Hopes to Become Palm Springs Mayor in April 12 Election : Sonny Bono Seeks to Headline a Political Act

PALM SPRINGS —  Clint Eastwood may be leaving local politics in Carmel but another celebrity is poised to take charge of a California city.

Sonny Bono, erstwhile husband and singing partner of Cher, is reaping a bumper crop of publicity in his campaign to become mayor of this desert resort.

If nothing else, the pasta restaurant owner in Palm Springs is committed to once again shed some limelight on this community of 38,500 people, which has lost tourist business, major development and cachet to newer neighboring communities such as Palm Desert, Cathedral City and Rancho Mirage.

“At first they thought I was a big joke, a clown, a straight man,” said Bono, 53, after addressing a mayoral candidates forum at the Palm Springs Senior Center. “Now, it has all turned and they are taking me very seriously.”

Bono is one of seven candidates in the April 12 election. The others are Palm Springs Councilman Eli Birer; businesswoman Deyna Hodges; accountant Lloyd Maryanov; Agua Caliente Indian Tribe Secretary Ray Patencio; realtor Neil Beatty and retired dentist Lewis Friedman. The four-year post they are seeking pays $15,000 a year.

Despite his performing career, Bono often stutters and gropes for words while making speeches. Sometimes it is hard to hear his voice over the rattling of papers in the microphone.

But Bono’s celebrity status has given him a media reach and free publicity that none of his opponents can match. Since announcing his candidacy a year ago, stories about Bono’s campaign have appeared in Newsweek, People and Vanity Fair. He and Cher recently had a reunion on KNBC-TV’s “Late Night with David Letterman” and he has a starring role in the currently running movie “Hairspray.”

“That little twit gets on television for free,” said Jennie Dollar, a campaign organizer for candidate Patencio.

Campaign T-shirts that say “Sonny Bono for Mayor of Palm Springs” on the front and “It is Time for a Change” on the back are being snapped up at $15 each. In fact, most of Bono’s campaign war chest of $22,000 was raised through the sale of T-shirts, buttons and bumper stickers, according to documents filed with the Palm Springs city clerk’s office.

After the recent candidates’ forum attended by about 300 people, Bono was immediately surrounded by a crush of people young and old.

“Sonny, sign my T-shirt!” cried one elderly man.

“Sonny, another picture, please!” shouted a photographer.

“Sonny, meet my mother!” implored a woman admirer.

Birer stood forlornly nearby and watched the scene unfold with obvious envy.

“You see what’s going on?” he said, pointing at his opponent’s knot of well-wishers. “I’ve never run against a celebrity before. It’s really tough.”

Election Uncertainty

Whether all this will translate to votes on election day is uncertain.

“The groundswell is to throw the bums out and give Sonny a chance,” said Milt Jones, publisher of Palm Springs Life magazine. However, Jones figures that a significant proportion of the 18,354 registered voters in Palm Springs are still undecided.

Nearly all of the candidates have vowed to try to revitalize the downtown area and relax strict building codes and sign ordinances that they contend have hurt the local economy by making it hard to start and operate new businesses.

But Bono claims that he has the show business contacts and expertise to establish “annual events” that could attract more well-heeled tourists to town. For example, he promises to start an international film festival, musical concerts “with big names” and air races.

Bono, who has lived in Palm Springs for 14 years, also has employed some overheated rhetoric in the campaign, attacking what he calls the “old-boy network” that he claims uses “closed-door back-room politics” and has promoted large-scale development projects for personal gain but ignored the concerns of merchants, other business owners and residents.

Pledges to Be Whistle-Blower

“Public disclosures about what goes on in this town only come about when ‘the boys’ can’t get 10 guys to stand on the lid anymore,” he said. “I will blow a whistle so loud it will make an explosion in this town if someone on the City Council does something for personal gain.”

When pressed for examples of “personal gain,” Bono said, “I can’t say specifically what’s going on because a lot of what’s going on isn’t known.”

Nonetheless, Bono has won coveted endorsements from the Palm Springs Police Officers Assn., the Palm Springs City Employees Assn., which represents 130 of the city’s 300 general employees, and the Palm Springs Fire Safety Assn., representing 47 firefighters.

“He is motivated and sincere,” said Chris Kramer, president of the fire safety group. “We feel he can bring some integrity and credibility back to the City Council.”

Not everyone in this community is enamored with Bono. Some are frankly worried about his lack of experience in politics.

“He can be the most excellent straight man in the world but I don’t think that makes him a good candidate,” Birer said. “I think he is building votes in Kenosha, Wis., but not here.”

“He keeps saying he wants change but he doesn’t say what he has in mind,” said resident Benjamin Bernstein 64. “What’s he going to do, run the city with his guitar?”

Need for Revitalization

By most accounts this 51-year-old city needs revitalization.

A utility users tax is expected to expire in November, and that would result in a loss of $2.3 million a year for the city--about 10% of its annual operating budget, city officials said. A contingency plan includes the cutting of some fire and police services.

Meanwhile, many merchants and residents complain about the shuttered doors, and “for rent” and “sale” signs peppering the city’s main street, Palm Canyon Drive.

“This town is at a crossroads where it needs help,” acknowledged Mayor Frank Bogert, 76, a flamboyant longtime resident who is completing his third and last term in office and with whom Bono has had several run-ins. “We’ve got to dress it up, make it pretty and not let it get honky-tonk looking.”