Brown Replaces Her Campaign Manager, Picks Veteran Reilly

Shaking up her campaign apparatus amid increasingly vocal criticism of her candidacy for governor, state Treasurer Kathleen Brown on Tuesday reached into the hierarchy of California’s Democratic political consultants and picked veteran operative Clint Reilly to run her bid for office.

Reilly, who last year marshaled the campaign of Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, replaced Teresa Vilmain, whose leadership of the Brown effort had marked her first foray into California politics. The change was effective Tuesday morning.

Sources said Vilmain, an Iowa native who has run numerous campaigns around the country and is renowned for her organizational skills, was perceived as not being up to the strategic intricacies deemed necessary to defeat Republican incumbent Gov. Pete Wilson.

Reilly’s hiring served as tacit acknowledgment of the concerns voiced more openly in recent weeks by Democrats statewide--that Brown’s campaign, although very successful in its fund-raising efforts, needed a sharper focus in order to sell its candidate to California voters.

The San Francisco-based Reilly is respected for his ability to carve a candidate’s image through television and mail advertising. Moreover, in his most recent campaigns--Riordan’s and that of Mayor Frank Jordan of San Francisco--Reilly has successfully run Establishment insiders as political “outsiders” bent against the status quo. Strategically, Brown’s campaign is likely to follow that blueprint.

“Those were two very successful campaigns which I plan on emulating,” Brown told reporters in Los Angeles.

Brown would not publicly address the broader murmurs of concern about her candidacy, saying only that Reilly’s hiring was part of her buildup to the November general election.

“I’m really looking, focusing my attention on beating Pete Wilson in the fall, and the addition of Clint Reilly adds a great strength from a strategic and organizational perspective that I think will ensure victory,” Brown said.

Reilly said his hiring was part of Brown’s desire to “refocus her campaign” toward a contest with Wilson.

Others familiar with the campaign said the appointment of Reilly was seen as a solution to some of the campaign’s internal problems, namely a cumbersome committee-like approach to decision-making and a blurry sense of how to introduce Brown to California voters.

On the other hand, Reilly is seen as a volatile character whose appointment could force a broader realignment of Brown’s staff as it faces off against two feisty opponents for the Democratic nomination, state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi and state Sen. Tom Hayden.

“Many, many Democratic leaders in this state have been petitioning her and beseeching her to make a change in her campaign based upon their belief that she was going to have to run a very tough campaign against Wilson and they weren’t seeing that coming out of her strategic team,” said one California Democrat.

Another person close to the Brown campaign said that Vilmain deserved credit for Brown’s successful fund raising and her lead in recent polls. But, he added, “she didn’t know the state, she didn’t know the key players and strategy was not a strength.”

Vilmain could not be reached for comment, but sources said she is expected to leave the campaign.

Brown’s first attempt to secure a new manager came two months ago when she asked Bill Carrick, who led Dianne Feinstein’s 1990 governor’s race and her 1992 U.S. Senate campaign, to come aboard. Sources said that effort was quashed by Feinstein, who was concerned that Carrick would be spending too much time away from her reelection campaign.

Brown then turned to Reilly--a move that ironically underscored the small world of California politics. It was Reilly who, as Feinstein’s campaign manager in the early days of her run for governor, nearly scuttled her candidacy by quitting with an acid broadside that Feinstein lacked the commitment to win the race.

Feinstein went on to hire Carrick and his partner Hank Morris, won the Democratic nomination and then lost the gubernatorial race to Wilson by a three-point margin.

Late Tuesday, spokesmen for Garamendi and Wilson said Reilly had inquired months ago about joining their campaigns, but nothing came of the discussions. Reilly could not be reached for comment about those statements.

Both opponents were only too happy to tweak Brown for shaking up her staff.

“Kathleen Brown’s problem isn’t that she had the wrong campaign manager,” said Dan Schnur, Wilson’s spokesman. “Her problem is that she’s soft on crime, weak on illegal immigration, doesn’t have a jobs policy and frankly doesn’t have much of an idea as to why she’s running for governor in the first place.”

Garamendi’s campaign manager, Darry Sragow, said: “There is a deep dark secret in politics and that is that voters choose from candidates not from consultants. Until Kathleen Brown figures out why she is running for governor and can justify her candidacy to the voters, her campaign will continue to be in serious trouble.”