As GOP Primary Looms, Riordan Feels the Heat

Ever since the White House urged him to run, gubernatorial hopeful Richard Riordan has touted himself--in the words of his latest TV ad--as the Republican Gray Davis fears the most.

But that strategy of looking past his GOP opponents to the November election has always been a risky one. Now, analysts of all persuasions agree that it could end up keeping a Riordan-Davis matchup from ever taking place.

In the past few weeks, Riordan has seen his commanding lead in the March 5 primary shrivel under the onslaught of Davis and Republican rivals Bill Jones and Bill Simon Jr.

Suddenly--as even anxious Riordan strategists concede--the contest has become a real race.

The two-front fight has caused the former Los Angeles mayor to abandon his high-road campaign and may force Riordan, against his will, to dip into his personal fortune to stay competitive on the television airwaves.

Simon, having quietly consolidated the conservative Republican base, is not only climbing in opinion polls but has more than twice the campaign cash on hand as Riordan.

That edge is significant as the campaign, long simmering out of sight, heats up in its final 10 days.

With Simon’s surge comes heightened scrutiny. On Friday, the businessman and political neophyte was hit with a Sacramento Bee story revealing his registration as a political independent when he lived in New York in the 1980s.

The revelation is particularly embarrassing for Simon, who has a new ad attacking Riordan’s party credentials and who repeatedly bills himself as the one true conservative in the GOP race.

Simon brushed aside the matter at a Friday afternoon stop in Los Angeles. “I’ve been a proud Republican for many years and that’s all I’m going to say about that,” Simon said.

It was a rare moment on the defensive for the fledgling candidate, who preferred to talk about his plan to create a state “cyber-terrorism” unit to monitor public and private security efforts.

Mostly, though, it is Riordan who has been twisted about through the campaign, as he tries to hold onto his Republican support without abandoning the centrist positions that, theoretically, give him his best shot at beating Davis.

The governor, with his massive campaign bankroll, has played no small part in Riordan’s dilemma. Davis has spent a remarkable $8 million on campaign ads so far--most of them assailing Riordan--even though Davis is running essentially unopposed in the Democratic primary.

In effect, the governor has sought to pick his preferred opponent for November. The conventional thinking is that Simon or Jones, who have a conservative stance on issues such as abortion, immigration and the environment, would be easier to beat in the general election than the more moderate Riordan.

Should he fail in that bit of meddling, Davis at least has managed to scuff up Riordan’s image by portraying him as someone who flip-flops on issues and--brazenly appropriating the words former Republican Gov. George Deukmejian used to criticize Riordan--”tries to be all things to all people.”

But Davis’ advertising alone is not responsible for Riordan’s difficulties.

The ex-mayor’s strategy has largely employed a single tactic: appealing to Republican voters by focusing on his asserted ability to beat Davis. Partisan primaries, however, tend to draw the most ideological voters, the kind who often would rather suffer defeat than compromise their beliefs.

“Dick made a decision early on to target his message toward those voters who Republicans have been losing in the last few general election campaigns,” said Dan Schnur, a longtime GOP strategist who provided advice to Riordan last summer, before his formal entrance into the race. “In doing so, he may have provided an opening for a conservative challenge.”

To take one emotional example, Riordan has said repeatedly that the party should set aside its anti-abortion doctrine for the sake of appealing to voters who view Republicans as intolerant.

Riordan sounded the note again Friday as he campaigned in Palm Springs. “I like him,” he said of Simon, “but he can’t be elected. . . . He’s pro-life, but he will not respect people who are pro-choice.”

Aside from abortion, Riordan has also broken with the party orthodoxy on gay rights, immigration, gun control and providing state-funded health care to the poor, among other issues.

While those stands could position Riordan well for a general election, given the relatively moderate stance of most California voters, he has antagonized many GOP activists. That has provided an opening for Simon and, to a lesser extent, Jones.

“You have people saying, ‘I can disagree with someone on ‘x,’ but I’d still vote for him because I want to win,’ ” said Arnold Steinberg, who advised Riordan during his years as mayor but is sitting out the gubernatorial contest.

In Riordan’s case, Steinberg went on, “it’s not any one issue, but a whole array of issues. The campaign emphasizes inclusiveness but seems insufficiently inclusive of Republicans.”

As the poorest of the candidates--able to wage only a meager advertising campaign--Jones has capitalized the least on Riordan’s slippage.

He continued his hand-to-mouth campaigning Friday in Goleta, where he scoffed at the former mayor’s pledge not to meet with lobbyists if elected governor.

Jones said that before Riordan took office in 1993, his law firm gave money to city and county officials while bidding for government contracts. He compared it to Davis’ approach to governing. “The check-writing concept is not acceptable as a method of conducting business in California,” Jones said.

For his part, Riordan had a light day of campaigning. He golfed, raised money and greeted passersby on Palm Springs’ main shopping strip.

Pressed by reporters, he defended his attacks on Simon, a friend and fellow church parishioner, after months of insisting he would stick to issues and avoid negativity.

“Bill Simon was attacking me for all kinds of things that were just not correct, so we’re giving a little back at him,” Riordan said. “. . . After trying to be Mr. Goody-Good-Shoes, he started to paint me as things I’m not.” Privately, Riordan strategists said there were more anti-Simon attacks to come--the clearest sign that victory on March 5, and the much-anticipated Riordan-Davis matchup, was something they no longer take for granted.

Even Riordan seemed a bit chastened Friday. Normally happy-go-lucky, he lamented the campaign’s bitter turn. Asked if he was enjoying himself, he replied: “I haven’t had so much fun since my dog died.”

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Times staff writers Michael Finnegan, Jean Merl and Nicholas Riccardi and researcher Maloy Moore contributed to this report.