Coelho Gets Post to Boost Democratic Prospects

Hoping to boost his party’s sagging political prospects in the November elections and strengthen ties on Capitol Hill, Democratic National Chairman David Wilhelm Tuesday named former California Rep. Tony Coelho as a senior adviser to the Democratic National Committee.

Wilhelm, who was President Clinton’s choice to head the party, also disclosed that he plans to resign after the fall election to return to his home in Chicago. “I’m doing this to put an end to the constant speculation about my role at the national committee,” said Wilhelm, who has been the target of continuing criticism as Democratic fortunes have waned over the last year.

To Democratic problems growing out of the Whitewater controversy and the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment case, the 52-year-old Coelho--now an investment banker in New York--brings his own personal baggage, allegations of financial impropriety in his personal investments.

Those charges, and a report that the Justice Department had started a preliminary inquiry into the matter, led him to resign his House seat in 1989 after representing California’s 15th congressional district for more than 10 years. The Justice Department, however, sent him a letter last year saying that it would take no action against him.

Before his resignation, Coelho had become an influential figure in the Democratic congressional leadership. He denied any wrongdoing.

Despite the allegations against Coelho, the announcement is expected to be a plus for the Clinton White House on Capitol Hill, where Coelho is remembered for his success as a fund-raiser when he headed the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“Members of Congress will react very positively,” predicted Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. “This will signal to them that the Democratic Party is back in the business of helping them get elected instead of pressuring them to cast unpopular votes.”

Wilhelm said that Coelho’s past problems would be minimized by the informal nature of his new position. “He is a volunteer,” Wilhelm said. Committee aides said that Coelho would not be paid. He is expected to continue to serve as a senior vice president at the Wall Street firm of Wertheim, Schroeder & Co.

Wilhelm noted that Coelho has “been informally advising folks at the White House for several months.” A number of White House aides served on Coelho’s staff on Capitol Hill. And a former congressional colleague from California, White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta, was said by a well-placed source to have urged that Coelho be given this new role at the national committee.

Party professionals said that Democratic National Committee relations with Democratic lawmakers had suffered under Wilhelm. In part, this friction had less to do with Wilhelm personally than with the fact that Democratic members of Congress had to try to cooperate with a Democratic White House for the first time in 12 years.

Wilhelm was pictured by those who knew him as caught between his loyalty to the President whose campaign for the White House he managed and his concern for his party’s lawmakers. “Wilhelm had a hard time figuring out whether his job was to help Democrats win elections or help Clinton get his program passed.”

Democrats have been notably unsuccessful at the polls since Clinton captured the White House. They have been embarrassed by losing the mayoralties of the nation’s two largest cities, Los Angeles and New York, the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey, a Senate seat in Texas and several House seats.