Democratic Activist’s Body Found in San Francisco Bay : Politics: Death of Duane Garrett, who worked for Gore and Feinstein, is being investigated as a suicide.

Duane Garrett, a Democratic activist prominent in politics from the presidential to local level, was found dead in the waters off the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, his associates and law enforcement officials confirmed Thursday.

The death of the 49-year-old Garrett, who engendered respect and affection from veterans of all political stripes, was being investigated as a suicide, the California Highway Patrol said. The body was found Wednesday afternoon, spotted by a passerby.

Garrett was a man of many pursuits, unlike most of his colleagues in the single-minded, take-no-prisoners political community. He was said to have made a fortune dealing in art--specifically the works of 19th-Century American artists; he owned an auction house specializing in sports memorabilia, and he hosted a nightly radio show in his revered San Francisco.

But that did not prevent him from cutting a broad swath through the world of politics. Since the early 1980s, he had served in senior campaign roles in every state or national election.

He was national co-chairman of Walter F. Mondale’s 1984 campaign for President. Four years later, he signed on with Bruce Babbitt’s ill-fated presidential bid, and later became a senior adviser to Vice President Al Gore.

On Thursday, Gore sent his family’s regards to Garrett’s wife, Patty, and daughters, Laura and Jessica.

“He was a renowned art collector, an avid sports fisherman, a dedicated environmentalist, a talented lawyer and a formidable political strategist,” Gore said in a statement. “Duane mastered more worlds than most men enter in a lifetime.”

Garrett was also a central figure in the campaigns of former San Francisco mayor and current U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, serving as chairman of her 1990 bid for governor and her runs for the Senate.

“He was larger than life,” Feinstein said in a statement released by her Washington office. “Duane was very special in my life. There are some people who are a ‘one of’--God makes one of them and then throws away the mold. Duane Garrett was one of those. He enriched the bright tapestry of San Francisco in so many ways.”

In earlier years, Garrett gained acclaim for his prodigious fund-raising ability. He raised $840,000 for the 1984 Mondale campaign, reportedly more than any other single figure. In 1986, he estimated that in the previous five years he had raised $18 million for Democrats.

Later, he became as much a strategist as a fund-raiser.

“He was a major player in San Francisco, California and national politics,” said political consultant Darry Sragow, who worked with Garrett on the 1990 Feinstein campaign and on John Garamendi’s 1994 bid for governor, among others. “Very few people are able to play at all those levels.”

Garrett was easily accessible and always voluble, but political figures recalled Thursday that he was also achingly human in a business that usually rewards the killer instinct.

George Gorton, who engineered Gov. Pete Wilson’s 1990 victory over Feinstein, characterized Garrett as a “strategic thinker” who was ever-gracious.

“He always treated our side as if we had the integrity that we do,” Gorton said.

When Wilson’s senior aide, Otto Bos, died in 1991, Garrett sent an unsolicited check for several thousand dollars to a foundation set up to benefit Bos’ children, Gorton said.

Garrett’s death was announced by radio station KGO-AM, on which he had the nightly show.