Lungren Needs to Just Say No to Presidential Bid

“Nope,” says Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren. He won’t promise voters that he’ll serve a full four-year term if they elect him governor.

Nope.

It’s the old presidential two-step: Get elected governor of California and instantly become a prospect for the national ticket. Almost always, the music is imaginary and the dancer ends up looking foolish. But the siren song heard from across the Potomac is irresistible.

The most recent fool was Gov. Pete Wilson. Before him there was Gov. Jerry Brown--and even Gov. Ronald Reagan.

As a California governor, Reagan ran for president both the wrong way and the right way. In 1968, only two years into office, he ran halfheartedly and embarrassed himself. But after serving two terms and building a record, Reagan ran again in 1976 and nearly beat President Gerald Ford for the Republican nomination. That led to his landslide four years later.

Lungren apparently went to school watching Wilson, who promised during his 1994 reelection campaign that he’d serve a full term, then changed his mind after voters returned him to office. Whoops! Didn’t mean it.

But Lungren learned the wrong lesson. The lesson is not that you never say never. It’s that you do say never and mean it. To play coy--to keep open the options--is self-defeating and silly.

It’s conceivable that Brown would be sitting in the Oval Office today--rather than running for mayor of Oakland--if he’d not been seduced by the siren song and run twice for president while he was governor. He became a joke and it cost him a Senate race against Wilson in 1982. What if Brown had been running for president in 1992 as a powerful U.S. senator, rather than as a flaky ex-governor with a stale act?

If Wilson had kept his promise and not run, he would be in perfect position for a 2000 race. But in his impatience, the governor stumbled and squandered national stature.

Against this background of gubernatorial humiliation, Lungren was asked at a news conference last Saturday whether he would rule out running for president or vice president in 2000. His instant reply: “Nope.”

*

“I don’t expect to be asked,” Lungren said, “so I don’t answer questions about things I don’t expect to come up.”

Keep open the options.

Lungren talked about “maximizing the influence” of the California delegation at the Republican National Convention in 2000.

How? By heading up a so-called favorite son delegation? That’s archaic and unacceptable. Most Californians won’t waste their votes on somebody not seriously running for president.

By being available on a second ballot? Conventions don’t get to second ballots anymore. Nominations are nailed down in the primaries.

By actually running in some primaries? Dream on. Ask Wilson. The job of California governor is too big and the distance too great between Sacramento and New Hampshire. “I could feel that I was not on top of everything,” Wilson told me recently. “It’s very difficult to do the [state] job and adequately campaign.”

Lungren seemed to acknowledge this to reporters at the GOP state convention Saturday. “Last time I looked, being governor of California was pretty much a full-time job. It’s tougher than being governor of Arkansas,” he said with a jab at President Clinton.

There have been other Lungren jabs at Clinton, however, that make the Californian sound like a potential candidate for national office. “If history were to end today, the legacy of my generation would be Bill Clinton and his administration,” he told the convention. “I don’t want to accept that.”

*

Lungren says he’s not plotting a presidential campaign and I believe him. “I’ll put my heart and soul into being governor,” he told me. “My expectation is that I’ll be governor for four or eight years.”

But the problem with not taking the pledge is that tempting siren song. Governors start believing their own PR. They fantasize about stars being in alignment. They lose their senses.

History is helpful: No sitting California governor ever has been nominated for president. Only two have been nominated for vice president; neither was elected. Gov. Hiram Johnson was Teddy Roosevelt’s running mate on the Bull Moose ticket in 1912; they won the state by 174 votes. Popular Gov. Earl Warren was a GOP veep nominee in 1948, but he couldn’t carry the state for Tom Dewey.

Two Democratic candidates--Lt. Gov. Gray Davis and Al Checchi--have taken the pledge. “Absolutely,” Checchi told me. “I can’t think of anything more irresponsible. . . . “

Says Lungren: “I’m not seeking this job to get another job. That’s all I can say.”

Not quite. He could say never--absolutely. And lose Nope.