KJ ... Ups and Downs of Running for Mayor of Sacto

The three-time All-Star in Phoenix is running for mayor in his hometown. The popular native son now finds himself the underdog, his poll numbers plummeting and his reputation sullied

By Eric Bailey, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
wrote on June 2, 2008

SACRAMENTO -- -- In the NBA and in life, Kevin Johnson always seemed the guy who would do the right thing.

This was the kid who survived Sacramento's toughest neighborhood to study hard and set scoring records, graduating to matchups with Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.

This was the man who returned to his old Oak Park neighborhood to work at restoring a place pockmarked by poverty.

This was the charismatic native son whom President Bill Clinton once urged to get into politics, whose accolades and connections made him the one to beat when he announced his candidacy for Sacramento mayor.

But with election day almost here, Johnson is in the unlikely role of underdog, his poll numbers plummeting, his golden reputation sullied.

Reports circulated by foes and the local media have shattered Johnson's choirboy image. In the grainy netherworld of hit mailers and scandal-fanning websites, he's been rebranded as a child molester, slumlord, creep. He's accused of letting properties rot, of fondling young girls.

For an altruistic athlete named one of the "15 Greatest Men on Earth" by McCall's magazine, who received the NBA's J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award and was named a "Point of Light" by former President George Bush, the fusillade has been tough to take.

"Politics are dirtier and more physical than the NBA," said Johnson, 42.

Johnson, known to friends and fans simply as KJ, is trying to overcome the hurricane headwinds of this campaign the only way he knows how: with hustle and determination, by running hard, literally.

A recent afternoon found him on the streets and sidewalks as the temperature edged past 95. Some candidates walk a neighborhood to hand out brochures. Johnson dons black sneakers and -- in slacks with shirt and tie -- runs from house to house, voter to voter.

"I'm Kevin Johnson, and I'm running for mayor," he announced while shaking hands with Warry Vogelsang, a 64-year-old retired truck mechanic who knows exactly who he is. In Sacramento, KJ is as high-profile as they come.

"I hope to get your support in June," Johnson told him. "God bless you."

Vogelsang was left with the stunned expression of a true believer fresh from a papal audience. Despite the mudslinging, "he might win," Vogelsang said. "He's pretty good."

Johnson may be burning the running-shoe rubber, but a recent Sacramento Bee/KXJZ News poll found that his early lead out of the gate had evaporated, leaving the erstwhile hoops star 7 percentage points behind two-term incumbent Mayor Heather Fargo.

The smart money is that Fargo, whose tenure is marked more by nuts and bolts than big vision, could take it all Tuesday, garnering the 50%-plus-one-vote margin needed to avoid a November runoff.

But some political observers aren't so sure.

Barbara O'Connor, director of Cal State Sacramento's Institute for the Study of Politics and the Media, believes Johnson's door-knocking campaign could turn the tide. With $1 million, he's poised to outspend Fargo 3 to 1.

His hometown devotion also might help, she said. "With Kevin, you have someone who could have gone out and lived the jet-setter life after the NBA. And he didn't."

Johnson's back story is legend around the capital city.

Born to a 16-year-old mother, KJ was raised by his white grandparents. His grandfather, George Peat, was a union sheet-metal worker who instilled in him a steely work ethic and devotion to good deeds: money for the needy, help to a stranded motorist. "His actions spoke so loud," Johnson says today.

At UC Berkeley, Johnson earned good grades and became a devout Christian.

In the NBA, he spent most of his career with the Phoenix Suns, a three-time All-Star on the court with a straight-shooter reputation off it.

Early on, Johnson made a habit of returning to his old neighborhood, bent on philanthropy. He set up a charity, St. Hope, and began mentoring Sacramento teens after school.

He also established a development company, using Magic Johnson's multi-pronged business model, and began the painstaking task of tapping government money to spur urban renewal in Oak Park.

His biggest success is the 40 Acres project, which transformed a decaying block into a home to businesses missing from the threadbare neighborhood: a bookstore, a 225-seat theater, a Starbucks.

"Kevin is the hardest-working individual I've ever met in my life," said lawyer Kevin Hiestand, a Johnson friend since junior high and, with his father, a longtime legal advisor.

