Support for El Toro Airport Could Haunt Riordan

The tentacles of airport politics may be reaching statewide.

Longtime Democratic political consultant Harvey Englander opined recently that a possible Republican run for governor by Richard Riordan, L.A.’s former mayor, would be DOA, thanks to the Orange County GOP.

In a primary, Riordan would have to woo voters from the state’s most Republican county--and that would be tough for several reasons, Englander said.

It’s bad enough that Riordan donated about $500,000 in the last five years to Democrats--including Gov. Gray Davis himself. It’s equal trouble that his moderate view of the world clashes with the county’s conservative establishment.

But Riordan’s worst sin, Englander said, is his boosterism for a new airport at the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Though a hot-button issue mainly for voters within earshot of El Toro, airport praise can be a career killer for anyone needing significant support from voters south of Newport Beach, Englander said.

Add to that the fact that county GOP Chairman Tom Fuentes, who lives near the former base, wants it converted into a national park named after Richard Nixon.

Riordan disagrees that his position on the airport will be a problem, saying Orange County residents will not hold it against him that he has taken a stand. “As long as they know where you are coming from, and you don’t have a conflict of interest, they respect you,” he said.

Riordan Walks Like a Candidate

At one physically challenging event last week, the question wasn’t just whether Riordan would run for governor, but also how far he would walk.

To commemorate the 220th anniversary of a historic trek by outsiders to Los Angeles to create a new city, local pols were invited to walk nine miles from the San Gabriel Mission to Olvera Street. Few went the distance.

San Gabriel Mayor Mary Cammarano rode most of the route in a support car, walking the last few hundred yards from Union Station to Olvera Street. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich cited other appointments as the reason he was able to show up only at the very end to praise those who made the trek.

Showing up Antonovich and others as relative slackers was the 71-year-old Riordan, who walked the entire nine miles.

Cammarano, who said Riordan never made the walk while he was L.A.’s mayor, suggested he may have made the hike this year because his calendar is less full now that he is out of office.

“He does have the time now,” she said.

Antonovich aide Chris Dickerson suggested another reason.

“Obviously, former Mayor Riordan is considering a run for governor,” Dickerson said, adding: “Maybe he is trying to remind us he can go all kinds of distances.”

Rosenfield Looks Down on Bailout

From a suite on the 13th floor of Sacramento’s newest hotel, consumer advocate Harvey Rosenfield has been plotting a guerrilla operation aimed at thwarting the proposed government bailout of Southern California Edison, which was moving through the Assembly last week.

Wearing a loud yellow armband and barking like a B-movie general, the head of the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights announced last week that the suite would serve as his “war room” for the final weeks of the legislative session.

“We’re at Defcon 1,” Rosenfield said.

To take on the flood of lobbyists pressing for a bailout, Rosenfield said troops of volunteers from throughout the state--he estimated their number at more than 100--will drop in, pick up one of the yellow “Bailout Watch” armbands, and descend on the state Capitol, walking the halls and buttonholing lawmakers for their position on the Edison bailout.

Back in their home districts, politicians will then “be held accountable” for their votes, as part of the initiative Rosenfield is planning if legislators approve the bailout.

“We’re in the midst of a battle--a huge battle--between the people of California and the special interests,” Rosenfield said.

Sure enough, Rosenfield’s “troopers” have been a presence in the Capitol during the bailout hearings. But this is clearly an uphill fight: For every activist in a yellow armband, there are two to three lobbyists in well-tailored suits.

Hahn Toasts an Old Friend

Assemblyman Tony Strickland (R-Moorpark) may not know what office he’s running for in 2002, but that didn’t stop him from throwing a fund-raiser last month at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum on the set of the former TV series “Cheers,” where he took in $70,000.

The featured speaker: L.A. Mayor James K. Hahn.

“Cheers” postal carrier Cliff Clavin would still be spinning strange theories about why a Democratic mayor would agree to stump for Strickland, a staunch conservative who chairs the Assembly’s GOP caucus.

But barmaid Carla would have figured it out pretty quickly: When the race between Hahn and former Democratic Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa was getting down to the wire, Strickland led a pack of 14 Republican assemblymen who jumped onto Hahn’s bandwagon. Besides, Strickland says, he and Hahn are friends.

Strickland, who faces term limits in 2004, hasn’t said whether he’ll run for one last term or make a bid for an open seat on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. If he chooses the latter, the Hahn fund-raiser alone is worth about one-third of what the most expensive board race in the county cost last year.

Gone but Not Forgotten

Even three years after he left office, former Gov. Pete Wilson is still a favorite target of Democrats when they want to blast the Republican agenda on immigrant rights.

That was clear recently when Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe announced the launch of a Spanish-language television ad that is critical of the Republican Party’s record on immigrant issues.

“What the White House is doing with our immigrant community is nothing more than gesturing--lip service designed to attract badly wanted Hispanic support to the Republican fold,’ McAuliffe said. “Republicans fail to recognize that Hispanics remember clearly that this is the very Republican Party of former California Gov. Pete Wilson, who supported Proposition 187, a cruel and heartless measure that stripped immigrants of basic human rights.”

Quick Hits

* Assemblyman Dario Frommer (D-Glendale) has been around the block, first as an aide to Gov. Gray Davis and now as a legislator, but he still said he was “shocked” recently that a bill he authored to ban Internet gambling was rejected in committee after it drew opposition from special interests. “This bill is a measured response to a growing gambling epidemic,” he said. “The only winners in today’s action were Las Vegas’ biggest casinos, a well-connected Indian tribe and hundreds of unscrupulous online gambling sites.”

* After a quiet start, look for recently elected Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo to have something of a coming-out event later this month. Aides say he is planning a major speech in which he will outline a full agenda for an activist office during his four-year term. In addition to a major structural overhaul of the office, Delgadillo will announce new initiatives to step up enforcement against slumlords and to increase safety around schools in the city, sources said.

* Last week’s Mexico state dinner was Washington’s hot ticket. Hosted by President Bush and featuring such luminaries as the vice president, attorney general, chief justice and speaker of the House--not to mention Clint Eastwood, Cardinal Roger Mahony and Brit Hume. Two of the rare decliners: L.A. Mayor Jim Hahn and Gloria Estefan.

Word Perfect

“We need to practice what we preach. Council members . . . should check out the [council’s] snack area. All that is left there is apples and Baked Lay’s. Everybody is eating the junk food here.”

--Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti, commenting on the council’s eating habits just before it voted to support state legislation banning junk food from elementary schools.

Patt Morrison is on vacation. This week’s contributors include Mark Barabak, Miguel Bustillo, Michael Finnegan, Jean O. Pasco and Margaret Talev.