Covert Campaigns for Mayor’s Job Remain in Political Limbo

“If somebody doesn’t have a draft letter on their desk and a computer list, he’s not ready for the primary.”

--Rudy Murillo,an adviser to mayoral candidate

and San Diego City Councilman Uvaldo Martinez

The hung jury in Roger Hedgecock’s trial leaves nearly a dozen mayoral hopefuls in political limbo.

Some have waited in the wings, laying plans for a mayor’s race since September, when Hedgecock was indicted on 13 felony counts of conspiracy and perjury.

They had hoped for a verdict--guilty or not--so they would know whether they could start running openly for the city’s top post.

Now, if there is to be a special mayoral election this year, it is not expected to start for months--possibly not until summer or even fall, depending on when the mayor’s second trial concludes.

But in the interim, covert campaigns for mayor are still going strong.

City Council members have been issuing a record number of press releases and constituent letters on subjects ranging from peep shows to potholes. Prospective candidates are still holding fund-raisers for City Council races that they say could easily be turned into fund-raisers for mayoral races. And aides to those candidates say the mayoral hopefuls are still taking polls, recruiting volunteers and compiling computer lists of supporters.

A deadlocked jury and a new trial just “gives everybody a little more time” to get ready for the race, said Colin Flaherty, an aide to City Councilman and prospective mayoral candidate Uvaldo Martinez.

A lot of San Diego politicians have been getting ready--so many “they may have to get a parade permit,” suggested former U.S. Rep. Lionel Van Deerlin of San Diego, who emphasizes that he is not running.

Mark Nelson, director of the San Diego Taxpayers Assn., agreed: “The question is not ‘Who’s running?’ but ‘Who isn’t running?’ ”

Four of San Diego’s eight council members have been planning a race or actually running a preliminary campaign with straw polls, fund-raisers and a cadre of volunteers.

Councilmen Martinez and Ed Struiksma both started actively campaigning soon after Hedgecock was indicted in September. Councilman Dick Murphy has begun a reelection campaign that, his supporters also know, will probably become a mayoral race if a guilty verdict in the Hedgecock case ever comes in.

Councilman Mike Gotch has declined to campaign yet. But Gotch has drafted a campaign strategy in case the mayor is forced to resign. An environmentalist who shares Hedgecock’s political philosophy, Gotch believes he’ll be the “heir apparent” for Hedgecock’s neighborhood organization--several thousand volunteers in 25 city neighborhoods.

Councilmen William Jones, Bill Mitchell and Bill Cleator say they doubt that they’ll run but still don’t completely reject the idea. And several weeks ago, former Councilman Fred Schnaubelt began considering a mayoral race.

Also planning to run and believed to be a formidable contender is Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego). Meanwhile, Assemblywoman Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) says she has been asked to run and just might do so, depending on who the contenders are.

Former Port Commissioner Maureen O’Connor also may be a candidate. Then again, she may not, suggested O’Connor, who ran a close second to Hedgecock in the 1983 special mayoral election.

Also interested is Dick Carlson, a former savings and loan executive and Hedgecock’s millionaire opponent in the November mayoral race. Carlson recently commissioned a poll to find out how he would do against such contenders as Murphy, Stirling and O’Connor.

“I still want to be mayor,” Carlson said. But he may not run again. His last race was a “grueling kind of combat. I liked it in many ways. But I can’t spend my life being Don Quixote. I’d have to see if I have any chance of winning.”

Two others say they have been deluged with people asking them to run, but they really don’t wish to do so. City Planning Commissioner Yvonne Larsen, a former school board president, said she has taken such requests “with a big giggle and a grin and said, ‘Thank you’ . . . I’m not a serious candidate.”

San Diego’s police chief, William Kolender, is likewise rejecting a draft. “I didn’t like it the time I was involved (in 1983). I didn’t feel like it was me,” he said. “I know that I am political. I don’t think I’m a politician.”

Those interested in Hedgecock’s seat have had a hard time campaigning openly because it is still not certain that there will be another race for mayor.

Also, those campaigning in advance of a guilty verdict are “tacky,” Hedgecock supporters say. “I don’t want to join the vultures lined up on the rail, waiting to grab the seat before the seat is cold,” said Deputy Mayor Mitchell, who may be a mayoral candidate but has refused to plan a race until such a verdict.

Tacky or not, several mayoral candidates started planning their campaigns on Sept. 19, the day Hedgecock was indicted on 13 felony counts for alleged campaign violations.

That day, for instance, Martinez’s top aide, Rudy Murillo, tracked down the councilman’s staff at a baseball game and called them in for a strategy session.

Those who have been laying the groundwork for a race say they had to start early. They are preparing for a citywide election that could easily cost the finalists half a million dollars each.

In their quest for money and votes, some mayoral candidates have practically bumped into one another on the campaign trail. One morning recently, Murphy held a fund-raising breakfast for 12 at the University Club downtown; across the hall, Martinez was holding his own campaign breakfast and raising $5,000 from 25 supporters in the process.

Four mayoral candidates have discussed their prospective race with the same San Diego campaign consultant, Dave Lewis. Lewis has sent them all away--until or if a guilty verdict comes in.