Johnson retired in 2000 and moved back to Sacramento for good. Soon, he took on his most ambitious effort: assuming control of his old high school.

With test scores and spirits flagging at Sacramento High, Johnson's St. Hope in 2003 won the right to convert the campus into a charter school. His campaign brags about the results: Seven of 10 graduates go on to college.

But his efforts haven't been free of controversy.

He battled the local teachers union, as well as parents concerned that the new Sac High took too much of a faith-based approach. They question the school's improved graduation rate, saying low achievers are nudged elsewhere.

Last fall, the Sacramento Bee reported that several of Johnson's properties awaiting renewal had been fined $32,000 for trash, weeds and decay.

Unbowed by the publicity, Johnson went into the mayor's race focused on fixing the city's worsening crime problem while vowing to help Sacramento shed its cow-town image and become a first-class destination for business and tourism.

"I have the ability to instantly elevate the profile of the city," said Johnson, endorsed by interests as disparate as the Chamber of Commerce and public employee unions.

But problems soon began pulling him off-message.

In April, an old Phoenix police report surfaced with allegations that Johnson had molested a 16-year-old girl named Mandy in 1995. In wincing detail, it describes how the girl met Johnson, then 29, while shooting a public service TV spot, and their friendship blossomed over the course of a summer. The girl told police that Johnson fondled her several times, though they never had sex.

Johnson enjoyed hero status in Arizona's Maricopa County, and the district attorney didn't press charges. The case failed to attract much attention, other than a story in the alternative Phoenix New Times. Lawyer Fred Hiestand -- the father of Johnson's friend -- told the newspaper that KJ had done no wrong and that his accuser was mentally unstable and had been swayed by a zealous therapist.

With Johnson running for mayor, the old story got a fresh spin in Sacramento, pairing up in the press with more recent allegations, most notably that Johnson had molested a Sac High student by touching her breasts while hugging and kissing her. After a one-day investigation concluded that no crime had been committed, Sacramento police declined to seek charges. Hiestand said the girl's words had been twisted by the teacher who reported the allegations.

Two weeks before election day, Fargo entered the fray with demands that Sacramento police renew their investigation. The mayor was spurred by a Bee story that said Johnson had paid the girl in Phoenix $230,000 to settle the matter.

Police Chief Rick Braziel announced Wednesday that the case would not be reopened and an investigation report would remain sealed.

Out on the streets, Johnson is still running.

During his afternoon jaunts, people stop their cars to say hello. They run out from homes to pose for pictures with him. No one mentions molestation, mostly admiration.

Later, over a glass of ice water in a Mexican restaurant, Johnson talked of life's destinies.

"My goal was always to be more than a basketball player," he said.

Before and after the NBA, he said, "I was just a kid from Oak Park in Sacramento. . . . I'm still that kid who lives a mile from where I grew up, trying to do my part."

eric.bailey@latimes.com

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Comment: If he doesn't win, think the Sac fan will blame the refs or the voters?

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The NY Times, on June 9th:

Ex-N.B.A. Star Adds Glitz to Sacramento’s Mayoral Race

By CAROLYN MARSHALL

SACRAMENTO — Overshadowed by state politics and a high-profile governor, Sacramento cannot seem to shake its reputation as a cow town, despite being the capital of California.

And it is the city’s lackluster image — as much as taxes or budgets or crime — that has been a recurring theme in the bitter and still unresolved race for mayor between Kevin Johnson, the former professional basketball star, native son and local businessman, and Heather Fargo, a career public servant seeking her third term as mayor.

In a nonpartisan election last week, neither Mr. Johnson, with 46 percent, nor Ms. Fargo, at 40 percent, both Democrats, captured the more than 50 percent of the vote needed to win. Election officials are to resume counting 4,000 provisional ballots on Monday, but they have said a runoff election is likely to be needed in November.

That would mean five more months of campaigning in what has already been one of the most acrimonious political races in Sacramento’s history. Along with hefty spending, the campaign featured character attacks and a replay of tawdry accusations against Mr. Johnson about sexual improprieties, previously investigated and dismissed.

“I thought basketball was dirty, but it’s nowhere near as dirty as politics,” Mr. Johnson said.

