Checchi Gets Hit Hard Right From Kickoff

Al Checchi is worth $600 million. Poor Al Checchi. Why? Because Mr. Checchi is running for governor of California and has no real idea of what he’s in for.

A few weeks back, Checchi, the former CEO of Northwest Airlines, ended an “exploratory phase” and announced his political intentions in Sacramento with a speech meant to portray him as an “outsider” with serious, fresh ideas--not beholden to any ideology, person or group.

But as he met with political reporters in connection with his kickoff speech, Checchi received a rude welcome to the cut and thrust of high-level politics.

Though determined to keep his campaign on an issue-oriented track, at least one question came in like a clothesline tackler. A Sacramento Bee reporter who inquired in a previous interview whether Mr. Checchi had an “eye job” and lost weight to run for office, now was asking if the budding pol had a hair transplant.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phil Matier and Andy Ross, who reported this exchange based on what they referred to as Checchi’s “less-than-natural hairline,” concluded: “Welcome to politics, Al.”

Wrong. It’s welcome to the National Football League. In the pileups where the public eye cannot see the finger-gouging or hear the trash talk, politics has taken on this reduced level of discourse.

Alfred Checchi is an inviting target because he has amassed great personal financial resources to spend on his behalf--and because he is not now and never has been a public officeholder.

Now, I’m not a great fan of this Democrat, nor do I want to see him elected governor of California. But I sympathize with the ordeal he will face--some of it deserved because of the ego which drives him, but much of it undeserved merely because he is rich.

So, he will be accused of trying to buy the election. Yet, all campaigns are paid for by somebody. If he spent someone else’s money, he would be no less “buying the election.” Why is it worse to campaign with his personal resources instead of dollars he’s solicited from contributors?

His inexperience will be probed because there will be efforts to portray him as an empty suit. Many of these inquiries will be valid. For example, he was once confused by the distinction between Proposition 187 (the effort to restrict public funding for illegal aliens) and Proposition 209 (to end racial, ethnic and gender preferences). Moreover, he has acknowledged that he didn’t vote in the 1994 governor’s race. So, Al, what do you think of people who do not plan to vote in 1998?

And though Checchi reputedly has been studying thick briefing books on California issues, he soon will find that the nuances of the most controversial ones will dog him across the Golden State.

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By now, he has formed a position on abortion--basically pro-choice. Does that mean he believes absolutely no restrictions on what a woman can do with “her own body”? Should a 13-year-old be able to walk into a clinic for an abortion without her parents ever knowing? Should a wife be able to abort without informing her husband? And how about gender selection, Al? Assume a woman who intended to get pregnant decided in advance she would carry to term only male children and would use accurate testing procedures to establish the fetus’ sex. What’s your view on what amounts to femicide, and, if you object, how would you enforce its prevention?

There are others:

Would you ever buck the monster teachers union on the issue of school choice?

Are some salmon more important than the livelihoods of farm workers?

Your position on bilingual education, please?

Should farmers be able to sell their water rights freely?

At what point do you support total cutoff of welfare payments?

Full recognition for same-sex marriages?

Of course we’ll want to know how this ex-CEO will deal with cynical and impertinent reporters who shout out stupid questions with sneering voices of contempt.

Finally--I’ve managed to not once describe Mr. Checkbook, uh, Mr. Checchi, as the “millionaire businessman.” Political reporters will take care of that omission in virtually every story. So--once again--welcome to the NFL.