Lynn Swann makes campaign stop 3,000 miles from home

NEWPORT BEACH -- It would have been tough to throw a football Thursday at the Radisson Newport Beach without hitting a professional athlete.

Four-time Super Bowl winner Lynn Swann brought together a roomful of USC alumni, GOP activists, and some of his sporting friends at a fundraiser for his Pennsylvania gubernatorial campaign. Swann, a Republican, is hoping to defeat Gov. Edward G. Rendell, a Democrat, in November.

“You could almost field an offense here on the football field, a swimming team, and a solid tennis team from who’s here today,” Lincoln Club President Richard Wagner said of his athletic guests.

A number of the guests went to USC with Swann. Sports greats at the lunch included football players Anthony Davis, Sam Cunningham and Rod McNeil; Olympic swimmers Bruce Furniss and John Naber; and Irrelevant Week founder Paul Salata.

Swann played football for USC and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he has been a TV sports reporter and commentator since 1976, but his bid for the Pennsylvania governor’s seat is his first try for elected office.

He told lunch guests he doesn’t plan a career in politics, but he thinks he’ll be an effective governor. Swann said he is one of four black candidates in the nation running for statewide office this year.

They may make history in the process, he said, adding, “It will be the Republican party, not the Democratic party, that will lead that charge.”

Voters nationwide have reportedly grown angry with the GOP in recent months, and 14 of the 17 incumbents booted from the Pennsylvania Legislature in a May primary were Republicans. But Swann didn’t think that would hurt his chances.

“I think that sets the tone for change in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and as an outsider I think that bodes well for me,” he said.

Swann’s celebrity is a big asset to his campaign ? the Lincoln Club lunch raised more than $90,000 ? and some guests said his lack of political experience may not hurt.

“Some of our best politicians have been people that haven’t grown up in the field of politics,” Lincoln Club member Dale Dykema said.

His gracious manner may also help, said Don Bakos, a commercial real estate broker who met Swann while at USC and wore a crimson and gold jersey to the lunch.

“Lynn would just walk up to you and start a conversation,” Bakos said. “He was just a genuine human being.”

And of course, having a famous name means more people will recognize it on the ballot, and that’s a priceless commodity.

“When you run for office in politics, name identity is probably the single biggest ingredient,” Wagner said.

dpt.09-swann-2-CPhotoInfoB01RQ9DF20060609j0kh18ncKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Lynn Swann, left, greets Arte Moreno, owner of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, during a fundraiser in Newport on Thursday.