By all accounts, his first foray into politics has brought unusual attention to the municipal race in Sacramento. A native son and longtime resident of the hardscrabble Oak Park district, Mr. Johnson, 42, is a local hero with celebrity magnetism that seems to draw an entourage of fans and news media wherever he goes.

Adding to the glitz of his campaign have been sports pals like Magic Johnson, who endorsed him, and Shaquille O’Neal, who sponsored a fund-raiser. Some, including Kevin Johnson himself, think this is just the kind of celebrity glitter that Sacramento needs.

“We should not be described as little more than the halfway point between Yosemite and San Francisco,” Mr. Johnson said. “We should not be in the shadow of the Capitol. Sacramento has a presence within this state, and I want to help elevate its national status.”

The idea, however, is not unique.

“We have to start acting like a big city and not a big town,” said Ms. Fargo, 55, who was first elected mayor in 2000 after a decade on the City Council.

Ms. Fargo is known for a nuts-and-bolts approach to governing, and she and her supporters point to her years of experience in government and her ability to work with both city and state workers, many of whom are residents.

But few even noticed the mayoral race until March, when Mr. Johnson suddenly stepped forward to challenge Ms. Fargo, then the obvious leader in a sparse field of candidates. It ignited a battle, and supporters started lining up, giddy with the prospect of a Kevin Johnson administration.

Comparisons to the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination were undeniable. On one side, Mr. Johnson, a charismatic African-American and one-time star point guard for the Phoenix Suns. On the other, Ms. Fargo, the experienced career politician.

But what started as an energized battle between experience and charisma quickly deteriorated into a nasty campaign that forced each candidate to constantly respond to accusations rather than discuss issues facing Sacramento, among them a huge budget deficit, increasing traffic and crime, and the constant battle over city growth and development.

The tone of the campaign turned off, and perhaps turned away, many voters.

One resident, Hannah Gladstone, 19, a preschool teacher and college student majoring in political science, has spent part of this election season as a volunteer for Senator Barack Obama’s campaign. But Ms. Gladstone said she declined to vote in the mayoral election.

“I think the campaign’s a big joke,” she said.

Ms. Gladstone, echoing the comments of other residents, said she had been underwhelmed by both candidates. Ms. Fargo has not accomplished enough, she said, and Mr. Johnson is “all flash and no substance.”

Ted Cobb, 60, a lawyer with the State Water Resources Control Board, said he voted for one of the five other lesser-known candidates, hoping it would force a runoff.

“Voter turnout was horrible,” Mr. Cobb said, “so Johnson’s six-point lead is meaningless. Maybe over the next five months we’ll learn something new. All I’ve seen is the dark side.”

Officials said that fewer than 25 percent of the registered voters cast ballots in the mayoral election, one of the lowest turnouts in the city’s history.

The candidates, meanwhile, have expressed similar concerns about public safety, the need for better services and education, and smart development to foster a better image and to absorb Sacramento’s exponential growth.

By all accounts both seem to truly care about Sacramento, as shown in Ms. Fargo’s many years of public service and, as many point out, Mr. Johnson’s choice to return home despite the option of living anywhere in the world because of his fame and fortune.

“We have very different styles of leadership,” Ms. Fargo said. “My ability to stay focused and stick with it at the smaller level is significant. Saying I have experience may sound hollow or empty, but I think voters underestimate its value.”

Mr. Johnson has been credited with working to rebuild Oak Park, where a bookstore, cafe and art gallery have replaced a large city block once overrun with prostitution and drug dealers, residents say.

He admits that his success has been in the private sector, and that he had not intended to seek office. But he said he never forgot listening to a political speech in 1996 at Madison Square Garden by Bill Bradley, another former National Basketball Association star, who went on to become a United States senator and a presidential candidate.

Mr. Johnson said that was when he first noticed a similarity between politics and sports, a venue that he said had allowed him to observe the good and bad in 28 other cities. It also taught him discipline, focus and, as a point guard, what it takes to be a leader.

“A lot of characteristics in sports transfer to politics,” Mr. Johnson said. “A competitive nature is one of my strengths. And basketball is a team sport; you work with a lot of different egos. I will take a team approach.”