Riordan Is Gracefully Stoic in Defeat

Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan first faced voting day Tuesday with the outward optimism of someone never before defeated and then with the resignation of a candidate on the brink of his first--and perhaps last--loss.

Before he formally conceded the race and announced his support for Pacific Palisades businessman Bill Simon Jr., Riordan sat quietly watching television election coverage in a posh suite at the LAX Westin Hotel.

“It’s negative for me,” said Riordan, who badly trailed Simon in the Republican gubernatorial primary. At one point in the evening, he hoped that things might improve after all the ballots were counted, but he soon came to doubt that.

“It’s still negative for me,” Riordan said.

Surrounded by supporters who have backed him since he ran for mayor nine years ago, Riordan ended his evening as the apparent loser with a graceful stoicism.

As he prepared to meet a ballroom of disappointed but cheering supporters, the 71-year-old businessman and lawyer offered upbeat sound bites about his determination to resume his longtime interest in education and other statewide issues such as housing and transportation.

“My wife and I have more mountains to climb,” he said. “We are very interested in helping disadvantaged kids. . . .”

He said he had no regrets.

“I feel good,” Riordan said. “I haven’t done anything to make myself feel worse.”

For much of the day, Riordan appeared relaxed--even jovial--as he displayed the goofy enthusiasm that has distinguished him from a field of otherwise buttoned-down candidates.

“People are going to look at my good looks, my youth, and say you’re the guy we’re going to vote for,” Riordan quipped as he emerged from his Brentwood home shortly after 7 a.m.

“Good morning, governor!” one wishful thinker shouted.

Heading off with a huge entourage to his neighborhood polling place, Riordan told reporters: “I’m going to decide when I get in the booth who I’m going to vote for.”

Riordan emerged a few minutes later and announced his choice.

“Reluctantly, myself,” he said with a smile.

With a series of similar one-liners, Riordan attempted to set the tone for the last day in a race in which his once clear front-runner status eroded.

Conservatively dressed in a dark blue suit and red tie, Riordan repeatedly urged people to vote.

“Get out there and vote--your country depends on you,” he said, pointing into the lenses of television news cameras, a few seconds after casting his ballot. ‘Oh,” he added, following a well-timed pause, “and vote for Dick Riordan.”

After voting in Brentwood, Riordan and his wife, Nancy Daly Riordan, went to downtown Los Angeles, where they greeted several dozen supporters at a pep rally in his Original Pantry restaurant. Supporters cheered on the sidewalk and waved Riordan-for-Governor signs.

Inside the restaurant, Riordan walked from table to table, greeting patrons eating pancakes, bacon and eggs.

He also shook hands with cooks, dishwashers and waiters before sitting down for breakfast with his wife and about a dozen campaign staffers and volunteers.

Riordan thanked the volunteers for working on what he called “a tough campaign.” While he avoided criticizing Simon and the other Republican opponent, Secretary of State Bill Jones, Riordan sharply criticized Gov. Gray Davis. The former mayor bitterly described Davis’ attack ads against him as evil.

Riordan said he was buoyed by some recent polls showing Davis’ support had declined.

“Nobody would have guessed that for the first time in history . . . [Davis] would come out against someone from the other party in the primary,” Riordan said. “It’s evil politics.

“I hope Gray Davis is not around for four more years. The state needs someone with character and good leadership.”

Later, Riordan went to a Burbank phone bank, where he called voters as he was surrounded by photographers.

“Hi, this is Dick Riordan, I’m running for governor,” he told a potential voter. “I’d like to ask for your vote. . . . Oh, that’s great. OK, if I win by one vote, I’ll be over at your house tomorrow.”

Asked whether he should have done anything differently in this race, Riordan said, “I’m the one responsible. There’s probably 1,000 things we could have done differently.”

He tried to keep up the spirits of his supporters. “You’re just here because you love this state and you love me,” he said. “From the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

Riordan spent the afternoon relaxing at his home with his wife, City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo and a former City Hall aide.

At sunset, Riordan and his entourage headed to his campaign headquarters at the Westin to wait out the rest of the evening. He later emerged from his 12th-floor suite and headed downstairs to make the speech that seemed unthinkable only a few weeks earlier.