Riordan Turns His Quirks Into Quotes, Quips

On the campaign trail, Richard Riordan tended to avoid televised debates. He talked to reporters, but was hurried away when the questions got too tough. And he said his fondest wish was to get down to business at City Hall and leave the public posturing to a surrogate.

But one month into his new job, Riordan has been remade as the baby-hugging, talk-show-hopping, reporter-schmoozing mayor of Los Angeles.

This once media-shy neophyte politician has appeared with everyone from Larry King to David Brinkley to morning radio personalities Ken and Barkley. At a recent Friday night happy hour with the City Hall press corps, he was the life of the party.

Professional media consultants who once cringed at Riordan’s public speaking style--rife with pregnant pauses, oddball guffaws and quirky jokes--now see it as a strength. One called the Riordan persona “goofy, but good goofy.”

“I’ve never seen anyone this awkward who is so good. It goes against everything that is supposed to be done,” added the consultant, who asked not to be identified. “But in many ways it makes him more real, more genuine.”

Alan Arkatov, who has created television campaigns for about two dozen politicians, said: “Harry Truman was considered awkward and yet he was considered the people’s President. People sense there is something real with Riordan.”

Riordan’s extensive public relations push has been a focus of his first month in office--along with building his Administration by appointing commissioners and deputy mayors and continuing his pledges to beef up the police force and promote business.

Riordan’s increasing comfort in the public eye may be largely a function of his shift from inexperienced candidate to mayor.

“During the campaign he was being hit every single day,” said Annette Castro, Riordan’s 28-year-old press secretary. “He had to keep watching his back. Every little thing he said could be used against him.”

His aides are still attempting to smooth out the less telegenic edges with repeated coaching: Sit up straight. Speak in sound bites. Keep on the message of jobs and public safety. And never, never become defensive.

With all the practice he has been getting lately, Riordan is clearly loosening up.

He is so relaxed, in fact, that he fills every performance with casual quips that are unusual for a politician.

He told King, for instance, that he decided to run for mayor while drinking with Bill Wardlaw, a longtime friend and his eventual campaign director. Riordan said: “I think I probably had a couple drinks too many.” He told business leaders frustrated with the City Hall bureaucracy to “bring a noose and some clubs and that will get their attention.”

Off the air, he can be even more at ease. Before one interview, he poked fun at his three alcohol-related arrests, and during all the recent hoopla over lawyer jokes he offered one of his own. (“This is off the record,” he insisted.)

Call-in shows can be unpredictable, but Riordan has learned to mix his responses with humor and the earnestness expected from the city’s chief executive.

When a woman from Ohio heaped praise on the new mayor, he asked if she was his sister. When a caller from the San Fernando Valley asked about air conditioning on RTD buses, he solemnly promised to look into the matter.

Just four weeks into his four-year term, Riordan is adjusting to life behind the electronic bully pulpit, which some call the true source of his position’s power.

But with details of his proposals still to be played out before the public and City Council, Riordan for the time being has been allowed to fall back on generalities.

For example, when Police Chief Willie L. Williams publicly doubted that the mayor’s police plan would work, Riordan sidestepped reporters’ verbal fire and stuck to the message devised at his morning staff briefing. Three thousand more police officers in four years is a tough goal, Riordan insisted that day. But setting tough goals is the only way to get anything done, he added.

He repeated that message three or four times--no matter what question reporters asked.

A more complex test of his leadership is likely to come within the next two weeks, when he is expected to propose a midyear adjustment of the municipal budget. Besides making $36 million in cuts because of reductions in support from the state, Riordan has asked his staff to find a way to shift as much as $30 million more into the police overtime account--maneuvers that would cause sharp cutbacks in other programs.

With such dicey policy issues ahead--and with a young press staff taking care of day-to-day responsibilities--Riordan’s top advisers are still looking for a more experienced communications director to help him sell his program.

Citing David Gergen’s stabilizing influence on the Clinton Administration, Riordan’s advisers said they want a similar figure to push their proposals before the public. “We want someone who can bring in the political component and use the media to get out his message,” said a Riordan confidante.

