Checchi Talks Sense, but Will He Run?

OK, I’ve got a candidate to suggest for the Davis recall election.

Remember Al Checchi, the megabucks airline tycoon who ran a horrible race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1998? The political novice who was trounced by the then-lieutenant governor with “experience money can’t buy?”

Well, that was then; this is five disappointing years later.

Let’s review the Democratic field for the Oct. 7 election: It’s Gov. Gray Davis plus virtually zilch. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein -- who could win the race in a walk -- says the recall reeks and she’s repulsed by it. She has persuaded major Democratic wannabe governors to stay off the ballot to deny the party faithful any option except Davis.

Enter Checchi. Well, not exactly. He’d love to enter -- love to be governor and turn the Capitol on its dome -- but only if invited.

Here’s how he put it in an interview: “I don’t think the idea of a recall is good. But it’s here, and there’s a good chance this governor’s going to be replaced, and someone’s going to have to govern. Frankly, I would like to see Dianne Feinstein run....

“If the various [political] factions, particularly in the Legislature, looked to me and said, ‘We’d be willing to work with you,’ I would consider it. I’m not going to throw my name in [officially]. However, if over the next two weeks things germinate, if someone like Dianne does not step forward ... if I saw this had legs and some broad base, I would consider it.

“Do I think that’s very probable? I do not.”

Not very probable because, “as a general rule, the person seeks the office, the office doesn’t seek the person,” notes Darry Sragow, Checchi’s 1998 campaign consultant.

What’s Checchi up to? Sragow: “I think he’s raising his hand.”

It should be recognized. Checchi has several provocative ideas about how to restructure state government and expand California’s economy. And they should be debated in the political arena.

He came to my attention Friday when a Republican consultant, Carl Haglund, e-mailed me a speech Checchi gave in March to an L.A. conference of venture capitalists. The speech has been widely circulated. “He gets to the hard issues and decisions California can’t escape,” Haglund wrote. “A potential candidate?”

This clearly was not a political speech. Too gutsy.

For example, Checchi blistered California’s sacrosanct system of ballot initiatives and called for its repeal.

“Any clown can pass a law in this state,” he declared. “It’s legislative vigilantism. We have special interests [sponsoring] laws for themselves and an uninformed public voting on ill-conceived measures.... This is not self-governance -- it’s anarchy.”

He also advocated repealing popular Proposition 13 and gradually increasing property taxes, especially on commercial holdings, because “we need greater revenue stability.”

“Likewise, we have to selectively increase user fees -- make people pay for what they use.... Then commit to long-term personal income and targeted corporate tax relief to stimulate our economy....

“Re-examine the whole regulatory apparatus that’s driving business out of this state.... Address worker’s comp, tort reform.”

He’d rein in public-employee pay and benefits.

“California state employees are going to have to go through a restructuring just like those in the private sector,” said the former co-chairman of Northwest Airlines. “They should be paid market rates. They should have benefits and pensions that are market benefits. That’s not the case now.”

To balance the state budget and cover the $38-billion shortfall, he’d increase taxes temporarily, cut services and borrow -- in about equal thirds.

“Our revenue model is flawed, our costs are out of control, our political system is broken and public confidence -- understandably -- is plummeting.”

Like most Californians, he’s down on Davis. “Not been an effective governor,” Checchi told me. “But irrespective of what you think of Gray Davis, at the end of the day he’s not the problem. We have very serious structural problems.”

Unfortunately, these guys often talk bold until they start running. Then they listen to their jockeys and freeze up, mouthing inane sound bites that glaze eyes. Mostly, they turn into attack dogs, as Checchi did in ’98.

I wrote he was “talent wasted: an articulate, intelligent, energetic, charming, fresh-faced outsider -- apparently with vision -- campaigning like the stereotypical old hack.”

“We live and learn,” Checchi says. “I wasn’t a good candidate.”

One thing he learned, after spending $38 million of his personal money, was to never do that again. “A mistake. People didn’t feel invested in me.”

Checchi, 55, now lives in L.A. and Washington, managing his investments and trying to keep Northwest afloat as its largest stockholder. But he clearly still has the gubernatorial itch -- and a great stump speech.

Voters might find it more intriguing and stimulating than the childish claptrap they’ll be hearing.