LOS ANGELES -- Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani campaigned here yesterday for his old friend and one-time Justice Department protege Bill Simon, injecting a badly needed jolt of star quality into a barely visible campaign for the Republican nomination for California governor.
Not only did Giuliani help raise more than $500,000 and film television commercials for the Los Angeles businessman, he also hailed Simon's political inexperience as one of his greatest assets.
"I don't think most people are satisfied with the way government and politics is handled in America today," said Giuliani. "There are some great leaders, like our president. But by and large I think the sense is a sense of cynicism about the level of leadership that we have generally. To cure that, we have to draw into politics people from other areas."
Like Simon, Giuliani had a well-established career outside of politics and then aimed high in his first bid for public office. But Giuliani was unsuccessful in his first run for mayor.
"I think it's important that somebody develop their background, their experience outside of politics before they actually enter politics," Giuliani said. "I think they understand it better. I think they bring something new to it."
As the U.S. attorney from New York, Giuliani hired Simon as an assistant in 1985. Giuliani lauded Simon's tenacious pursuit of organized crime families and their financial assets during his three years in the office.
After leaving the U.S. Attorney's Office, Simon, the son of the late former Treasury Secretary William Simon, moved to California and has become an independently wealthy venture capitalist and active philanthropist.
Even after he moved to California, he and Giuliani remained close friends. The two were having breakfast at a Manhattan hotel on the morning of Sept. 11 when they were interrupted with news of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
In the aftermath of the attack, Giuliani's ubiquitous, hands-on and reassuring presence transformed him from a contentious lame-duck mayor who had pretty much worn out his welcome to arguably America's most popular political figure.
Simon, despite nearly a year of campaigning for governor, remains virtually anonymous.
A poll released this week by the Public Policy Institute of California showed only 4 percent of the likely voters in the March 5 Republican primary election favored Simon.
Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan led the three-way field with 41 percent, with Secretary of State Bill Jones at 13 percent.
Simon campaign manager Sal Russo maintained that everything is on track and that the poll's most significant finding was that 42 percent of the probable voters had yet to make up their minds.
As for Giuliani, Russo said he didn't expect the former mayor's popularity to automatically transfer to Simon, but that his visible presence in upcoming campaign ads would get voters interested.
"Giuliani has tremendous credibility," said Russo, "and when he says that Bill Simon is qualified and capable to be governor of California, I think people will take note and then listen to what Bill Simon has to say."
