Ueberroth Crosses Party Lines to Endorse Feinstein : Politics: The prominent Republican praises the Democratic senator’s experience and clout.

Los Angeles Olympics organizer Peter V. Ueberroth, one of the state’s best-known Republicans, crossed party lines Tuesday to endorse Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whose reelection campaign is facing an unexpectedly tough challenge from multimillionaire GOP nominee Michael Huffington.

Ueberroth’s long-rumored endorsement came in a news release from the Feinstein campaign.

“I am a moderate Republican who has not always agreed with Sen. Feinstein,” the press release quoted Ueberroth as saying. “For this race I’ve chosen to focus on those critical issues for our state and looked at Dianne’s record. She is quickly becoming the best and most effective senator from California in my adult lifetime.”

Ueberroth was traveling and could not be reached for comment, an aide at his Orange County office said. All calls on the endorsement were forwarded to the Feinstein campaign.

In his statement, the former Olympics czar and baseball commissioner did not mention Huffington by name. He appeared, however, to suggest that the first-term congressman does not have the experience or the access to the White House that is enjoyed by Feinstein.

“Dianne has proven she can move within the power structure very effectively and can accomplish more to benefit the state of California,” he said. “In the Senate, her experience counts because she has shown she can get difficult legislation to the President’s desk.”

Huffington, a businessman who targeted Feinstein long before he defeated former Rep. William E. Dannemeyer to seize the nomination June 7, has sought to turn Feinstein’s experience into a negative. He argues that a lifetime in politics has blinded her to the realities confronted by a businessman such as himself.

Although Ueberroth’s endorsement is meant to signal that Feinstein’s appeal extends to the Republican business community, Huffington’s campaign manager said it would have no impact on the race.

“She can have Peter Ueberroth and we’ll take the 500,000 Democrats that voted against her in the primary,” Bob Schuman said. “We’ll make that trade.”

Feinstein won 74% of the Democratic vote June 7, losing a total of more than 540,000 votes to two virtual unknowns. Political analysts blamed her showing on a weeks-long barrage of anti-Feinstein ads financed largely out of Huffington’s personal fortune. The Santa Barbara Republican is a former executive in his father’s Texas oil business.

The senator’s chances for reelection rest on winning back Democratic support and drawing the votes of independents and moderate Republicans, who number Ueberroth as one of their own.

Since the close of the money-making Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 1984, Ueberroth has been on the short list of those considering virtually every statewide or national elective office. But he has thus far chosen to stay out of the campaign fray.

In recent years, he has accepted appointed political jobs. He heads the Council on California Competitiveness and was the first leader of Rebuild L.A., the economic redevelopment group formed after the 1992 riots.

According to Ueberroth’s statement, Tuesday marked only the second time he has crossed party lines to endorse a Democrat. Feinstein’s campaign manager, Kam Kuwata, said the first was his support of former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.

In what Kuwata said was the first in a series of Republican endorsements, the Feinstein campaign also announced Tuesday that several other GOP businessmen are supporting the Democratic incumbent. Among them are Jim Didion, chairman and chief executive officer of Coldwell Banker; Lou Platt, head of Hewlett Packard, and Rocco C. Siciliano, former chairman of the California Business Roundtable.