Politically Savvy Chico Tepid on GOP Primary

This is a town with politics on its mind.

The lawns of Chico are checkered with signs for a particularly intense state Senate contest, a rematch between the sheriff and his challenger from four years ago, and a local redistricting measure. It is a political season that has sparked plenty of chat at Cory’s cafe downtown, where a septet of 70- and 80-somethings gathers weekday mornings to down coffee and chew over the great events of the day.

There’s only one political issue that has escaped their notice--the biggest contest in the state, the three-way Republican gubernatorial primary on March 5.

“None of the Republicans has been able to capture the interests of the people,” said Royce Delmatier, 78, a former top aide to Gov. Pat Brown and past chair of the political science department at Cal State Chico.

“Nobody even discusses it,” said former CSU Chico administrator and Republican Mac Martin, 81.

Despite the weeks of appearances and millions of dollars in advertising, the governor’s race remains a distant thing, even in this surprisingly political college and agricultural community of 60,000 that lies 90 minutes north of the state capital.

What voters in Chico have gleaned of the increasingly heated contest is its sheer nastiness--something that makes them less inclined to pay attention and demonstrates the perils facing the targets and flingers of mud--particularly incumbent Gov. Gray Davis and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.

“All they’re doing is putting negative ads out,” Margaret Cruikshank said of Riordan and Davis. “You don’t want to vote for either one of them. There must be somebody else out there.”

And there is, Cruikshank concluded while eating frozen yogurt with her granddaughter in the Chico Mall: Los Angeles businessman Bill Simon. Simon shied away from attack ads until Thursday, relying instead on spots featuring himself and his onetime boss in the New York U.S. attorney’s office, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

“He’s been on television and talked about what he wants to do for the state,” Cruikshank said of Simon. “Now there’s someone I can vote for.”

Davis has unleashed an unusual onslaught of negative ads against Riordan, even before Republicans choose their nominee.

The governor hopes to either knock Riordan out of the primary or weaken his support before what many expect would be a bruising general election.

The strategy seems to be working in Chico, where many voters had never heard of the two-term Los Angeles mayor until his grainy photograph began to appear in the governor’s negative television commercials.

“The one from L.A., I don’t know anything about him,” said Bea Earl, 68. “I just don’t like the looks of him.”

Chico was never Riordan country. People here still talk about seceding from the southern half of the state, and Los Angeles is about as popular as a French ice skating judge.

“Everything ends up going down that way and we sit up here, watching it go--funds, water, everything,” said Joe Smith, 36, who owns a bicycle shop and growled “big-city politics” when Riordan’s name was mentioned.

That’s not to say the former mayor has no backing in Chico. “There’s a lot of people who are looking for a winner,” said Josh Cook, a political consultant and chair of the GOP in Butte County, where Chico is located.

Cook should know. Though he’s backing Secretary of State Bill Jones in the primary, his father, the mayor of nearby Gridley, chairs the local Riordan organization.

“I don’t see anyone dominating up here,” Cook said. “There’s support for each one of them and people have their reasons. If it’s Riordan it’s because people want a winner. If it’s Simon, he’s the most conservative. If it’s Jones, he’s good for agriculture.”

But Cook said that the particularly conservative makeup of Chico’s Republicans makes it tougher for Riordan, who is pitching himself as an abortion rights and pro-gun control moderate.

Those conservatives are counterbalanced by a surprisingly intense liberal clutch of Chico residents, primarily the university’s students, faculty and graduates.

Indeed, people still talk about the packed crowd at a Ralph Nader rally during the 2000 presidential campaign. “It’s pretty far left and pretty far right,” said Ted Fulmer, a moderate Democrat who, with his wife, owns two downtown restaurants that double as political hangouts.

The concrete ribbon of California 99 bisects Chico, splintering off into business-lined boulevards in downtown. Coming from the south, there are rice fields and signs touting Republican candidates for the Legislature. Turn into downtown and new signs appear on the windows of cafes and secondhand music shops--”Hate-Free Zone” and neon peace symbols.

Though the surrounding area is bedrock Republican--the assemblyman, state senator and House member representing Chico and its environs are all from the GOP--the city is constantly torn by battles between Democrats and Republicans, developers and environmentalists.

Last year, voters stopped the widening of an access road that could have brought more industry into town.

