Riordan Hopes Lie Where GOP’s Past, Present Meet

If former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan beats businessman Bill Simon Jr. and Secretary of State Bill Jones tomorrow in the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, it will be because he carried places like Contra Costa County.

If he loses, it will be because GOP voters here and their brethren statewide believed that he wasn’t one of them.

Walnut Creek, one of Contra Costa County’s two biggest towns, sits at the junction of two Republican traditions that Riordan is attempting to straddle.

Once an agricultural area built around walnut orchards, the town absorbed the deeply conservative views of the party’s right wing. More recently, Walnut Creek has become home to the overflow suburban population spilling out of the Bay Area. Affluence has moderated some of the social conservatism of the region, but Republican leaders here remain unwavering in their fiscal views.

It is the kind of place where Riordan’s vision of a fiscally disciplined GOP with room for abortion and gay rights is supposed to find a welcome reception.

But Riordan was little known in Northern California until three months ago, and the impression that many leading residents have formed of the former mayor is culled from the contentious, unusual three-way race waged in recent months by Riordan, Simon and Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. Now, with the primary campaign ending, some see Riordan as their best chance to defeat Davis in November. But others complain that he simply does not share their views.

“I couldn’t waffle on my principles,” said Kris Lesher-Aring, 34, state chairwoman of the Young Republican Federation. “I’m impressed with somebody who will get on TV and say he’s a conservative Republican.”

As for Riordan, she said, “I’m not comfortable voting for someone who has supported as many Democrats as he has, including the man he would be running against in the fall.”

Appealing to Pragmatists

Simon’s state chairman, John Herrington, lives in the area and said he believes that those views are widely shared.

“We have done focus groups here and they are strongly anti-tax,” said Herrington, who owns a steakhouse known as Vic Stewart’s. “There are very few people here who think the public school system is doing as well as it could.”

Conservatives here complain that Riordan needed to do more than persuade them that he is the best candidate to take on Davis in the fall. He had to make the case that he’s the best Republican, they said. And some argue that he has not.

Jean Meredith, 68, worked for a state assemblyman and now is a Simon supporter. She, too, sees Riordan’s moderate views as a drawback, not an advantage.

“We already have someone in the governor’s office who I don’t agree with,” she said. “If he won and doesn’t represent my point of view, then why would I vote for him in the first place?”

Walnut Creek Mayor Sue Rainey has an answer for Meredith: Riordan, she said, could bring the Republicans a long-sought victory.

“I’m not thrilled at some of the things he’s done in support of some Democrats, but it also proves he can work within the system and work with both sides,” said Rainey, who is the county co-chairwoman of Riordan’s campaign. “I think that Republicans have too often gone to the far right and we don’t win.”

Paula Miller, who was the campaign manager for Rainey’s husband, former state Sen. Richard Rainey, agreed.

“I feel he’s a person who is strong enough to beat Davis,” she said. “The pro-choice thing is big to me--not that I would vote on that, but when you run against a Democrat, it’s important.”

But for the most part, pragmatism is a notion most advanced by party activists in Walnut Creek. It rarely is raised in the conversations about the race at the softball games in Civic Park and the boutiques in the downtown shopping district.

Riordan “is someone who thinks the only way the Republican Party can win is if the conservative arm didn’t exist,” said Mackenzie Niles, 25, on Friday as she finished another day of teaching fourth-graders at Buena Vista Elementary School. “Every time I hear him talk about how destructive conservatives are to the Republican Party, I’m offended.”

Niles said she’s “never supported one of those new-to-politics millionaires” like Simon. But, she added, “I like what he has to say.”

Although polls suggest that Riordan and Simon are far ahead of Jones statewide, the secretary of state does have some support in Walnut Creek.

The Contra Costa Times endorsed him Friday, calling him “a known quantity” with a record of success in Sacramento.

“Jones has proven he can work at the state level,” echoed Gary Dahl, 68, as he waited to mail a package at the post office near Rossmoor, the sprawling retirement community on the southwest edge of town. “Simon’s a businessman, and I don’t think he could do it. He doesn’t impress me--although I’d like to be as rich as he is.”

Many Still Undecided

Settling in for a haircut at DiMaggio’s Barber Shop on Main Street, Bob Morris agreed.

“Bill Jones,” said Morris, a retired contractor. “He seems like an honest type of guy, and doesn’t try to collect a lot of money for his campaign. I guess he doesn’t have a chance. But I’ll still vote for him.”

Anthony Motta, the barber, thinks otherwise--and his explanation suggests another reason why inroads here have been hard for Riordan to make.

“I’m going for Simon, because I’m a Republican and I vote Republican,” he said.

As for Riordan, “I don’t want the L.A. power coming up north,” Motta said.

Despite Walnut Creek’s general activism--two-thirds of its 64,000 residents are registered voters, half Republican, half Democrat--there are many who approach Election Day still undecided.

“I just haven’t looked at any of the campaign stuff yet,” said student Susan Muller, 35, as she sat with a friend at the edge of a playground in Civic Park in the quiet of Friday morning, watching her friend’s 4-year-old daughter play in the sand. When she does, Muller said, she’ll check out the endorsements each candidate has.

“I definitely took notice that [former New York Mayor Rudolph] Giuliani was backing . . . “ she paused, “it’s Simon, right?”

Will Amen, a sales manager at an Internet company, hadn’t made up his mind, either. He said he is not preoccupied with the decision.

“To be perfectly honest,” he said, looking at the green sloping hills of the Diablo Hills Golf Course lighted golden by the late afternoon light, “I’m just trying to think about how I can birdie this first hole.”

For the candidates--and Riordan in particular--these still-wavering voters in this vote-rich region exert a powerful pull in the final hours of the race.

Riordan kicks off his last day of campaigning this morning in Walnut Creek, where he plans to shake hands with commuters at the local BART station.

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