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| Visions & Revisions |
Everything in Moderation
11/01/2005
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At 63, when most successful financiers take time to enjoy the fruits of their
labors, Richard J. Riordan took a different path. In 1993, Riordan, who amassed
a fortune in venture capital, leveraged buyouts and real estate, became the
first Republican in three decades to be elected mayor of liberal, Democratic Los
Angeles.
A no-nonsense fiscal conservative, Riordan brought a businessman’s
pragmatism to the job of governing the unwieldy, riot-scarred city. His brand of
moderate conservatism resonated with voters who, in 1997, reelected him in a
landslide to a second term. Yet, this popularity never translated into statewide
political success. In 2002, he failed to win his party’s gubernatorial
nomination, losing to a relatively unknown ultra-conservative candidate who
tarred Riordan as a liberal and a “Rino” (Republican in name only).
 Having
recently retired after serving as California’s secretary of education with the
Schwarzenegger administration, Riordan now focuses on philanthropy—the Riordan
Foundation has, to date, made more than $30 million in grants to schools across
the nation. He also remains defiantly committed to moderate conservatism, an
increasingly embattled stance in today’s right-leaning GOP. At his home in the
Brentwood section of Los Angeles, Riordan sat down with Worth features editor
Douglas McWhirter to discuss the political value of a businessman’s pragmatism
and how the salvation of both the Republican and Democratic parties will be
found in the center, rather than the extremes.
These days, social conservatives who control the GOP scorn more fiscally
focused party moderates. Can centrist “Eisenhower Republicans,” who were the
backbone of the GOP for decades, rise again?
I actually think things are heading in the right direction, especially here
in California. We have a fairly moderate head of the California Republican
Party, Duf Sundheim, who beat out an arch conservative for the position. We also
have a group called the New Majority, which is comprised of moderate Republicans
who want, essentially, to wrest the party away from the conservatives who now
control it. These are very successful business people, by and large, who are
politically pragmatic. And pragmatically, if the Republican Party is to be
saved, it has to become more moderate.
What defines a moderate Republican?
I hate tags like moderate and
conservative. Basically, I am someone who cares about the working poor, which
doesn’t mean I’m not a conservative. The Democrats want to take care of the poor
with welfare, which demeans them. I feel the poor are best served by removing
the stranglehold that the unions have over education, and giving children a
quality education so they can succeed in life. We should also impose fewer laws
and taxes on business, because this attracts more business and more jobs for the
working poor. To me, this is neither liberal nor conservative; it is just plain,
common, moral sense.
Voters in America’s two largest cities are predominantly liberal and
Democratic. Yet they easily elected you and Michael Bloomberg, two moderate
Republicans, to serve as their mayors. What does this say about urban voters
and the appeal of moderate conservatives?
When I was mayor, the liberals sort
of ignored my conservative side. I would sit with them and explain what I meant
by conservative principles, and it didn’t seem so conservative to
them—particularly when they saw that I respect minority groups.
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