All the Pretty Horses

Al Greenwood the Bedspread King is not a candidate for governor of California. Mark Molthen, Fresno chiropractor, is not a candidate for governor of California. Glenn Turner, screenwriter by night, car salesman by day, is not a candidate for governor of California. Lance Ito, Cal Worthington and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark--they are not candidates for governor of California. Yet.

Beyond these non-contestants, it’s pretty much a wide open field. Seemingly every politician in California--with the possible exception of Johnny Grant, honorary mayor of Hollywood--is now engaged in the process of exploring whether to run for governor. That’s an exaggeration. A few claim to have no interest in the job; they want to be U.S. senators.

Almost every day, the paper brings news of one more thoroughbred posed before the starting gate. Among the horses mentioned most frequently are, in no particular order, Dan Lungren, Gray Davis, Dianne Feinstein, Leon Panetta, Kathleen Connell, Susan Golding, John Garamendi and Al Checchi. Who knows how many more are out there, just waiting to be nudged?

Of the named prospects all but Checchi, an airline mogul, are working politicians with resumes that suggest--to them, anyway--that the governorship is the logical next step upward. All but one will wind up disappointed at best, political desaparecidos at worst: the next Kathleen Brown, or John Van de Kamp, or Mike Curb. . . . They will look back fondly at this as a last season of hope and promise, an exciting time when everybody was still their friend, and the reporters had not yet begun to sniff out their personal finances and secret pleasures.

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The size of the field might be seen as a reflection on the current occupant, Pete Wilson. It goes beyond the fact that he’s a lame duck--providing term limits survive legal challenge. Something about his performance makes many people believe they can do a whole lot better. It’s reminiscent of when Tom Bradley’s run as mayor wobbled to an end, prompting a ludicrous derby among something like 58 would-be successors. The winner, of course, was Richard Riordan, whose name, yes, has made a few published lists of potential gubernatorial candidates.

Part of the allure is peculiar to California. To be elected governor of this colossal state is to be vaulted instantly into the pool of White House prospects, and what politician can resist flirting with that ultimate resume enhancer? Atty. Gen. Lungren, who appears to have scared away most Republican competition, already is receiving the treatment.

“If two years from now he is governor,” George Will, the conservative columnist, wrote last week from Sacramento, “plans will be afoot to make him vice president, at least.”

Kathleen Brown, wherever she is, might get a chuckle out of such gun-jumping analysis. There is no surer way to lose the governorship--and all the rosy prospects that come with it--than to be stamped so early with the imprint of inevitability. I remember how she was egged on for months by her advisors and admirers. Everybody kept saying that she was ready, that her time had come. It had not. Not long ago I bumped into one of her chief eggers-on and received this blithe analysis: Oh, she just wasn’t ready. . . .

And so off to pasture.

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At this point, many of the fledglings play a coy game. For public consumption they wear masks of ambivalence. “I haven’t excluded that possibility,” winks Panetta, freshly departed from the Clinton administration. “I am not saying I will never run,” teases Feinstein. “I have made no decision to run for anything,” says Golding, the mayor of San Diego. Yawn.

In private, they work the political calculus frantically with their consultants. How much money can be raised? How do we poll against the rest of the field? Which candidates can be spooked away early? Which of them are willing to deal? What happens if the Bedspread King decides to dive into the race?

“At this stage, there’s a lot of inside maneuvering going on,” said an advisor to gubernatorial aspirants past and present. “Most of these people are obsessed right now with spinning polls and fund-raising numbers, and with developing and spinning scenarios. What if this person is in? What if that person is out?

“Right now there is this tremendous overemphasis over who is going to be in the field--as distinguished from, ‘Why are we running?’ ”

Why are we running?

What will we do for California if we win?

What will be our mandate?

These questions can be seen as hidden hurdles.

They have toppled many a pretty horse.