Wilson Tries Relaunching Against Tide

Up a canyon in Pacific Palisades, not far from the beach, Gov. Pete Wilson last week began to relaunch his foundering presidential campaign.

Rebuilt and being relaunched--that is the message to contributors and pundits, or any junkies paying attention eight months before people even begin to vote. Don’t dismiss him yet, say his gurus. Forget the last two months--the clumsy start, the illegal immigrant maid, the negative stories, the lousy polls and the mute candidate.

Well, actually, the candidate still is mostly mute. But he is starting to talk in private. “I heard him speak two sentences clearly,” reports campaign manager George Gorton, recalling a meeting last Tuesday between Wilson and his fund-raising leaders. “I practically leaped out of my chair.”

But Wilson’s voice gives out quickly. His doctor insists there will be “a complete and full recovery” from throat surgery, but he isn’t predicting when. So a formal announcement of candidacy--the final phase of relaunching--is on hold. Maybe by the Fourth of July.

“Like, he can’t have his wife announce for him,” notes an aide.

His wife and others are being sent out by Wilson to read speeches while he looks on in frustration. “He stands there at the fund-raisers and he can’t drink, he can’t talk and he tries to be entertaining and charming with expressions on his face,” says Gorton.

There was another surrogate speaker Thursday in Pacific Palisades, where the governor’s facial expressions were not meant to be entertaining or charming, but to connote action and grit. His message to voters, mostly white males, was summed up in the headline on his press release: “Wilson Becomes Nation’s First Governor to Issue Executive Order Rolling Back Affirmative Action.” The more subtle message: He acts; his Republican rivals just talk.

“Someday when you retrace the steps leading to Pete Wilson’s nomination for President,” predicted a staffer who helped orchestrate the TV event, “they will start here.”

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Perhaps. But there also is a parallel spin. We political reporters are being told that our initial expectations for Wilson’s candidacy were too high. He started late. He had not yet organized. He is busy running a big state. He has a long way to travel east. He unexpectedly went mute. Without a voice, he can’t campaign or charm contributors. Despite pledges of $15 million, just $2 million has been delivered. All these things take time.

OK, I certainly am convinced. My expectations right now could hardly be lower.

The way it looks from here, the only real question is whether Wilson runs well or runs poorly. Either way, it’s difficult to see how he wins. He could embarrass himself. Or he could enhance his national stature for another race in 2000.

He even could be chosen as a running mate. But to win the 1996 presidential nomination, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole must stumble and Wilson must emerge as the GOP alternative. And the odds are very long on that tandem working.

Wilson isn’t well known outside California, and even here voters are not that thrilled with him, especially after he broke his promise not to run for President. He is not an inspiring campaigner, and TV ads, his stock-in-trade, won’t be enough in the smaller states.

“This is a simple story,” says William Schneider, political analyst for the American Enterprise Institute. “The Republican race consists of Bob Dole and a bunch of other guys. Dole has dominated the polls and continues to. The guy who dominates the early field always wins the Republican nomination. Always.

“Pete Wilson hasn’t gotten any traction. . . . Wilson is a great positioner, but I don’t see any way he can position himself.”

Dole positioned himself last week where the California governor could have been, as a crusader against Hollywood’s “nightmares of depravity.” His stance surely will please parents. The issue had been sitting there for Wilson’s taking, but this is illustrative of his cautious style: He skillfully rides waves, but seldom finds them himself.

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The way Wilson sees it, the campaign--never really foundering--is being relaunched with stunning success. Twenty TV cameras showed up at the Palisades in a drizzle. He was on network news and splashed across front pages. Liberal protesters made him look all the more attractive to GOP voters.

This week, he and fund-raising leaders will solicit more pledges from a phone bank. He expects to raise $20 million by year’s end. He’ll travel extensively in key states this summer and begin stumping virtually full time in September.

But despite the relaunching and a gritty mariner, the odds are that this campaign ultimately will have to be scuttled.