold, who has engineered several upset victories for Democrats in special state Senate races, said he was not forced out of the Roberti campaign.

“The party’s going to be doing a lot of mail for Roberti,” Sheingold said, adding that he could not work directly for both Roberti and the party. “It was an acceptable choice for me.”

Reilly said that with the Democratic Party making a direct pitch for Roberti, the Senate leader would be able to conserve part of his campaign war chest to help other Senate Democrats who face hard campaigns in November.

Reilly said Roberti is “mindful of that responsibility” to other Democrats “so he’s trying to husband his resources so he can also take care of the members of his caucus who have tough races.”

Reilly ran Roberti’s 1984 campaign. His clients have included former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae), former Rep. Tony Coelho (D-Merced) and the auto insurance industry.

Englander, who said he walked precincts for Roberti in 1971, is no stranger to Los Angeles politics. In addition to Bernson’s campaign, he helped Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo win election in 1985. While he mostly handles Republicans these days, instead of the Democrats he started out with, Costa Mesa-based Englander said he has “always made it a policy when an old friend calls, I respond.”

Some legislative aides, even Republicans, are also expected to volunteer to help Roberti. For instance, John Feliz, a Senate staff employee who once was a top aide to former Republican state Sen. John Doolittle of Citrus Heights, said he has been asked advice about Republican voters. Feliz said he took vacation time to help Roberti.

By recruiting help from the opposition party, Roberti is taking a page from Rowen’s campaign.

Her Republican campaign has been directed by a longtime friend, Marlene Bane, the wife of Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana) and a Los Angeles fund-raiser for Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco).

Brown said he has not discussed the Rowen campaign with either of the Banes but that he plans to help Roberti, even volunteering “to walk precincts” in the Valley.