In his first month, Riordan has used his public appearances, political appointments and trips to Sacramento and Washington to continue an effort that began during the campaign to position himself as a pragmatic leader and not the Republican ideologue painted by his opponents.

He traveled to Sacramento just days after his election and, admitting that he had a lot to learn, frequently shared the spotlight on budget questions with his City Council colleagues.

Later, on a trip to Washington, he was in the right place to garner a coveted position jogging at President Clinton’s side--an image that made the evening news and Page One of newspapers nationwide.

He might not have relished his public duties once, but Riordan is aware of how important they are now.

“I’m getting more comfortable mainly because I see it (dealing with the media) as a very necessary part of the job,” Riordan said. “I didn’t see that at first. I’ve always been a problem solver, and the ritual part of being mayor struck me more as a nuisance than something important.

“Now I realize I’m a symbol to a lot of people in the city and I have to live up to that. It’s very important to raise people’s hopes and to inspire them to do better.”

Riordan said so far the media “has been pretty nice to me. But wait until I screw up and then see how I feel.”

Riordan said he remains most uncomfortable giving live TV and radio interviews. “I’m not worried if I’m inarticulate. I’m worried if something comes out in a way that I don’t intend when I’m taping live.”

Wardlaw, who directed Riordan’s campaign and remains a top adviser, said multimillionaire Riordan will succeed as a public figure because “he tried to excel in everything he does, including being a politician and mayor.”

“He is doing better and better all the time,” Wardlaw said.

Riordan has said he has accepted the need to appear in the media because it allows him to push his messages and counter any inaccurate reports.

Although his highest-profile appearances so far have been on national television, a Riordan spokesman said the mayor is not slighting print reporters and in fact is planning a series of monthly breakfasts with them.

Some of the mayor’s detractors have taken shots at Riordan’s high profile. One critic encouraged him to spend more time in the office fulfilling his campaign promises and less time talking about them.

Another Riordan watcher in City Hall said his “very, very jerky style and clumsy presentation” is still a hindrance. “Oratory is not one of his gifts.”

Regardless of such perceptions, it is clear that the city’s first new mayor in two decades will remain in high demand.

He was a guest on “Good Morning America” hours after defeating former Councilman Michael Woo in a June runoff election, and he has hardly slowed down since.

“You’re not a local person if you’re mayor of Los Angeles,” said King, who interviewed the mayor last week and plans to interview him again Wednesday night. “You affect too many people.”

So many media requests come into the mayor’s press office that Riordan cannot begin to field them all, his aides say. He squeezes the local stations in when he can. The national shows get top billing.

This week will be a busy one for the mayor as the local news stations seek time for special one-month-in-office reports. Some stations are pushing regular “meet the mayor” appearances, but Riordan’s office has not made any commitments yet.

Riordan’s relations with individual reporters also have settled since the sometimes tense days of the campaign when aides frequently shuttled him away from the press.

Days into his term, Riordan made a stop at the regular Friday evening happy hour held by the City Hall press corps, something Bradley rarely did in his later years. The new mayor stayed long after his staff had tired, offered a passable imitation of one of his friends on the City Council, and even took a swig from a wire service reporter’s beer.

“He was pretty relaxed,” said Elka Worner, a United Press International reporter who shared her beer with the mayor. “He was cracking jokes the whole hour.”

Relations are not always so cozy, though.

Channel 2 reporter Harvey Levin was screaming at Riordan press aides the other day for not allowing him access to the mayor for a live report. And Riordan lets word filter out when he is unhappy with a story.

For the most part, though, members of the mayor’s team say Riordan’s media strategy is allowing him to work his way into the city’s consciousness.

“More people are becoming more comfortable with him and warming to him as a person,” Wardlaw said.

“He’s left behind the robotic, candidate stage,” said Tom Kruesopon, a Riordan press deputy. “Now he’s the mayor.”

Times staff writer Richard Simon contributed to this story.