Gov. Wilson Adds $8.1 Million to War Chest : Campaign: Many high-profile Republicans help field calls in fund-raising effort for fledgling presidential bid.

After serving more than 40 years as one of California’s most prominent Republican dignitaries--including an assignment as President George Bush’s ambassador to Jamaica--it has been a long time since Glen Holden sat on the folding chairs at a campaign headquarters, ate lunches out of plastic boxes and worked next to other volunteers on a phone bank.

That is usually an entry-level job left to college-age helpers in jeans and sweat shirts, not insurance magnates in pin-striped suits.

But for the last three days, the offices and meeting rooms at Pete Wilson’s presidential campaign headquarters have been crowded with business professionals, national Republican activists and the governor’s most loyal followers in an unusual attempt to “jump-start” his fledgling White House bid and catch up with the better-financed GOP front-runners.

By the end of the blitz Thursday night, Wilson officials were all smiles when they announced that about $8.1 million worth of pledges and commitments had been collected, more than triple what the campaign said it expected.

Many of those who flew into Sacramento this week with uncertain expectations also left Thursday fortified with visions of a Wilson White House.

“We really got excited--maybe we have a president on our hands,” said Robert Naylor, a former California Republican Party chairman who said he hasn’t worked on a phone bank for about 10 years. “Those phone bank situations are infectious and everybody got pumped.”

Holden said he arrived in Sacramento from his Los Angeles offices with a commitment to help Wilson but not a strong desire to work on a phone bank. By the time he left Thursday, he said that had changed.

“Last night I talked to one of the new guys who had not made calls yet and I told him I was having fun, and he looked at me like I was crazy,” Holden said. “I have never had the experience to work for a candidate where the response was so great.”

Wilson’s presidential campaign--barely three weeks old--has taken over the third-floor offices of the governor’s 1994 reelection headquarters, about a block from the Capitol.

They have not yet made the “Wilson for President” signs or stickers. So the walls are mostly bare, battle-scarred from the previous campaign with lonely push pins, old tape marks and the outlines of former shelves. A wall-sized, blue-and-gold “Wilson ‘94” sign sits in a hallway. And the only decoration--in almost all of a dozen rooms--was a poster of the governor surrounded by California landmarks over the headline: “Wilson Country.”

By Thursday, the rooms were crowded with volunteers, nearly 100 over the three days. Trash cans overflowed with plastic coffee cups, crumpled paper and Coke cans in a scene that Wilson’s chief strategist, George Gorton, compared to a public television telethon.

Gorton conceded that the money is all in pledges and he is only expecting to receive about 80% of the commitments. The campaign’s estimates also will not be confirmed until July when Wilson’s presidential effort will file its first financial disclosure statements.

Still, some nationally known and longtime fund-raising experts who helped said they believe Wilson’s fund-raising blitz is certain to be among the most lucrative ever.

Usually, presidential fund-raising events top out at about $2 million. Texas Sen. Phil Gramm reportedly set a new national standard when he kicked off his presidential effort this year with a $4-million dinner in Texas.

But for Wilson, even if only 80% of the pledges are collected, the experts said he will have rocketed to second place in the presidential fund-raising sweepstakes in just three days.

Gramm’s campaign claims to have raised a war chest worth about $16.7 million in contributions and federal matching funds. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole’s campaign has reported about $4 million in its bank account.

“I have never seen this for a candidate,” said Margaret Alexander Parker, the national finance director for Bush’s 1992 campaign and, previously, for the Republican National Committee. “There is a whole kind of people out there who think Pete Wilson is going to win.”

Parker came to help the Wilson phone bank from her offices in Washington, joining other professionals and activists from Seattle, Chicago and California. Wilson also won the help of President Bush’s 1988 national finance director, Fred Bush (no relation to the former President). To have the top finance directors of the last two Republican presidential campaigns “is a huge coup,” one Wilson official boasted.

Ann Legassick, Wilson’s finance director, said the volunteers gathered for the unusual phone bank either because they are longtime associates who are loyal to Wilson or because they are Republican activists who believe he is going to win the election.

Wilson, who is scheduled for outpatient surgery today on his vocal cords, joined the volunteers for meals and strolled through the headquarters chatting with old acquaintances. Holden said Wilson called back some of those who made commitments to thank them for their support.

Gorton said he expects to have the pledges in hand before the end of June, when the campaign should also have qualified for federal matching funds. Gorton estimated that up to 50% of the money Wilson raises will be matched by public funds.

Wilson’s goal is to raise $20 million by Dec. 31, a level that at least three other presidential candidates have also committed to reach.