COLUMN ONE : The Survival Instincts of a Bulldog : Arizona Gov. Symington’s bankruptcy has made public wary. Undaunted, he is expected to run again.

When he first ran for governor, Fife Symington promised to run Arizona like his own business.

In 1989, that was welcome news. Symington was a high-flying, conservative Republican real estate developer and scion of fortunes. The economically depressed state was reeling from the impeachment of Gov. Evan Mecham, who had diverted inaugural ball donations into a loan for his ailing auto dealership.

Now, in the star-crossed tradition of Arizona politics, Symington’s own financial affairs are giving voters pause. He is fighting over nearly $25 million in debts in U.S. Bankruptcy Court and is under federal investigation for possibly providing false information to lenders in an effort to keep his real estate empire afloat.

Nonetheless, with an optimism common to embattled politicians here, Symington likely will seek reelection in 1998.

In a move that critics called a smoke screen for his money woes, the governor has tacked even further to the political right in this conservative state. He has unveiled proposals that have sparked turf wars with everyone from the Arizona Supreme Court chief justice to lawmakers in his own party.

In recent weeks, Symington proposed a voter initiative that would switch the power to send teen-age criminals to adult courts from judges to county attorneys; he stunned educators by announcing a plan to kill the state Department of Education, and he appointed a “czar” to crack down on methamphetamine abuse, against the wishes of the head of Arizona’s Drug Enforcement Administration.

The sweeping proposals have puzzled and angered even some conservative Republicans--primarily, they said, because Symington did not consult with them before launching the policy blitzkrieg.

“I’m not questioning his motives, I’m questioning his leadership style at the present time,” said GOP state Rep. Tom Smith. “He should have first sat down with all the parties and discussed the problems. Instead, he threw a bucket of cold water on them.”

Smith also is irate because Symington compares his bankruptcy filing to a “Purple Heart for valor” in a risky real estate industry.

“I got a Purple Heart after getting my ass shot off in Korea,” Smith said. “Symington does not have a Purple Heart.”

What he does have is the survival instincts of a bulldog.

“I feel very confident I could run and win,” said Symington, 50, a descendant of Henry Clay Frick, the 19th-Century robber baron who formed an alliance with steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. “Serving in public life is tumultuous, and it’s not for the weak of heart. I’m a warrior. I perform in office and do not shrink from a fight.”

Indeed, three years ago, he was a defendant in a federal government suit over his role in the collapse of a savings and loan. While the civil suit was dropped, officials have declined to say whether the criminal charges are still pending.

He survived those travails, winning reelection in 1994 by making good on promises to lower taxes, create jobs, downsize government and use his bully pulpit to promote a conservative agenda--even though polls at the time showed nearly 40% of Arizonans wanted him to resign.

Top Growth Region

Under Symington’s watch, Arizona has risen from economic doldrums to become one of the nation’s top regions for growth. During his administration, an estimated 266,000 jobs have been created. The jobless rate is about 5.4%, down from 6.6% a year ago.

This time out, his critics said, the governor knows his latest proposals have as much chance of approval by voters and the Legislature as a snowball does of surviving in the Arizona desert. But, they said, he hopes he can claim that--while he did not get everything he wanted--he did fuel the Republican revolution here.

“The Republicans who are now complaining created this monster, yet they are not prepared to demand that this arrogant governor respect them as equals,” said state Democratic Rep. Art Hamilton. “Symington does not respect the state Legislature--that’s . . . a national embarrassment.”

Not so, argued Symington, who regards his political track record as one of his most valuable remaining assets. He takes credit for the rebounding of Arizona’s economy, saying he cut government costs, reduced state taxes and sponsored the nation’s first truth-in-sentencing law--all popular issues here.

He said it is all part of his crusade to decentralize government and make Arizona a microcosm of the GOP “contract with America” being pushed by House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).

“I’m a real Federalist at heart,” said Symington, who was raised in the East Coast upper class, the son of a top airline company executive. He graduated from Harvard University in 1968, received a Bronze Star for search-and-rescue service in Laos and built an empire of 13 major development projects in Arizona--most of which failed while he was in office.

He decided to enter politics in 1987 when state Republicans were in a paroxysm over Mecham, the party’s leader who had committed a series of embarrassing gaffes.

In 1989, the flaxen-haired developer and commercial pilot stepped down as president of the Symington Co. to run for governor. No sooner was he elected than he began to lose every project and every dollar of equity he had created over 15 years--a victim of Arizona’s tumbling real estate market.

“The political pundits said I would never win reelection because I lost all my properties,” said Symington. “I told people then, and I’ll say it now: ‘It’s wonderful in public life to be underestimated. I enjoy it.’ ”

That is also how Symington aims to remain popular with voters, half of whom, according to a recent poll, do not believe that his bankruptcy will affect his ability to lead the state. An equal number said they would not vote for him again.

Symington’s financial pickle is but a sideshow in Arizona’s cavalcade of embarrassing political figures and business characters.

It began with Mecham--the first U.S. governor in 59 years to be impeached. The former automobile dealer was convicted of “high crimes, misdemeanors or malfeasance in office.”

He also attracted dubious national attention by crusading against the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

In 1993, land developer Charles H. Keating was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison for looting Lincoln Savings & Loan and defrauding investors in its parent company of more than $250 million.

Also in 1993, eight state legislators were indicted for receiving bribes in a sting operation known as AzScam. The lawmakers were captured on videotape making wisecracks as they accepted wads of cash from an undercover agent.

