Shake-Up by Brown Shows She’ll Be Tough

What Treasurer Kathleen Brown finally decided to do, as one adviser put it, was “to pull the pin on a grenade and lob it with a strong heave right into the middle of this thing.”

“And now,” adds the adviser, “she’s walking serenely across the battlefield with a confidence I’ve not seen in a long time.”

Lobbing a grenade is an apt analogy for what Brown did Tuesday when she hired the explosive but effective Clint Reilly of San Francisco as her new gubernatorial campaign “chair.”

The title “chair” is interpreted differently in each campaign, but in this case it means Reilly’s in charge. Of everything. He’ll “take control of creating strategy and will oversee all elements of the campaign’s operations,” Brown announced. It’s like the coach of an NBA team also being the general manager and answering only to the owner.

But back to the battlefield analogy. Brown got fed up with losing ground to a vulnerable enemy--Gov. Pete Wilson--and concluded that to win, she had to make a bold move. Little had been going right in this campaign, despite all her resources.

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Coincidentally and typically, just as Brown was deciding last Thursday to act, she again was shooting herself in the foot during a minor skirmish.

A serial rapist--Melvin Carter--was about to be freed from prison after serving only half of a 25-year sentence. And Brown insisted that “heads must roll” because nobody from the Wilson Administration had appeared at the inmate’s so-called release hearing. The governor countered that the Corrections Department previously had sought unsuccessfully to extend the rapist’s sentence. And he pointed out that only the prosecuting district attorney was eligible to appear at the court hearing referred to by Brown.

Besides, under the law signed by Brown’s brother--former Gov. Jerry Brown--the state was required to release the prisoner with half time off for good behavior. Carter, who had confessed to more than 100 rapes, originally could have been sentenced to 52 years. But Wilson said that a “lenient” judge appointed by Brown’s father--former Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown--had let the rapist off easy because he had cooperated with authorities.

Whoops.

Kathleen Brown came through the melee looking like an ill-prepared, cheap-shot amateur who had misfired.

Heads rolled, but they were her own lieutenants’.

By Wednesday morning, campaign manager Teresa Vilmain--an Iowan confused in her first California contest--had cleaned out her desk and departed. So had policy director Roy Behr.

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In lobbing the grenade, Brown showed the toughness and fire that many political pros--supporters as well as opponents--were wondering if she possessed. This is the same woman, after all, who as a 19-year-old governor’s daughter had the spunk to elope to Lake Tahoe.

Brown is tenacious and a fighter, although these traits have not been seen much in this campaign. So are both Wilson and Brown’s principal primary opponent, Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. So Californians probably should get ready for one of the nastiest gubernatorial battles ever, particularly with Reilly given a command.

Reilly--who managed the winning mayoral races of Richard Riordan in Los Angeles and Frank Jordan in San Francisco--is known to believe that for Brown to win, she must constantly attack Wilson. And she must strike quickly, he argues, before the governor can define her and make Brown the main issue rather than his own record.

Wilson and Garamendi also know this, of course. And their strategy will be to attack Brown as inexperienced, shallow and “flaky” Jerry’s sister.

Reilly also believes, according to insiders, that Brown has wasted too much time and resources appealing to minorities and liberals, especially feminists, who would vote for her even if she took a cruise until November. She should be competing for suburban whites and Reagan Democrats in the primary to keep them away from Wilson in the fall.

She should be delivering a twofold message: The California Dream is becoming a nightmare and it’s Wilson’s fault.

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Reilly specializes in focus and discipline, two essentials that Brown’s campaign has lacked. He also is a legend of volatility, having once “fired” a major client, then-gubernatorial candidate Dianne Feinstein. So Brown has to guard against this grenade exploding in her face.

But it’s probably a good match. They both need each other. The controversial Reilly needs his first major statewide victory--and so does Brown.