Gubernatorial ‘Maybe’ Trades on His Giuliani Ties

Bill Simon Jr.--he’s one of the two California Republican multimillionaires who are probably running for governor of California--sent out a long, detailed e-mail to friends about the World Trade Center attacks and the losses suffered by his friends and family.

Simon, who once worked for New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the U.S. attorney’s office, also wrote that he was just finishing breakfast with the mayor when “Rudy’s security detail came up to our table and informed us that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.”

In the chaos after the attacks, news accounts of what-did-Giuliani-know-and-when-did-he-know-it varied: The New Yorker magazine and the New York Post said Giuliani was in his car after breakfast when he got the word about the first jet smashing into the World Trade Center. The New York Times said he was at a private breakfast meeting when an aide called him with the news.

But Giuliani himself cleared up the conflicting accounts. He sided with Simon in telling CNBC that he was finishing breakfast and “leaving to go” when an aide told him about a plane striking the WTC.

So now you know.

By the way, that breakfast at the Peninsula Hotel, said Simon spokesman Bob Taylor, was to thank Giuliani for helping to raise $1.5 million for Simon’s run at the California governorship. Last week, Simon said he hopes Giuliani can make it to California for a playoff game between the Oakland A’s and the Yankees.

Writing to the Rescue

In a Sept. 14 letter to Los Angeles-area police chiefs about emergency preparedness, L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca asks that they do as he has done: Make contact with businesses “owned or operated by those of Middle Eastern descent” with an eye to protecting them from hate crimes.

“To assist you in this endeavor,” Baca wrote, “I have taken the liberty of including the names and addresses of 7-Eleven stores in your jurisdiction, many of which are owned or managed by those of Middle Eastern descent. This list was provided to me by the 7-Eleven Corp. for this purpose because of their fears of retaliatory acts against their franchise owners and employees.”

Two days earlier, in a press release describing his meeting with Muslim and Jewish leaders, Baca said that the 50 or so leaders will form a partnership among five mosques and five synagogues “to accomplish unity as Americans.” Baca said, “I’m not Muslim nor Jewish, but I love you both.”

The Mayor and Mr. Jones

Secretary of State Bill Jones, the ranking statewide elected Republican, is dismissing a recent poll that shows him trailing Gov. Gray Davis and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. All it proves, Jones argues, is that Davis is vulnerable, that “issues raised by [Jones] . . . are having a significant impact,” and that Riordan’s support will “evaporate” once GOP voters learn of “his liberal views and record.”

Riordan recently trotted out his endorsement by the mayor of Bill Jones’ hometown of Fresno as proof that he has a reach beyond Southern California. Mayor Alan Autry--a little-known actor who actually survived eight years living in L.A.--said he has “all the respect in the world for Bill Jones,” but was swayed by Riordan’s proposed educational reforms.

Jones shot back with his own list of endorsements from more than a score of officials from “the heart of the Central Valley”--and, curiously, from the central United States: Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel.

Big John’s Big Stash

The man they called Big John--for his height, his political stature and his prodigious fund-raising--died in April. But John Ferraro, the president of the Los Angeles City Council, leaves behind what even in politics is a small fortune in political money.

Each council member is allowed to tap donors for an “officeholder account” for incidental expenses such as educational mailers, fancy dinners--anything not obviously directed to reelection. Ferraro spent his on flowers for his constituents, holiday gifts for his staff, and such.

At his death, $539,000 was left behind, and it’s been drawing interest since then--the bank kind, and the political kind.

The Los Angeles Zoo was a pet city program for Ferraro, and some of the thousands will find their way there, says Pat Gobler, who was Ferraro’s chief of staff and is now handling the political account. But the heftiest piece of change will go to USC, where Ferraro was an All-American football player, and where the Margaret and John Ferraro Chair in Effective Local Government now occupies a place at the table in the School of Policy Planning and Development.

“He told me before his death that that was what he wanted, and I am going to abide by his wishes,” Gobler said. “He went to USC and it was very important in his life.”

New Map, New World

In the topsy-turvy world of redistricting, anything can happen--and un-happen.

Back when the 71st Assembly District lay entirely behind the Orange Curtain, Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer and his $400K campaign chest looked like a slam-dunk for the district’s Republican nomination. Ah, but that was before the 71st District was redrawn and picked up the Riverside County cities of Corona and Norco, shifting about 40% of the district population to Riverside County. So Spitzer has been door-knocking in those parts, where his challengers may include Jeffrey Bennett, a Corona councilman who ran for the Assembly last year and spent $1.3 million in losing the primary.

Quick Hits

* The state Republican convention, postponed because of the terrorist attacks, is rescheduled for Oct. 27, when the GOP can resume its regular struggle over whether it would rather be right than governor.

* Gentlemen, start your cash registers: Congressional Quarterly’s Daily Monitor quotes a Republican fund-raiser as saying, “Oct. 1 is definitely the date when people are going to get back to it. The president keeps telling us he wants us to get back to work, and this is what we do.”

* There’s a lot of opposition to term limits out there, evidently including Verizon Wireless 411, which still lists as Los Angeles’ incumbent City Council members the likes of Mike Hernandez and Laura Chick, months after the elections to replace them.

* A Florida circuit judge faces five misdemeanor counts of peeping and prowling in an April incident in Carmel, allegedly trying to get into a hotel room shared by two women.

Word Perfect

“I pledge allegiance to the Earth on which I stand, one world, one people, undivided, with food, shelter and justice for all.”

The pledge that Los Angeles City Council member Ruth Galanter proposes that the council recite in addition to the Pledge of Allegiance at its meetings.

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Columnist Patt Morrison’s e-mail is patt.morrison@latimes.com. This week’s contributors include Mark Z. Barabak, Patrick McGreevy, Jean O. Pasco and Beth Shuster.