Vasconcellos Exploring Bid for Governor

Filling a personality gap and philosophical void, one of Sacramento’s most colorful and sometimes controversial figures--state Sen. John Vasconcellos--will launch an exploratory bid this week for California governor.

The Santa Clara Democrat said he will spend roughly the next six weeks gauging the potential for what even he concedes would be a longshot bid.

“I’ve been in the belly of the beast for 30 years,” said Vasconcellos, 65, who was first elected to the Legislature in 1966. “I’m better prepared than anyone else in terms of knowledge of the issues.”

A big bear of a man, with a temper to match, Vasconcellos would stand out in the current field of Democratic prospects even without his size.

In an age of government shrinkage, when other candidates are hugging the center, Vasconcellos remains an unreconstructed advocate of expansive and generous state spending. Alone among the likely candidates for governor, he opposes the death penalty, though Vasconcellos said he would enforce the law if elected chief executive.

Moreover, in an era of buttoned-down, blow-dried politicians, Vasconcellos is rumpled and proudly unrehearsed. An expert in state budget and bureaucratic minutiae, he is more wont to use the therapeutic language of the human potential movement.

Framing his candidacy as a balm for the state’s ills, Vasconcellos said California needs “healing and collaboration” after “the past several years of divisive leadership.”

“Over the years I’ve worked with hundreds of Californians on thousands of projects, bringing people together, from the homeless to high-tech executives,” he said. “I have a unique record on that.”

Indeed, Vasconcellos gained national celebrity in 1987 when he was parodied by the Doonesbury comic strip for legislation creating a state commission on self-esteem. Asked if he was braced for that sort of ridicule again, Vasconcellos replied, “I’ve never been so mentally healthy in all my life. So I hope so.”

The caricature of Vasconcellos as a sort of New Age flake, however, belies his not-inconsiderable political skills and the depth of his passion, going back to his start in Sacramento as an aide to Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown in the 1960s. After 30 years in the Assembly, Vasconcellos was term-limited out in 1996.

When he ran for the state Senate last year against one of Silicon Valley’s own, Vasconcellos won strong backing from the high-tech industry--including a high-profile endorsement from the late Republican stalwart David Packard.

“He’s someone who’s managed to garner the support of generally conservative, no-nonsense bean-counting entrepreneurs at the same time he’s been very passionate on social welfare issues,” said Larry Gerston, a San Jose State political science professor and longtime Vasconcellos-watcher.

Describing Vasconcellos as willing to stand apart from his own party on matters of principle, Gerston said, “He is probably the only politician who has been an outsider while being on the inside for 30 years.”

Vasconcellos’ surprise entry into the governor’s race--albeit tentative--comes as the Democratic field is slowly taking its election-season form.

Multimillionaire businessman Al Checchi is expected to formally announce his candidacy by the end of the month, possibly attended by a burst of television advertising.

Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, the one Democrat already committed to the race, is expected to lay out his election themes in a Town Hall address Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein continues to ponder her future as two other potential contestants--state Controller Kathleen Connell and former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta--appear to be edging away from the race.

Handicappers doubt Vasconcellos’ chances of winning his party’s nomination, given his low name identification, the difficulties he could face raising money under new state restrictions and a philosophy that is generally to the left of most Californians.

His chances could improve if a judge throws out the state’s new open primary law, thus limiting participation to Democratic Party members, who tend to be more ideologically driven. Otherwise, his role is more likely to be that of a protest candidate, according to political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, drawing votes from liberals uncomfortable with the more moderate alternatives.

“In that way,” Jeffe said, “Vasconcellos may play the same role as [state Sen. Tom] Hayden,” who drew 14% of the vote in his quixotic 1994 gubernatorial bid.

But Vasconcellos indicated that he had no interest in such a self-sacrificial exercise. “I don’t need this job to prove anything,” he said. “I’m very happy in the Senate. My life is very full without this.”