Simon Trounces Riordan, Storms to GOP Nomination

Businessman Bill Simon Jr., making his first try for public office, capped a meteoric rise to political power by toppling Richard Riordan on Tuesday in the GOP primary for governor.

The emphatic victory--which seemed improbable as recently as 10 days ago--will pit Simon against Democratic incumbent Gray Davis in November’s general election. Simon went after the governor immediately, blaming Davis in his acceptance speech for botched state policies on energy, the budget, education and water.

“So many of these crises could have been avoided,” Simon said, “if we had leaders with ideas and principles. I don’t believe that Gray Davis planned to fail; I just think he failed to plan.”

He also exulted over his double-digit win and suggested the conservative ideas that powered him past Riordan would fuel a similar upset over Davis in the fall.

“We know that our ideas can move mountains,” Simon told a cheering crowd at the state GOP’s headquarters hotel near Los Angeles International Airport. “That’s why we’re here tonight and that’s why we’re going to win in November.”

Riordan called Simon to concede less than three hours after the polls closed. Smiling gamely as he addressed supporters late Tuesday night, Riordan pledged to “join eagerly in our crusade to get rid of Gray Davis.”

“We must back Bill Simon,” Riordan said, abandoning the animus that marked the closing days of his campaign. “Bill Simon is the hope to bring back glory to the Golden State.”

But Riordan also renewed his assertion that the California GOP needs to reach out to disaffected voters to win statewide elections--despite the problems that message caused his own campaign. The former Los Angeles mayor trailed Simon across the state, even running weaker than expected on his Southern California home turf.

“We must expand the vision of our party,” he declared. “My campaign carried a message worth fighting for: the Republican Party will become more powerful by becoming inclusive.”

Davis Had Big Impact on GOP Race

Davis ran largely unopposed in the Democratic primary, but played a significant role in swaying the Republican race. The $10 million he spent on advertising in the primary--the bulk of it savaging Riordan--was about as much as the Riordan and Simon television budgets combined.

Speaking to a ballroom full of chanting supporters in downtown Los Angeles, a gleeful Davis joined the crowd in shouts of “four more years!”--at one point offering a smiling Spanish translation.

After congratulating Simon, the governor promised “a spirited and hard-fought campaign” over the next eight months and previewed some of his lines of attack.

“Bill Simon is a true-blue think-tank conservative. I am a practical problem-solver,” Davis said. “I believe many of his ideas are out of step and out of touch with most Californians. We need to keep moving California forward. Not backward--and certainly not to the right.”

The third major GOP hopeful, Secretary of State Bill Jones, could afford only a modest ad campaign and was running third.

About 45 minutes after the polls closed, Jones spoke to roughly 100 supporters at the Lime Lite Restaurant in his hometown of Fresno. The mood was somber, but Jones--surrounded by his wife, Maurine, and his two grown daughters and son-in-law--made no concession. He later telephoned Simon to privately offer his congratulations and concede the contest.

The governor’s race topped an election day menu of eight statewide races, along with ballot measures involving term limits, environmental protection and the state’s gasoline tax.

In another anticipated race, scandal-plagued U.S. Rep Gary Condit was ousted by his former protege, Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza of Merced, in their battle for the Democratic nomination in the 18th Congressional District.

Among the ballot measures, Proposition 42, which would permanently dedicate state gasoline tax money for transportation projects, appeared headed for passage. Proposition 45, a measure to amend the state’s legislative term limits, was losing by a considerable margin. Proposition 40, a $2.6-billion bond measure to improve the environment and protect open space, was leading by a narrower, but consistent margin.

The turnout for Tuesday’s unusually early primary was low--perhaps even lower than the 36% that was forecast.

The Republican primary vote was strongly conservative, which seemed to benefit Simon, who aimed his appeal at the party’s most ideological voters. Roughly six in 10 GOP voters described themselves as conservative in a Los Angeles Times exit poll.

Moments after the polls closed, state Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres hinted at the rough going the 50-year-old Simon will face.

“The Republican Party has nominated for governor--to use Dick Riordan’s own words about Bill Simon--an unelectable extremist and sanctimonious hypocrite,” Torres said.

The gubernatorial race was hardly a record-setter in terms of money spent. That distinction goes to the $63-million Democratic primary four years ago.

That said, the GOP contest was remarkable for its volatility, for Davis’ brazen intervention and for the souffle-like collapse of Riordan’s candidacy in, literally, a matter of days.

Riordan, 71, had reason for confidence, at least starting out. He entered the race as a commanding favorite--in early surveys leading by as much as 40 points.

