A Governor, a Lady and a Race to D.C.

This is the week Gov. Pete Wilson has been waiting for, and not very patiently. After several delays because of a croaky voice, the governor today will “officially” announce that he is a candidate for President, something he has already told us a zillion times. But let’s not be picky. He’s entitled to his show. And for his sake, it had better be a good one.

As a TV backdrop, Wilson has selected one of our most powerful national symbols, the Statue of Liberty. This has caused snickers and rolled eyes, as in Even for this guy that’s cynical . Clearly, the governor wants to play up his war on illegal immigration while embracing legal immigrants, who have produced millions of ethnic swing voters throughout the northeast and Midwest.

TV talk host Larry King recently questioned whether the Statue of Liberty might be “out of place” for a Wilson photo op. “To the contrary,” the governor replied. “It’s the symbol of people who have come to the country the right way. I think it’s entirely appropriate.”

Last week, in a telephone pep talk to supporters, Wilson implied that he also regards the statue as an appropriate all-purpose symbol for his attacks on welfare, affirmative action and lawbreaking. “It has symbolized America’s most precious gift,” he said, “and that is liberty--so that we can, as individuals, work hard, succeed on individual merit and be held accountable for our actions.”

Wilson today, however, will have to avoid appearing too cynical as he politicks in front of the revered Lady. For many Americans, this will be their first--and lasting--impression of California’s governor.

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Only so many times can a candidate wilt under the spotlight, as Wilson has on previous forays, due in part to a surgery-impaired throat.

There’s a limit to how often a spokesman can use as an excuse for poor poll numbers, “This race hasn’t started yet.” Now, his staff acknowledges, the five-day, cross-country “Liberty Tour” Wilson is kicking off today will “formally launch” the campaign.

So let the race begin.

But what Wilson really is looking for is a fresh restart . As the New York Times put it Friday, he’s trying “to revive [a] sluggish campaign.”

And he is not holding back.

Scarce campaign dollars--likely more than $1 million--will be spent for Wilson’s first TV ads starting today in New Hampshire, then spreading into other pivotal states.

He’ll be on all the national TV shows this morning.

He has chartered a jet to fly--at their considerable expense--TV crews and reporters. And he has stocked the plane with a team of gurus--led by veteran strategists Stu Spencer and Ken Khachigian--to spin the news.

The spinners’ mantra: “This thing is very doable.”

Never mind that few politicos outside the Wilson camp seem to think, realistically, that it is doable. This scenario is simple.

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Wilson’s strategy is based on the thesis that front-runner Bob Dole will stumble and never regain his footing. So Wilson has been kicking his old Senate mentor and plans to step up the blows.

GOP delegates won’t nominate Dole just because he has “been tested,” the governor asserts. They’ll look for an outsider, a doer and a winner. And he’ll emerge as the alternative.

“We have a long, steady climb ahead,” says Wilson’s campaign chairman, Craig Fuller. “But we’re on track.”

Jump-starting the campaign in the nation’s TV news capital will raise Wilson’s poor name identification, the theory goes. And by flying around all week in a big campaign plane, he just might pass “the duck test”--if it looks like a viable candidacy, it must . . . .

That would generate more money from contributors to pour into TV ads, Wilson’s mainstay. These ads, in turn, would recruit more donors and volunteers.

The governor will campaign all fall. But Majority Leader Dole and Sen. Phil Gramm will be stuck in the Capitol, fruitlessly debating the budget and welfare--Wilson believes--and angering GOP voters as they void the “Contract With America.”

Come February, the goal is to survive Iowa and finish at least third in New Hampshire. By now, Dole is slipping. And Wilson beats both him and Gramm in Massachusetts and Arizona. Wilson runs strongly in New York on March 7, though losing to Dole, but wins a week later on Super Tuesday in Florida. He is competitive on “Big Ten Tuesday” in the Midwest.

Parochial pride then takes over in California. Voters forgive their governor for breaking his promise not to run, and they send him cruising to the nominating convention in San Diego.

But first he needs to survive this week. Otherwise, the simple scenario is simply silly.