Ueberroth campaign has Newport Beach touch

Mike Swanson and Paul Clinton

Let the games begin.

Peter Ueberroth, leading organizer of the 1984 Olympics, former

baseball commissioner and an Orange County resident, is among 135

candidates seeking to replace Gov. Gray Davis if Californians vote

for a recall Oct. 7.

Ueberroth, a registered Republican, will run for governor as an

independent candidate with a bipartisan campaign team. He is using a

Newport Beach address as a campaign headquarters. He lives in Laguna

Beach.

He said he’s committed to serve only the remaining three years of

Davis’ term “to stop California’s compounding economic death spiral

while it is still possible, reverse it, and put California back on

track.” He won’t run in 2006, he said.

“California’s problems need to be fixed and they need to be fixed

now,” Ueberroth said in a statement released Aug. 8. “But I have

learned from experience that there are no solutions that are not

bipartisan.”

Ueberroth has been widely embraced as a serious candidate for the

state’s top elected post, Newport-Mesa political experts agree.

“I think anyone with $40 million is a serious candidate,” said

Costa Mesa-based GOP pollster Adam Probolsky. “He’s decidedly

moderate, when you have more than enough moderates and liberals in

the race.”

Ueberroth faces long odds against Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has

drawn on his star appeal in the week since announcing his candidacy.

President George W. Bush, Reps. Dana Rohrabacher and Chris Cox,

billionaire financier Warren Buffet and others have endorsed him.

“Peter has incredible credentials,” said GOP fund-raiser Buck

Johns. “Unfortunately, has is facing a candidate [in Arnold

Schwarzenegger] who has sucked the oxygen out of this race.”

Ueberroth, 65, received widespread praise for organizing the 1984

Olympics in Los Angeles, which turned a $215-million profit through

corporate sponsorships and media contracts during an event many

feared would fail.

Ueberroth then started his term as commissioner of Major League

Baseball in October of 1984. He stepped down when his first term

ended in 1989. He was harder on baseball’s drug users during his

tenure than any other commissioner in its history, regularly

suspending and fining players who failed drug tests on the grounds

that they were acting as poor role models. In 1985, he reinstated

Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, who had been banned from baseball for

allegedly working for an Atlantic City casino.

A poll released early this week showed Ueberroth among the top

five candidates in the recall race, but his 8% backing trailed

front-runner Arnold Schwarzenegger by 23%.

* MIKE SWANSON is a reporter for Times Community News. He can be

reached at 494-4321 or mike.swanson@latimes.com. PAUL CLINTON covers

the environment, business and politics. He may be reached at (949)

764-4330 or by e-mail at paul.clinton@latimes.com.