He enjoyed the backing of President Bush--who helped persuade him to run--along with others in the Republican Party establishment. To them, Riordan’s moderate stance on social issues and his appeal to women and minority voters in Los Angeles suggested a different brand of Republicanism that could overcome the state party’s hard-edged image.

Encouraged by those blandishments, Riordan ran against Davis from the start, treating the GOP primary as a technicality. He never used the word “Republican” during his announcement tour--until a questioner brought it up the second day--and he even included former President Clinton in one of his TV ads.

Riordan ignored the jabs of his opponents and, worse, from the perspective of GOP activists, seemed to almost go out of his way to antagonize the party faithful. Riordan not only touted his support for legal abortion, but lectured Republicans on the need to adopt his view or face extinction as a party.

He showed up at events featuring gay rights activists and honoring Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), who cast the lone vote in Congress against the use of force after last year’s terrorist attacks.

He also was emphatic in refusing to spend any of his own personal fortune on the race, mitigating one of the attractions of his candidacy for Bush and others who urged him to run.

But the key tactical blunder may have come at the end of January, when Davis launched his first attack spot, a 30-second television ad that criticized Riordan for his past support of antiabortion candidates and organi The Riordan camp responded that same night with a generic spot--filmed weeks earlier--that expressed his disappointment at Davis’ tone but did not dispute the facts.

Strategists for Riordan wagered that in a post-Sept. 11 environment, voters would have little patience for the sharp-elbowed tactics of the past.

But Davis persisted. He pounded Riordan as a flip-flopper on abortion as well as the death penalty and assailed his record as mayor. The GOP front-runner’s lead began steadily eroding.

That convinced Simon, who had husbanded his own fortune, to foot the kind of multimillion-dollar advertising campaign that is needed to get voters’ attention in the vast and diverse state.

Last year, Simon was the first candidate to announce his intentions to run for governor, forming an exploratory committee in February. He entered the contest with the encouragement of Riordan--a friend and fellow parishioner at St. Monica’s Catholic Church in Santa Monica, whose own candidacy was still months from conception.

For well over a year, Simon traveled the state in obscurity, speaking to one small conservative klatch after another. He outlined plans to address the state’s energy problems, water and transportation, called for tax cuts and touted himself as “the candidate of ideas.”

Simon finally took to the television airwaves in late January with a spot featuring former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Simon had served as an assistant U.S. attorney for a few years under Giuliani. Seeing one of the heroes of Sept. 11 on their TV screen was enough to make voters start paying more attention to Simon.

He triumphed at last month’s straw poll at the state GOP convention--after Riordan boycotted the popularity contest--and built on his momentum by expanding his meager TV advertising campaign.

A tongue-tied, fumbling performer at first, Simon turned in a credible performance in the final two of three gubernatorial debates. More important, he consolidated the conservative GOP base and established himself over Jones as the alternative candidate to the more centrist Riordan.

Davis, meantime, continued to pillory Riordan in his advertising--including one audacious ad that featured the words of former Republican Gov. George Deukmejian, who actually was stumping for Jones.

Jones Had Experience but Little Money

The secretary of state, who got into the race last spring, had the most political experience of any of the major Republican candidates. But he spent his eight years in statewide office promoting largely nonpartisan issues, such as voter participation, and did not lay much groundwork for a gubernatorial run. Indeed, he was badly hurt by a decision in 2000 to withdraw his earlier endorsement and switch to Arizona Sen. John McCain over then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the GOP presidential primary.

That dried up Republican cash and left Jones running a hand-to-mouth effort that never seriously threatened Riordan or Simon.

Instead, with Davis shaping the dynamic, a Los Angeles Times poll a week ago showed the two rivals running neck and neck; that pierced Riordan’s aura of inevitability and caused the White House and its allies to start reaching out to Simon.

After months of staying above the tussle, the beleaguered Riordan began attacking Simon. He suggested their friendship was over and launched an attack spot questioning Simon’s party loyalty.

Simon responded in kind, citing Riordan’s generous campaign contributions to Democrats over the years and his past praise for former President Clinton.

Jones, without the money to seriously compete on television, faded into irrelevancy. Despite last-minute revelations that Simon failed to register as a Republican during his years in New York and contributed, through a business partnership, to liberal San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, his momentum appeared too strong for Riordan to overcome.

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Contributing to this article were Times staff writers Bettina Boxall, Dan Morain, Jeff Rabin and Kenneth R. Weiss.