Panetta Decries Big-Money Campaigns

SACRAMENTO — Saying voters are fed up with the high cost of politics, former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta indicated Tuesday that if he runs for governor, he might take an unorthodox route to sidestep the need to raise huge amounts of campaign cash.

Harking back to an era before expensive 30-second TV ads dominated statewide politics, Panetta said at a press conference here that “it might make sense to kind of run a race the old-fashioned way, which is basically to do small fund-raising . . . and try to stay away from big money” and stump the state in person and via local talk shows.

“People are tired of big money in politics,” Panetta said. “There are a lot of political consultants in this business who basically say the best way to run an election is to buy an election.”

Later, in a speech to the California Manufacturers Assn., Panetta hit several other topics that might figure in his campaign if he decides to run: stressing the importance for the state of investing in education and in research and development and the need to overhaul the way state and local governments are financed.

He also singled out for criticism the state’s process of governing through “hit-and-miss” ballot initiatives. The initiative process perhaps should be changed so that measures would not go on the ballot until they first had been reviewed by the governor and the Legislature, he suggested.

Panetta emphasized the need for fashioning bipartisan compromises and scolded Gov. Pete Wilson for not paying enough attention to higher education and for failing to recognize the strength of the state’s diverse population.

A longtime congressman from the Carmel Valley who left the job of White House chief of staff earlier this year, Panetta sought to distance himself from the fund-raising furor in Washington while casting himself as a champion of campaign reform.

Both parties have “had to go out there and beat the bushes in order to raise money. I don’t think that ought to become an issue and I don’t think it will become an issue” in a gubernatorial contest, he told reporters, adding that he was not directly involved in soliciting money for President Clinton.

“With regards to fund-raising, that was the area that was pretty much headed up by my deputy chief of staff [Harold Ickes] as well as the fund-raisers at both the [Democratic National Committee]” and the committee to reelect President Clinton, Panetta said.

An investigation by Congress would determine that campaigns are too expensive and that both parties “have done some stupid things in the race for money,” Panetta said.

To overhaul the federal system, Panetta would move quickly to limit campaign contributions, provide TV time to candidates, require almost immediate disclosures of donations and eliminate unlimited soft money, funds funneled to the parties and not tied to specific candidates. Down the road, he said, there may be a need to consider public financing of campaigns.

Both at the press conference and in his formal address, Panetta, 58, displayed an easygoing and direct manner, describing himself as a common sense moderate.

Panetta said his background reflects that of many Californians: a native son, the offspring of Italian immigrants and someone who has switched political parties. Panetta noted that his own political roots were as a progressive Republican, including a stint as an aide to liberal GOP Sen. Thomas Kuchel.

Panetta said the views of the current crop of state Republican leaders are too narrowly focused.

So far, only one Democrat, Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, has decided to run for the governor’s job, which Wilson is leaving because of term limits. Atty. General Dan Lungren is the presumptive Republican nominee.

Other potential Democrats include state Controller Kathleen Connell, former insurance commissioner John Garamendi, multimillionaire Alfred A. Checchi and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who in 1990 lost a bid for the governor’s office to Wilson.

Panetta said he plans to make up his mind about the campaign by early summer. Since returning to his Carmel Valley home, he has been conferring with supporters and friends, including Feinstein and other potential Democratic hopefuls.

He insisted that there has been no behind-the-scenes deal hammered out with Feinstein, but at the same time he seemed to be indicating that he would not square off against the state’s senior senator.

“There’s no deal and no right of refusal. Just a little common sense here in terms of our interest in making sure that when we run for the governorship, when a Democrat runs for the governorship of this state, that that person wins,” Panetta said.