Features

LOS ANGELES — Richard Riordan, the front-runner for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, has issued a challenge to fellow California Republicans: Embrace moderate stances such as support for abortion rights or risk becoming “an extinct species.” 

His opponents, businessman Bill Simon and Secretary of State Bill Jones, the GOP’s only statewide officeholder, believe Republicans can win without distancing themselves from their bedrock principles. 

Those competing visions are sure to be discussed when the candidates meet for their third and final debate Wednesday evening in Long Beach. And on March 5, when Republicans pick a challenger to Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, they’ll also be determining their party’s ideological direction. 

“As the late Jess Unruh said, ’Winning isn’t everything, but losing isn’t anything,”’ said University of Southern California political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, quoting the legendary Assembly speaker of the 1960s. “That’s basically the debate, and that’s what’s driving the GOP to consider the direction in which it wants to go.” 

Riordan, 71, the former mayor of Los Angeles, leads Jones and Simon in polls and narrowly edges Davis. 

With his moderate views on social issues, Riordan was popular as mayor among women, Hispanics and independents, groups Republicans must attract to beat Davis. Thirty-five percent of the state’s voters are Republicans while 45 percent are Democrats. 

Riordan’s crossover appeal led most of the state’s GOP leadership to embrace his candidacy, and President Bush reportedly urged him to run. 

But in hewing to his promise of broadening the party’s reach, Riordan has largely ignored its conservative base. He doesn’t identify himself as a Republican in campaign literature, and revelations of his financial support for Democratic candidates have incensed some of the GOP loyalists most likely to vote in the primary. 

Party activists picked Simon, who lives in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles, in a nonbinding straw poll at last weekend’s state GOP convention, and several conservative leaders, including former Gov. George Deukmejian, announced they won’t vote for Riordan if he becomes the nominee. Deukmejian is Jones’ campaign chairman. 

“Riordan made the decision several months ago that he was going to run a campaign directed very strongly and specifically at those swing voters that Republicans have lost in past elections,” said Republican strategist Dan Schnur, who worked briefly for Riordan. “In doing so, he may have created an opportunity for a more conservative challenger to reach out to the party’s base.” 

Riordan aides counter that he does have support from many conservative leaders, in part because of his untraditional approach. 

“In California, the Republican Party unfortunately has taken on a negative image,” Riordan strategist Kevin Spillane said. ”... We need to demonstrate that we’re a party that provides political opportunity and power to women, Asian-Americans and other minorities.” 

At the first GOP debate, Riordan announced the need for a “new Republican Party ... of inclusiveness” and said the anti-abortion positions of Jones and Simon “would turn (the Republican Party) from an endangered species into an extinct species.” 

Jones and Simon, both traditional conservatives, took strong issue with that. They contend the GOP can attract diverse voters without moderating its core stances. 

“Some in our party suggest that only a liberal can win and we have to nominate a liberal even if he sounds like a Democrat,” Simon told the party faithful last weekend to cheers and applause. “Some have suggested that our ideas no longer work and can’t lead another California comeback. We have a better idea, don’t we?” 

GOP strategists point to President Bush’s success as an example of how Republicans can reach out beyond the party’s base without wavering on their principles. 

Although the GOP has been a minority party in the state since the 1930s, voters have elected Republican governors again and again, from Ronald Reagan to Deukmejian to Davis’ predecessor, Pete Wilson. But the party has suffered a string of recent setbacks. 

Wilson did Republicans lasting harm with Hispanics with his support for anti-immigrant Proposition 187 in 1994. The GOP’s last gubernatorial nominee, then-state Attorney General Dan Lungren, lost to Davis in 1998 by a margin of 20 percentage points. Democrats greatly outnumber Republicans in the state Legislature. 

All this has led to a consensus that the Republican Party must be more inclusive. For Riordan to succeed, Republican voters must conclude that that requires adopting more moderate positions. 

“The only way to know whether he’s done it well or not is to wait until the day after the election,” Schnur said.