High Ambitions Behind Low-Profile Contest

It’s a typical race for state treasurer: Most Californians don’t know the candidates and have little idea what the treasurer does.

No matter. There’s a fierce contest for the Republican nomination between Assemblymen Curt Pringle of Garden Grove and Jan Goldsmith of Poway.

That’s in no small part because the office has become a test pad for upwardly mobile politicians who have an eye on the state’s top offices. The state’s last two treasurers have run for governor and U.S. senator.

On the Democratic side, the race pits former state Democratic Party Chairman Phil Angelides, 44, of Sacramento, against South Gate City Treasurer Albert Robles, 33, and Mervin Evans, 45, an author of financial books from Culver City. Angelides, a multimillionaire developer who lost to Treasurer Matt Fong in 1994, is heavily favored in the polls against his little-known and under-funded Democratic rivals.

On the Republican side, the two Assembly veterans are vigorously competing for endorsements and cash, which can be translated into effective advertising. What they are after is an edge in name recognition in a contest eclipsed by the highly publicized gubernatorial and U.S. Senate contests.

Party veterans say there is little love lost between the two legislators, both of whom are being termed out of their Assembly offices this year.

The two had competed in the Assembly and then jockeyed for position in the statewide races last year. Pringle originally explored the controller’s race but decided against it, moving to the treasurer’s race where Goldsmith and San Mateo County Supervisor Ruben Barrales had already settled. Barrales moved on to the state controller’s race, but Goldsmith--who had accumulated quite a few endorsements--stayed put.

Pringle, who served as the first GOP-elected Assembly speaker in 25 years in 1996, has the endorsement of Gov. Pete Wilson and Fong, who is running for the U.S. Senate.

Goldsmith is endorsed by Barrales, Secretary of State Bill Jones, Los Angeles Supervisor Mike Antonovich, the Gann Citizen’s Committee, the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the deputy sheriffs unions of Los Angeles and Riverside counties.

Pringle, 38, leads Goldsmith, 47, in the contribution wars, raising $957,491 since 1996 and having $302,031 in cash as of May 16. Goldsmith raised $532,272 and reported $134,588 in cash. Much of Pringle’s edge comes from $250,000 given to him by multimillionaire Stockton developer and San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos.

GOP Race Is Close

The Los Angeles Times Poll found the GOP race a close one just two weeks before the June 2 election. The poll has Goldsmith with 15%, Pringle 9%, Angelides 27%, with 47% undecided. The margin of error is plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Neither Goldsmith nor Pringle will be able to mount a sustained statewide media blitz.

Pringle, meanwhile, has locked up almost all the best-known GOP slate mailers, but Goldsmith--a more moderate Republican, particularly on social issues--is trying to take advantage of the blanket primary. He has some GOP slates but also appears on others that target independents and Democrats, including the California State Firefighters slate card that goes to 1 million households.

The job of treasurer, often called the state’s banker, entails selling the state’s bonds and safeguarding its $28-billion investment portfolio. Some liken it to a homeowner who has to secure the lowest mortgage rate and also find the best places to invest--bonds, equities, cash--a family’s savings.

Goldsmith, a lawyer who worked in private practice including stockholder arbitration cases before being elected to the Assembly in 1992, wants the state to save $2 billion in long-term borrowing costs by boosting California’s weak bond rating from A+ to AAA.

“That is the first priority,” he said. “The rates are too high.”

He would do that by having the state meet a number of Wall Street demands for changes in the state’s budgetary policy, including amending the state Constitution to allow a majority vote on the state budget rather than the current two-thirds margin, requiring a balanced budget and instituting a 3% state budget reserve.

Goldsmith also proposes regionalizing the treasurer’s office--without adding staff--so it could assist municipalities in packaging and getting better rates for local bond issues. He said state assistance would reduce the risk to the credit worthiness of all California municipal bonds if a local bond issue failed to comply with securities law.

Goldsmith considers his chief legislative achievements to be a law that simplified procedures for interracial adoptions and another that stopped nonresidents from coming to California to get costly surgery paid by Medi-Cal.

Different Views but Similar Goals

Pringle agrees with Goldsmith that the key treasurer’s task is improving the state’s credit rating, but he disagrees on how to do it. Although he supports a balanced budget, Pringle opposes increasing the state’s reserve to 3% or requiring a simple majority to pass a budget.

“A super-majority for a budget is a good thing because it protects the taxpayer,” Pringle said, adding that “a healthy reserve” is also good, but having a high arbitrary standard “is politically unrealistic.”

Pringle said the state treasurer should take an active role in negotiating credit ratings with bond houses and others, and said he has the experience to accomplish that. Pringle as Assembly speaker went with Fong to New York in 1996 to jawbone Wall Street when the state’s credit rating was last increased.

“The rating agencies certainly look to a state’s reserve, but California is different than every other state,” he said.

Pringle also advocates that the state adopt a capital development plan rather than allowing political whim dictate bond funding. “We have to talk about what are our needs instead of being moved to act by what is politically popular today,” he said.

Elected to the Legislature in 1988, Pringle was defeated two years later in part because of an incident at the polls that took place during his first election in 1988. His campaign had participated in posting security guards and signs at polling places in Santa Ana warning that noncitizens could not vote. A federal civil rights suit filed by Latino organizations against Pringle and the GOP was settled for $400,000.

He was reelected in 1992 in a neighboring district. He again had a brush with scandal in 1995 when GOP activists placed a decoy Democrat on the ballot in the crucial Orange County recall election that ousted Assemblywoman Doris Allen. One of Pringle’s aides pleaded guilty and his chief of staff was named a co-conspirator but was not indicted in that affair, in which GOP aides fraudulently filed nominating papers for the decoy candidate.

In campaigning for treasurer, Pringle has suggested that the state consider consolidating the office with that of controller. Goldsmith opposes the idea.

Pringle cites his experience as legislative leader as his greatest asset, including serving as a budget negotiator for the Assembly for three years, sponsoring welfare reform and several state tax cuts, and being involved in the deregulation of electrical utility industry.

“My time in the Legislature shows my focus on the fiscal side,” he said. “It distinguishes me from all the other candidates.”

Democrats Rally Behind Businessman

Among the Democrats, Angelides appears as the likely nominee. He has the endorsement of virtually every major Democratic officeholder in the state. His campaign has raised more than $1.7 million and had $651,000 in cash on May 13. In 1994, he raised nearly $6 million and lent the campaign personally $1.5 million. His two Democratic opponents reported raising no funds.

Angelides touts his background in the private sector and in state government where he worked for eight years at state agencies and as chief of staff to Assembly Majority Leader Mike Roos. A civic leader in Sacramento, he is a developer who built innovative real estate projects.

He favors increasing the amount of the state funds invested in the California economy, particularly in home building.

In addition, he has called for a planned capital outlay program that looks ahead 30 years at the state’s needs.

Evans believes that the stock market will crash and wants to move the state’s investments into banks. He is backing a fall referendum to raise the sales tax 0.5%, investing it in “the state’s most valuable resources, its parks, beaches and public lands.”

Robles, who has raised less than $1,000, says he will benefit from being the only “treasurer with a track record” on the ballot. He would invest more of the state’s funds in California, particularly by lending mortgage money directly to residents at market rates or slightly below that.

Others candidates on the blanket primary ballot and their parties are Edmon V. Kaiser, American Independent; Carlos Aguirre, Natural Law; Jon Peterson, Libertarian; and Jan P. Tucker, Peace and Freedom.