CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : CLOSE-UP : Groans and Gripes as the Campaign Grinds to a Close

The end of the 1994 gubernatorial contest is finally in sight and here is what it’s come to: Gov. Pete Wilson’s campaign is struggling to keep its underwear clean, while Kathleen Brown’s staff is having trouble buttoning its pants.

The other day, H.D. Palmer, Wilson’s communications director, was aboard a northbound plane when he got a call from campaign headquarters asking him to head south. He politely declined.

“I said, ‘Number 1, I’m taxiing down the runway. Number 2, I have no clean socks and shorts and I think we would all be well served if I did,’ ” he recalled. “I flew to Sacramento and did my laundry.”

Julie Buckner, Brown’s deputy press secretary, uses a different yardstick to measure the stress of a campaign’s countless 14-hour days: the waistline. An informal poll of 23 staffers at Brown’s Los Angeles headquarters found a net weight gain of 147 pounds, and Buckner admits that a chunk of that can be found on her slight frame.

“Here’s the problem: no exercise, bad food, and you eat late at night, sometimes in mass quantities--takeout pizza, takeout Indian food, takeout Thai food, takeout pasta,” said Buckner, who worked for Sen. Barbara Boxer’s campaign before Brown’s. “I haven’t been to an aerobics class since the 1992 election cycle.”

Especially during these final days, campaigns are unforgiving creatures. To work for one is to be pulled into another world--a world where winning comes first, even if that means your own chores don’t get done and your body is less a temple than a temporary storage facility for cold pizza.

Lately, some people have been wearing their campaign-induced troubles like badges of honor. A Brown staffer grimaces when he says he has gained 40 pounds--and yet he seems to tell everyone he meets. A Wilson employee laments that the campaign has left no time for romance--but there’s a hint of pride in her voice, as if loneliness is proof of commitment.

Such is the perverse pleasure that shared suffering brings. In all the analogies people use for a campaign staff--a team, an army, a family--togetherness is the common thread. If nothing else, the people who do Wilson and Brown’s scheduling, who arrive at their campaign stops in advance, who type up their press releases and answer their phones can all say they survived campaign ’94. And the worse the ordeal, the more impressive that sounds.

To be fair, reporters are the same way. For weeks, members of the news media have greeted one another at campaign events by shouting out how many more days remain before Election Day. “Is it over yet?” they ask each other with a sigh that says: It sure is tough doing such difficult and important work as ours.

Dan Schnur, Wilson’s chief campaign spokesman, has tapped into this vein in the fax newsletter he sends to reporters, Schnur Shots. Every one of these missives ends with a tally of “HOURS TO GO” till the polls close. “Hang in there people!” Schnur writes. “I think we can make it!”

For his part, Schnur says that after several years working in politics, he’s got his family trained not to expect much from him during a campaign.

“My grandparents know I’m only going to celebrate the High Holy Days with them on odd-numbered years,” he said, referring to the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

But the daily grind still takes a toll. To let off steam, Schnur may be the only person on either campaign staff who has stuck to an exercise regimen--but not for the reasons you might think.

“I have a secret: I’ve named each different weight machine after a different newspaper or newspaper reporter. I use them to work out my aggressions,” he said.

“The (Los Angeles) Times is the overhead curl. The (San Jose) Mercury (News) is the shoulder press. The (San Diego) Union-Tribune is the leg extension and L.A. TV generally is the Stairmaster. A Northern California newspaper that shall remain nameless has to be rotated (to different machines), otherwise I’d be deformed by now.”

*

“What is that phrase from the ‘60s? ‘War is not good for children and other living things’?” asked Steven M. Glazer, an aide to Brown.

Before Glazer joined Brown’s campaign, he extracted an unusual promise from campaign chairman Clint Reilly. Glazer wanted to be home every night between 7 and 9 to spend time with his children, ages 3 and 7 months. Reilly agreed, but Glazer has rarely been able to make it happen.

“Campaigns are perennially understaffed. If you recognize what needs to be done . . . and you’re trying to produce quality work, then it’s very difficult to ever go home,” he said. “It’s worth the sacrifice to work for someone you really believe in. But it’s never easy to say that when you’re still at work at 9 o’clock at night and you haven’t tucked your kids into bed.”

Palmer, Wilson’s communications director, has spent the last five months far from his fiancee, who is in graduate school in Chicago. He consoles himself by remembering that even if she were here, he wouldn’t see her. Recently, his diet has consisted largely of frozen macaroni and cheese, and diet cola.

“In a campaign, caffeine is your friend,” he said. “You get up in the morning, you read the paper, you eat breakfast, you come in, you work 12 or 13 hours . . . you microwave something, you go to bed. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.”

So how to recuperate? Hawaii and Jamaica are among the favored destinations for those who have planned post-election vacations. Also on the schedule: exercise, and lots of it.

“I’ve been on the staff since Jan. 3 and I’ve gained double digits,” said Buckner, Brown’s deputy press secretary. “My goal is to lose the weight twice as fast as I gained it.”

More on Elections ‘94: The Times’ special election package is available through TimesLink and Times on Demand. For fax delivery, call 808-8463 and enter *8630. The governor’s race is No. 5506; $3.50. For Senate, No. 5507, $3.50. Other races, No. 5508, $4.50. Proposition 187, No. 5509, $2.50.

Details on Times electronic services, A14