Schaefer Declines Governor’s Support

Assembly candidate Madge L. Schaefer on Friday rejected the endorsement of Gov. Pete Wilson, saying she wants to maintain her political independence from all special interests in Sacramento.

“An offer like this one is a very heady experience. But the price is too high,” said Schaefer, a former county supervisor seeking to replace Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks).

“Our Legislature is in dire need of someone who is willing to be independent and free of the chains of special interests,” she said. “The people of this district will be my only special interest.”

Wilson endorsed Schaefer about noon Friday, a day after endorsing Oxnard Mayor Nao Takasugi in the same seven-candidate Republican race.

“Pete Wilson is telling the people of the 37th District that either way they can’t go wrong,” said Dan Schnur, Wilson’s director of communications. “There are two solid choices.”

But by Friday evening Schaefer had issued a two-page rejection of the endorsement.

“I appreciate the offer,” she said. “I have known Gov. Wilson for 14 years. I believe he is doing a good job as our governor in a difficult time for California.”

But Schaefer said that in the two years since she unexpectedly lost her bid for reelection to the Board of Supervisors she has come to see government in a different way.

“The Capitol in Sacramento is clearly a collection of special interests--everyone is beholden to someone for something,” she said. “I’m convinced that the only voices heard in Sacramento anymore are lawyers and lobbyists.”

She questioned what strings would be attached to a gubernatorial endorsement and said she did not want to buy into supporting Wilson’s legislative agenda blindly.

In response, Schnur said Schaefer had continued to solicit the governor’s endorsement Friday, even after Wilson’s earlier endorsement of Takasugi had been reported.

“When she wanted the endorsement we were there for her,” Schnur said. “Now that she doesn’t that’s fine too. And if she changes her mind again over the weekend we’re supportive of her decision either way.”

Schnur said he did not know what to make of Schaefer’s change of position Friday. He suggested that Schaefer’s feelings were hurt because the governor’s office inadvertently announced Wilson’s support of Takasugi first.

But Schaefer said she had no hurt feelings and, in fact, had never asked for Wilson’s endorsement.

She said she contacted Wilson’s office Wednesday to try to confirm a rumor that the governor was backing Takasugi, but did not solicit the endorsement herself.

Wilson aide Jeff Randall offered her the endorsement Friday afternoon, she said, but she never accepted it.

“I think the press release makes it clear where I’m coming from on this,” she said. “It’s just that I don’t know what that endorsement entails.”

Schnur said Wilson endorsed both Schaefer and Takasugi because he worked with both of them when he was mayor of San Diego a decade ago, and they earned his respect. Wilson and Schaefer cemented their relationship in the late 1980s, when Schaefer worked with then-Sen. Wilson as a representative of the California State Assn. of Counties, Schnur said.

Wilson announced Thursday his endorsement of 17 Republicans in Assembly primary races across the state. Schnur said the governor is backing those candidates he believes would be both “electable and efficient legislators.”

Schaefer and Takasugi are considered leading contenders, along with Newbury Park financial consultant Alan Guggenheim, in the crowded race in the 37th Assembly District that covers the cities of Camarillo, Moorpark, Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Thousand Oaks.

Financial consultant Alan Guggenheim has declared his conservative anti-tax and anti-gun control positions to be closest to those of McClintock, who is abandoning his Assembly seat to run for Congress.

The other four candidates are Camarillo podiatrist Jon H. Williams; Michael D. Berger, assistant principal of Moorpark High School; Kenneth (Skip) Roberts, a Newbury Park property manager, and Ronald E. De Blauw, an Oxnard trucking company owner.