Riordan, Gore Move Toward Closer Ties

As Vice President Al Gore shuttled between stops in Los Angeles last week, his limousine left the Beverly Hilton with a notable passenger: Mayor Richard Riordan.

Over the next 30 minutes, the two men--a blueblood Democrat with his eye on the White House and a multimillionaire Republican in his final term as mayor--were escorted through the streets of Los Angeles, shielded from the searing heat outside and locked in conversation. Away from the crowd that gathered for Gore’s next stop, Riordan detailed for the vice president a list of suggestions for how the federal government could assist local government’s efforts to revitalize the nation’s second-largest city.

For Riordan, who parlayed his relationship with President Clinton into a mutually beneficial alliance that helped the president retake the White House and delivered billions of dollars in aid to Los Angeles, that brief limousine ride provided the chance to stake out the terms of a similar relationship with Gore.

The conversation was direct and succinct, aides said later, as was a letter that Riordan hand-delivered to the vice president outlining the local government’s needs from Washington. That pointed note highlighted four general areas and nine specific proposals, ranging from economic development to law enforcement. None are cheap. The proposals, by Riordan’s own estimation, are complicated but important.

“This is not the time to be shy,” said Riordan’s press secretary, Noelia Rodriguez. “The mayor was not shy.”

According to aides to both men, Riordan laid out his agenda, Gore mostly listened. When they emerged from the limousine, Riordan ducked out rather than join the vice president’s next public event. But before the mayor departed, Gore directed an assistant to respond to Riordan’s wish list.

“The vice president immediately asked one of his staff people to take a look at the issues,” said Ginny Terzano, press secretary to Gore. “We will follow up diligently on the mayor’s requests.”

Riordan says he believes that he and Gore have found considerable common ground, party differences notwithstanding.

“We’re very open with each other,” he said. “He takes my calls. I don’t overdo it.”

Riordan brings political strength to that discussion. The mayor carried Los Angeles with more than 60% of the vote in April’s election, and if Gore hopes to succeed Clinton in the White House, he will need all the help he can get in California. Gore, meanwhile, wields the luster of the federal government and the prospect of its aid.

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Both are valuable to Riordan, whose administration has been substantially helped by federal money as it has tried to steer the region’s recovery from the powerful trio of riots, earthquake and economic recession.

In the two-page letter given to the vice president Thursday, Riordan identified nine pressing areas in which the city needs federal assistance--from designating the city as an empowerment zone without further application to increasing funding for police programs to assisting with expansion of Los Angeles International Airport.

Unvarnished by the usual niceties of requests for assistance, the mayor’s letter bluntly laid out the areas in which the city was seeking help. After a cursory thank you for working with the city, the note declared: “We would like your assistance on the following matters.”

Take, for example, the mayor’s request in the area of tax credits related to the empowerment zones. “Can we limit the tax credits to seven or five years instead of 10, and have them start in 1998 or 1999?” the mayor asked. “We are flexible, but this is important. Delivery of the tax credits in 1999 helps us.”

Riordan also listed four areas in crime-fighting in which he said the White House could go to bat for Los Angeles.

“We have demonstrated that a safer city is the first welcome mat for jobs and business,” he wrote. “There was not interest on [Capitol Hill] to make changes [in the crime bill] for the current year budget. We will need focused effort in the coming year.”

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Specifically, Riordan asked Gore to increase federal grants for police hiring, to increase money for so-called innovative projects in areas such as gang violence and domestic violence and to decrease the amount of money local governments are asked to supply in hiring new officers under a Clinton-backed police hiring program.

After each area, the letter supplied Gore’s staff with the name and phone number of a city official responsible for the subject, so that the vice president or his aides could follow up directly.

Riordan signed the letter “Dick.”

Terzano, the vice president’s press secretary, said it was too soon for the vice president’s staff to have fully analyzed Riordan’s requests. But she stressed that aides were taking the recommendations seriously, and she emphasized what she said was a strong, collaborative working relationship between the two officials.

For Riordan, blunt language and private meetings are hardly a new approach. They have defined his term as mayor and fueled some of his critics. Few expect him to change now.

But the players in Washington are shifting--White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, a California native, is gone, as are a number of influential Los Angeles lawyers, including former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, trade negotiator Mickey Kantor, and John Emerson, who acted as the White House liaison to the city and was a key ally of the mayor.

As a result, some observers have speculated about the effect of those changing political dynamics on Los Angeles and its leadership. Although he is a Republican, Riordan proved a valuable ally to Clinton, who needed California in his reelection bid and who courted Riordan’s support. Similarly, Riordan ran twice for mayor as a moderate, non-ideological Republican, and his growing friendship with Clinton helped emphasize his nonpartisan approach.

Clinton went so far as to invite Riordan to join him for a news conference during the mayor’s reelection campaign against state Sen. Tom Hayden, a Democrat, providing a powerful visual image of the mayor’s self-professed ability to work with leaders of both parties.

Both men now are serving their final terms, and Gore is struggling to build his ties to California even as he is dogged by the fund-raising controversy in Washington.

Still, sources close to both men say they expect the relationship between Los Angeles and Washington to continue despite some of the changing issues.

“As the vice president goes forward, California is obviously important to him,” said William Wardlaw, Riordan’s best friend and a powerhouse in Democratic Party circles. “To have the mayor of the largest city in this state impressed with your help for this city would also obviously be important.”

So far, Riordan is impressed. On Friday, the day after their car ride, Gore followed up on one concern of the mayor’s. Riordan had urged that the vice president attend to a budding embargo of Japanese ships that threatened to touch off a trade war. When that was averted, Gore tried to call Riordan directly to update him.

“When he couldn’t get me, he had his staff call,” Riordan said. “It was a general who reached me.”