Massachusetts Gov. Dukakis Tests the Democratic Waters in L.A.

Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis brought his fledgling presidential campaign to Los Angeles Wednesday, seeking money and support from curious Democrats on a three-day West Coast swing after the collapse of Gary Hart’s campaign.

With seven Democrats in the race so far and no front-runner in sight, Dukakis told reporters at a press conference at the Beverly Pavilion hotel, voters in the California primary on June 7, 1988, “may well decide who the next President of the United States will be.”

“I don’t think this race is going to be resolved in Iowa, New Hampshire or even after Super Tuesday,” he said.

First After Hart

The youthful-looking Dukakis, 53, is the first announced Democratic candidate to campaign here since Hart quit the race after a newspaper report that he had spent part of a weekend at his Washington town house with a Miami woman.

Dukakis and his aides have actively wooed Hart’s former campaign workers and financial supporters across the country since then. On Tuesday, for example, they announced that Hart’s Oregon campaign director had signed on.

While in the Los Angeles area, Dukakis was scheduled to attend at least four fund-raising meetings and to meet privately with the Hollywood Women’s Caucus. A campaign aide said that Dukakis hopes to return home this afternoon, after visiting a computer design class at El Camino College, with at least $200,000 for his growing war chest.

Dukakis arrived in the state Tuesday evening, flying into San Jose for a meeting with 120 Silicon Valley executives after a hectic day of campaign stops in Seattle, Olympia and Portland. He has yet to set up an organization in California.

‘Duke’ Meets ‘Duke’

But Dukakis made history of sorts Wednesday morning when the Democratic governor known as the “Duke” in Boston shook hands and posed for cameras with the Republican governor known as the “Duke” in Sacramento, George Deukmejian.

When someone asked how the two governors had gotten their nicknames, Dukakis said that his older brother and he were “known as ‘Big Duke’ and ‘Little Duke’.” Deukmejian just smiled. “I’m the Good Duke,” he joked.

Dukakis also met privately with Assembly Speaker Willie Brown Jr. (D-San Francisco), Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) and about two dozen legislators. After their meeting, Brown said that Dukakis had impressed him as “urbane . . . intelligent . . . personable and humorous.”

“He is obviously one of the stars,” Brown said.

Earlier, at a breakfast meeting in a crowded motel ballroom with about 300 local Democrats in the Harry S. Truman Club, Dukakis delivered his campaign message of ethnic heritage, economic revival and integrity in government.

‘What Defines Me’

Dukakis described his upbringing as the son of Greek immigrants in Boston and his record of 24 years in state government as legislator and governor. “That background, that experience, that heritage, that’s what defines me,” Dukakis said.

Citing his experience as a three-term governor of now-booming Massachusetts, Dukakis said that his goal was to “create genuine economic opportunity for every citizen,” based partly on a “strong partnership between business, labor and government.”

In foreign affairs, Dukakis called for “creating a foreign policy that reflects American values,” including cutting all support for the Nicaraguan rebels. “I don’t believe we need a shooting war in Central America. I think we need a war against poverty, injustice and exploitation in Latin America.”

Draws Applause

Dukakis drew applause and favorable comments from many in the audience--as he did in all his public appearances this week--even though few were willing to commit their support.

“I’m here because I’m looking for a front-runner,” explained Rod J. Diridon, a member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. “I’m a Democrat.”