Wright Seeks GOP Nod for Lieutenant Governor

State Sen. Cathie Wright, a blunt-spoken conservative Republican from Simi Valley who has spent 13 years in the Legislature, announced her bid Tuesday for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor.

“I’m a strong Republican woman and a conservative, and I think the Republican Party would like to see a balanced ticket,” said Wright, 64. “I think I would be a big help to the governor’s office.”

Wright said many of her friends and supporters urged her to run for the state’s No. 2 office, which primarily oversees economic development and land-use issues. She also said she has nothing to lose because if she is defeated, she still has three years remaining on her Senate term.

“I can run more relaxed,” she said. “I’m not running like my life depends on it.”

Wright, who Assembly Democratic Speaker Willie Brown once described as “tough as nails” because of her combative style, is the second Republican to formally announce for the $90,000-a-year post being vacated in 1994 by Democratic Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy of San Francisco.

Assemblyman Stan Statham (R-Oak Run), who has spent the last few years promoting his idea to split California into three states, announced his candidacy in September. Onetime pop star and former Palm Springs Mayor Sonny Bono is also expected to enter the race.

Two-term state Controller Gray Davis is the only Democratic candidate who has indicated that he will run for lieutenant governor. Davis is expected to make a formal announcement next month.

Wright, a former mayor of Simi Valley, was elected to the Assembly in 1980 and was subsequently reelected five times. She became the first woman to serve as vice chair of the powerful Assembly Committee on Ways and Means.

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In 1992, Wright won her bid for the 19th District Senate seat, but only after a tough and bitter three-way primary race in which she collected just 38% of the vote. Her key opponent, former Assemblywoman Marian W. La Follette (R-Granada Hills), received 33.4%.

Statham said he did not believe that Wright’s “ultraconservative” views or even her gender would be an advantage in securing the GOP nomination in June. He noted that she is opposed to abortion, while he favors abortion rights.

Statham also criticized Wright for running for lieutenant governor after serving only one year as a state senator.

“I think she’s doing her constituency a great disservice,” Statham said. “They elected her because they wanted her to be a state senator, not to use the office as a steppingstone to a higher job.”

Wright called Statham a “one-issue candidate,” referring to his proposal to split California into three states. Statham is the author of a bill to put the issue on the statewide ballot in the November, 1994, general election.

“Why does he want to run for lieutenant governor of the state if he’s going to split it up?” she said.

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As for Bono, Wright said she believed that he is trying to sell himself as a conservative by recruiting Bruce Herschensohn to serve as his campaign manager. Herschensohn, a former candidate foS. Senate, endorsed Wright in her campaign last year.

“I would urge him to reconsider,” Wright said of Herschensohn’s affiliation with Bono, adding that “politics makes strange bedfellows.”

But even if she were to secure the GOP nomination, Wright would be facing a tough battle against a Democratic opponent such as Davis, who has strong name recognition and a reported $1.6 million in his campaign treasury.

Wright has a campaign debt of $13,000 left over from her 1992 Senate race.

Garry South, Davis’ campaign manager, questioned why Wright, who has little statewide name recognition, waited so long to announce her candidacy with the GOP primary only five months away.

“It is very difficult to put together a serious campaign in this amount of time for a statewide office,” South said. “It takes time to raise money, and you can’t do it overnight.”

But Wright, a fierce campaigner, said she has no doubt that she can raise the money necessary to oppose Davis. “I’ve raised quite a lot of money over the years,” said Wright, who spent about half a million dollars to win her Senate seat.

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Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton said that while her campaign would not be an easy one, he would not count out Wright in a showdown with Davis.

“It’s clearly an uphill battle,” Stratton said. “But it’s not implausible. She would provide a real conservative alternative to Gray Davis, who has tried to come up with this image as a fiscal conservative but in reality is perceived as a liberal Democrat in sheep’s clothing.”