PG&E's candidate PG&E's candidate | October 31, 2001 | SFBG News Mailer reveals that utility backs Lazarus. By Savannah Blackwell WHEN CITY ATTORNEY candidate Jim Lazarus met with the Bay Guardian's editorial staff for an endorsement interview Aug. 28, we didn't expect that the former aide to Sen. Dianne Feinstein would heartily endorse public power. But Lazarus was crafty: He didn't exactly oppose either of the two public power measures on the ballot. He told us he thinks the city attorney should stay out of local politics, so he was neutral on the issue. He would follow the will of the voters: if they approved Measure I, the measure that would create a municipal utility district, or Proposition F, which would create a water and power agency, he would immediately implement whichever they chose. But a campaign flyer distributed to voters across the city early last week gives a different, and important, perspective. The flyer shows who Pacific Gas and Electric Co. wants in the City Attorney's Office: Jim Lazarus. The mailer, paid for by PG and put together by the hired guns at Don Solem and Associates, the utility's longtime consulting outfit, urges San Franciscans to vote no on the public power measures – and to vote for Lazarus for city attorney. The flyer cost $15,000, according to records filed with the Department of Elections. The most prominent name featured in the flyer is Feinstein's; the former mayor is solidly in the PG camp: she is featured in television ads telling voters that F and I are "too risky." A campaign insider, who asked not to be named, told the Bay Guardian that the mailer is PG's attempt at funneling soft money into the already bulging coffers of the Lazarus campaign. Lazarus told us he didn't know anything about the piece, and Solem's office confirmed that. The source also said that both the mailer and a similar one trumping support for no on public power from "independent" Democratic party members show that PG is having a tough time finding legitimate local organizations – much less highly respected activists or political leaders – to support its cause. In fact, the utility would only donate money for a political group's slate card if the organization endorsed against F and I – and virtually no group in town qualified, the source said. The mailer specifically addressing Democratic voters is an attempt to undermine the official Democratic Party's slate, which urges yes on both measures and endorses Dennis Herrera for city attorney, the campaign insider told us. It should come as no surprise that Lazarus has turned out to be PG's candidate. He served as deputy to a mayor, Feinstein, who did everything in her power to make sure public power activists never made any headway. She chaired a campaign against a pro-public power measure in 1982 and was responsible as mayor for the 1987 Turlock and Modesto contracts, which send much of the power from the city's Hetch Hetchy dam to the two irrigation districts and are costing the city a fortune. In addition, Lazarus's wife once worked for PG. Lazarus, who has shot out far ahead on spending, is heavily financed by San Francisco's pro-corporate and PG-friendly old guard. Indeed, at least $22,150 of his $364,185 campaign fund comes from law firms that have long represented PG and other big-business interests (including at least $1,900 from staffers at the law firm of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy and Bass, $1,000 from Wells Fargo heir and investor Warren Hellman, and $1,000 from developer and Democratic Party heavyweight Walter Shorenstein). That figure also includes thousands from representatives of the city's establishment through Lazarus's connection to Feinstein. For example, Dick Blum, who is Feinstein's husband, and his colleagues kicked in at least $1,425. Lazarus also has received $500 from Toby Rosenblatt and another $1,500 from others supportive of the privatization of the Presidio. Herrera has picked up the support of lawyers who have become infamous among many neighborhood activists for their aggressive push to get planning and building officials to look the other way on live-work development and other major issues in representing multimedia and live-work developers in the late 1999s (see "Giving Away the City [http://www.sfbg.com/News/35/03/03lobby.html] ," 10/18/00). Of the $174,387 he's raised, Herrera's taken in at least $10,650 from those interests, including $500 from Andrew Junius, of the permit-expediting law firm of Reuben and Alter, and $500 from multimedia-development mogul Douglas Rosenberg. The maritime nature of his legal practice shows in that there's plenty of port juice on his contribution reports – with $500 from lobbyist Marcia Smolens and $500 from lobbyist Al Williams. Herrera's claim that he will go after government corruption in contracting seems at the very least questionable, since his contribution list includes $500 from Steve Besser, a lobbyist with close ties to Mayor Willie Brown, and $100 from employees of Daja, the company run by Besser's wife, Jacqueline, that got an airport shuttle contract over the objections of contract compliance officers at the city's Human Rights Commission. Herrera's the only candidate whose contribution reports show he accepted money ($100) from PG E-mail Savannah Blackwell at savannah_blackwell@sfbg.com [//savannah_blackwell@sfbg.com] . [http://www.sfbg.com/searchit.html]