“As citizens of Arizona, we’re numb,” said Mary Jo Waits, assistant director of the Morrison Institute for Public Policy, an independent research group associated with Arizona State University.

“For about five years it has seemed like every time you open a newspaper, someone you know is filing for bankruptcy or being indicted,” Waits said. “Hopefully, Gov. Symington is at the end of that trend.”

Symington, who earns $75,000 a year as governor, said that when the real estate market nose-dived in the early ‘90s, his properties plunged from $130 to $40 a square foot in months.

Of all his financial troubles, however, none is more pressing than the failed mixed-use retail and office center in downtown Phoenix called the Mercado. Symington borrowed $10 million from union pension funds in 1989 to build the project, which never attracted the upscale tenants it needed to succeed.

In this right-to-work state, where union membership is not compulsory and wages are relatively low, Symington for four years brashly refused to pay back the money borrowed from retired carpenters, operating engineers, teamsters and concrete masons. Despite a personal guarantee that the money would be repaid, Symington pleaded poverty.

His fight with the union became public this year when a Phoenix judge ordered him to repay the loan.

European Vacation

In a move that led some to question his poverty claim, Symington, his wife, Ann, and three of his five children vacationed in Europe for two weeks this summer. He said his wife paid for the excursion out of her inherited wealth, which has been estimated to be substantial. However, three bodyguards accompanied the family at a public cost of $14,000.

When the family returned, there was bad news. The union pensioners had rejected an offer from Symington to settle all his debts for $500,000, an amount that would have resulted in repayment at 2 cents on the dollar. The pensioners would have received $285,000 under the proposal, against what amounted to--including interest--an $11-million debt.

Facing the court order to honor the loan, Symington said he had to file for Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy in September, citing debts of $24.8 million and assets of $61,795--including a $500 wedding ring, a bank account of $153 and his clothes.

Bob Moyer, a 61-year-old former carpenter, is among union retirees incensed by the move.

“To file for bankruptcy and thumb his nose at us makes him damn low,” said Moyer, who draws $440 a month from one of the funds that loaned Symington money. “If I don’t pay my bills, what happens? They take my home, my car.”

The first of Symington’s assets to be liquidated in Bankruptcy Court were four season tickets for Arizona State University football that went on the auction block Oct. 4. The seats, which had a total face value of $300, went unsold. The auction drew only reporters.

The alternative Arizona weekly publication New Times later petitioned for another auction and paid $2,200 for the tickets, saying it wanted to give them to pensioners to show them how the governor lives. New Times also bought 12 tickets on its own to be donated to children’s charities.

In his typically unflappable manner, Symington blamed the no-shows at the first auction on a Sun Devils’ losing streak. Overall, he added, his bankruptcy may eventually prove to be a model for other citizens in dire financial straits.

“Sometimes fate deals you a blow,” said Symington, who compares himself to Thomas Jefferson and other politicians who suffered financial problems. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But the system allows you to rebuild.”

Steely Attitude

Some would say that reaction crystallizes the problem that Symington faces in trying to rehabilitate his finances among creditors--and his public image among voters. The same steely attitude that enabled him to become governor when the foundering state economy needed a hard-fisted leader, critics say, may now be working against him.

“Our data indicates that Symington has shaken public confidence on ethical issues, and that is tough to overcome,” said Phoenix political pollster Earl de Berg. “His handlers have advised him to change the subject away from himself to other issues, and that’s what we’re seeing now.”

But it will take more than policy bombshells to protect Symington from union pensioners’ attorneys, who are looking at financial statements he provided to secure the Mercado loan.

When Symington received the loan in 1990, he signed a financial statement swearing that he had a positive net worth of $11.9 million, these attorneys said. Almost exactly one year later, when the Mercado flopped and Symington wanted to renegotiate the terms of the loan, he gave another financial statement showing he was $23 million in the red.

“In 12 months, there was a $35-million swing in his personal net worth,” said pensioners’ attorney Michael Manning. “We can’t understand what catastrophic event happened . . . in that 12-month period to create that breathtaking swing.”

In addition, Manning said, although Symington did not list his collection of paintings, antiques and jewelry in bankruptcy documents, he included it in financial statements to secure the loan.

“When he wanted the loan, he valued the art collection at about $250,000,” said Manning, who was lead counsel in the government’s civil case against Keating. “When he wanted forgiveness, he valued it at $100,000. When he filed for bankruptcy, it wasn’t listed, it evaporated completely.”

Federal investigators, led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, also are probing Symington’s financial statements to see if he misrepresented his status to obtain loans from federally insured banks, sources close to the case said. These sources also said federal investigators will decide before the end of the year whether to seek an indictment against Symington.

Whether or not Symington is indicted for violating laws designed to protect depositors, creditors--including the union pensioners, First Interstate Bank of Arizona and the City of Phoenix, which is seeking repayment on a $2.7-million urban development loan on the Mercado--are considering action to prevent his debts from being forgiven in Bankruptcy Court, creditors attorneys said.

Symington, who will appear in a Bankruptcy Court hearing in Phoenix on Oct. 31, hopes to protect an estimated $600,000 in family trusts created by his grandfather from being absorbed by creditors.

He refuses to say how much money is in his wife’s personal trust funds, which are, by all accounts, not accessible to creditors. He added that the wealth of his wife, whose father was a longtime state senator, would not put a dent in his debts.

Symington’s political future may hinge on the short memory of voters, and the fate of his proposed policy reforms.

“These setbacks are temporary in nature, but they are very difficult to go through,” he said. “I’m going to come back from this--it’s not easy, but I’ll come back from this.”