Bernhardt Blames Media, Mayor and ‘Power Brokers’

Speaking for the first time since she lost a recall election this week,City Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt said Friday she wanted San Diegans to know she was “alive and well” and that her bitter fight to keep her seat had not broken her spirit.

At an informal interview session after a morning council meeting, Bernhardt accused the media--and particularly the San Diego Union--of waging a vicious attack on her that left voters “very, very confused” and contributed largely to her defeat.

But she said some of her colleagues on the council, especially Mayor Maureen O’Connor and Councilman Bruce Henderson, had also undermined her.

“The biggest mistake I made was not working harder to get along with the media and the mayor. They are powerful entities, and I made mistakes,” she said, adding later, “I don’t know what I could have done differently, other than take Helen Copley out to lunch every day,” she said, referring to the owner of the San Diego Union and Tribune.

The 31-year-old Bernhardt, who predicted that, without her, the council will shift away from an environmental majority toward a pro-growth bloc, said she had been singled out by her opponents because she was young, female and “not part of a power broker system or, if you will, a good-old-boy system.”

“I take full responsibility. I chose to run for office. I voted the way I did,” she said. “I chose from the day I was elected to be an independent vote, not to allow the newspaper or my colleagues to control me.”

But, she said, she saw early that those choices had made her some enemies.

“There are a lot of powers that be in this town that were very uncomfortable with me being on this council,” she said. “From the day I was elected, my predecessor (Ed Struiksma) and others had it out for me. . . . (A number of them) worked together as cohorts to make sure my time in City Hall was short.”

And her colleagues on the council, she said, could not always be counted on for support.

“In City Hall what you recognize early on is you don’t really have friends. They look to take care of themselves and to protect themselves,” she said.

Bernhardt will continue to serve on the council until April 22. She will be replaced by Tom Behr, a 48-year-old corporate lawyer and political novice. Behr won the replacement election over six others with 4,898 votes, one of the smallest vote totals in decades for a winning council candidate.

Bernhardt said it had been an honor to serve the city.

“My childhood dream was fulfilled. It’s true that it turned into a nightmare. But I would not have it any other way,” she said. “I loved the opportunity. And I think, if you look at my record, I have served the city very, very well.”

Bernhardt also offered some insight into the fractiousness of the nine-member council.

“When I got elected, I said my wish would be we could be a team of nine,” she said. But that was not to be, she said, largely because of a deep rift between the mayor and Councilman Bob Filner.

“Maureen and Bob have some kind of personal problems they need to work out. It’s so vindictive that it’s destructive to this city,” she said.

When asked what the future holds, Bernhardt did not rule out another bid for office someday.

“I keep my options open,” she said.

But, in the meantime, she said, she will have to find a job just to pay the bills--probably as a land-use consultant or environmental planner, two fields in which she has experience.

Bernhardt said she is $80,000 in debt from her 1989 City Council race. The recall, she said, left her “financially ruined.”

“I am not independently wealthy,” she said. “In essence, I am an average San Diegan. I live paycheck to paycheck, and I have very little savings.”

Bernhardt said she was not wrong to allow Scripps Ranch and Mira Mesa to be dropped from her district--a controversial move that helped fuel the call for her ouster, the first recall election since citizens approved the City Charter at the turn of the century. Bernhardt’s tenure lasted only 17 months.

“I did what was best for the people of San Diego. That was not the best choice for Linda Bernhardt. But I didn’t come here to take care of myself.”

She added, “My political enemies used a vulnerable time very well, I must say.”

“I don’t believe for a moment that San Diegans are anti-environment, anti-neighborhood or pro-growth.” But she predicted that her successor would vote for that kind of platform. “Linda Bernhardt clearly is an environmentalist. Behr is clearly . . . insensitive to the environment.”

Still, she pledged to help Behr make a smooth transition--help, she noted pointedly, that she was never offered by her predecessor, Struiksma.

“I want him to have . . . a friend at City Hall,” she said of Behr. “I’ll be there to help him have access.”

“People who know me know Linda Bernhardt is a good person . . . a hard worker. She studies the issues and she knows what she’s doing,” she said. “I have always put my faith in the voters. When the dust settles, the voters will realize I did not have the financial resources or the opportunity to get my message out.”

She said her defeat should not be used as evidence that district elections do not work.

“I was used as a scapegoat to prove they don’t work. Don’t be fooled.” But she said the system could function better than it does. “There are people in this city that need to back off . . . and stop manipulating the process and stop doing devious tactics.”

When asked why she waited days after the recall before appearing in public, Bernhardt said, “You have had me for 24 months. It was a day or two for Linda Bernhardt to rest. I needed to have an opportunity to get my thoughts together.”

In addition, she said, she wanted to allow Behr to have the spotlight to himself. Until April 22, when she departs the council, the media can “have at me all (they) want,” she said.

“I have a strong will, a determination and perseverance and incredible spirit that, I will say to my opponents, they were not able to break.”