For Wilson, Odds Are on Chargers
On a desk already piled high with major decisions about floods, bankruptcy, tax cuts and partisan squabbles, Gov. Pete Wilson found himself facing another seemingly delicate question this week: Whom does he favor in the Super Bowl?
It’s just a game, right?
Well . . . Wilson’s staff this week pondered the political implications of choosing sides in football’s first intrastate championship between the San Diego Chargers and the San Francisco 49ers.
If he picked his old hometown team, San Diego, would there be living rooms and beer halls in Northern California filled with loud football fans incredulous that their elected leader would cheer for a California team to lose the Super Bowl?
Or does a governor really have to be politically correct even when he’s watching a football game?
Actually, Wilson has left little doubt that he favors the Chargers. As he told a San Diego television station last week, he has had Bolts fever for about 30 years. When he was a state assemblyman from San Diego and later the city’s mayor for 12 years, he stuck with the team through some lean years. Now, it’s pay-back time.
“This is a big moment, we’re looking for big things,” the governor said before leaving Sunday for a European vacation. “You know, my heart is with those Chargers and they’re a long time waiting for good things to happen. They’re happening now.”
Wilson’s choice may have come from the heart, but it was also not a bad political call.
In fact, symbolically, this game might as well be the Republicans versus the Democrats.
Alex G. Spanos, the Chargers’ owner, gave his longtime friend $195,000 last year for the governor’s reelection campaign against Democrat Kathleen Brown. Wilson is scheduled to attend the Super Bowl in Miami on Jan. 29 as a guest in Spanos’ box.
At the same time, 49ers owner Edward J. DeBartolo Jr. is a prominent Democratic contributor. DeBartolo gave $28,000 to defeat Wilson when former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein was the Democratic rival for governor in 1990.
Wilson also does not risk many votes if San Francisco is a bit miffed that he is in the enemy camp. Barely 1 in 4 San Francisco voters backed Wilson in the election last year compared to about 2 out of 3 in San Diego.
San Francisco is represented in the state Capitol by Assembly Democratic Leader Willie Brown, who said Wednesday that he would be happy to join the governor in a friendly wager over the Super Bowl.
The two party leaders have yet to discuss terms of the deal, although Brown said he wants a straight bet even though San Diego is a 20-point underdog to the 49ers. Wilson spokesman Sean Walsh said he is uncertain what the two may wager, but he offered: “Speaker for a day is out.”
San Diego Mayor Susan Golding also offered the traditional Super Bowl wager Thursday to her San Francisco counterpart, Frank Jordan.
If San Francisco wins, Golding said, she will provide a fish taco lunch for Jordan and his friends at the local Rubio’s restaurant and a case of locally grown avocados. To represent the area’s biotech industry, Golding’s package also included an infrared body temperature thermometer.
If San Diego pulls an upset, Golding ordered that Jordan wear a San Diego sweat shirt for a day with the trademark slogan, “America’s Finest City.”
A spokesman for Jordan said the mayor’s counteroffer was being prepared.