The hot item on the March ballot is an effort to overturn the redistricting plan of the conservative county Board of Supervisors that undermines the seat held by Jane Dolan, a Democrat who happens to be married to the political director of the state party, Bob Mulholland.

“The local races are really charged up, so that seems to have taken attention away from the governor’s race,” said Dan Herbert, a local real estate agent and Chico’s mayor.

Herbert appeared unannounced at a brief Simon campaign stop this week to endorse the neophyte candidate. Herbert was swayed by Simon’s performance at the third GOP debate earlier this month, where the businessman declared himself a conservative and rebutted the assertion that his anti-abortion stance would be interpreted as anti-children.

“I was impressed by the integrity of his position and the strength of his position,” Herbert said.

Simon appears to have become the conservative alternative to Riordan in Chico, muscling out his less-funded rival, Secretary of State Jones, who as a Fresno rancher should appeal to the agricultural communities of Northern California.

Still, impressions of Simon remain faint.

“I respect the way Rudy Giuliani handled the whole 9/11 tragedy,” said April Hicks, 27. “So I’ll probably vote for the man he [Giuliani] endorsed--Dick Simon.”

Hicks, a mother of three and video store manager, had only vague impressions of the man whose name she conflated with Simon--Riordan. She said she thought crime went up when he was mayor of Los Angeles--a charge made in a Davis attack ad.

Told that actually crime dropped under Riordan, Hicks was skeptical. “It’s hard to tell what’s true and what’s not, being so far away,” she said, asking why Riordan did not answer the attack if it was false.

But Davis’ attacks can sometimes backfire. Cal State Chico speech pathology professor Patrick McCaffrey saw a spot Thursday morning accusing Riordan of shifting his position on abortion. “Just about every point on there against him was positive,” McCaffrey said. “He changed his mind. That shows he’s someone who thinks.”

Interviews in Chico reveal other perils for Davis. Butte County is 36.5% Democrat, but Davis won 46% of the vote here in 1998. He may have a difficult time doing that again, according to interviews with Republicans and independents who say they have soured on the governor.

“I’m not going to vote for Gray Davis again,” said Richard Mathews, a 42-year-old cook and father of two. He, like many, cites the governor’s handling of the energy crisis.

“As the governor, he’s responsible,” Mathews said. “It’s terrible, a family like mine, I have to pay over $300 a month in utility bills.”

Despite the anger at Davis, the folks who gather to talk politics at Cory’s say that for now they consider him a shoo-in for reelection. Both Democrats and Republicans at the table--and even a self-proclaimed socialist and anarchist--said the governor was clearly the favorite in November.

“Davis has a lock on that one,” said Charles Alexander, a 74-year-old Republican stalwart, citing the incumbent’s wealth of campaign funds.

When the subject of the governor’s race was brought up by a visitor this week, the Cory’s crowd shook off its indifference and launched into a political round-table discussion that would have made the McLaughlin Group proud.

They argued that Riordan and Simon’s personal wealth would be of limited help because California has never taken kindly to self-financed races--though they cautioned that much can change in the next nine months.

Davis’ tenacity may be part of the tepid response for the Republican primary candidates, the group concluded. Since they figure Davis will win, who wants to spend time mulling over his possible rivals?

Another factor is geography, said John Sutthoff, a 76-year-old retired journalism professor. Citing the Los Angeles roots of Simon and Riordan, he said, “no one really speaks for the agriculture. They’re all speaking to the industries.”

“What about Jones?” asked Ned Kirkham, 82, a retired bank vice president.

The table agreed: The fact that no one had thought of Jones spoke volumes about his struggling campaign.

“I’m leaning toward Jones,” Kirkham insisted, citing the secretary of state’s Central Valley roots and experience in Sacramento. “He’s a Valley person. He understands Valley issues.”

Sutthoff said he favored Simon--even though he thinks the businessman, who has stressed his conservative credentials, has scant chance of besting Davis among the more moderate general electorate.

Riordan has argued that, as a moderate, he has the best chance of beating the governor. But Sutthoff said that argument has limited appeal, especially given the difficulty in beating the incumbent.

“I don’t think Republicans are motivated on who can beat Davis,” he said, “as much as on who represents the world as they think it should be.”