After Caught in Cross Fire, Press Aide Avoids Politics

Under normal circumstances, Elizabeth Brafford would still be working on the 11th floor of City Hall and, as press secretary to the mayor, her name would appear frequently in the newspapers as she commented on the local issues of the day.

However, because Brafford served a mayor--Roger Hedgecock--whose term proved to be anything but normal, she now works out of her Bankers Hill home, and about the only time her name appears in print is as a byline on free-lance cooking articles and restaurant reviews.

“All the earthshaking topics of the world,” Brafford, 30, said, laughing. “I can’t say it’s been an unpleasant change, though. It’s nice to pick up the newspapers and not have to worry about what the headlines are going to say that day.”

In early 1984, during the initial stages of the controversy that ultimately terminated Hedgecock’s mayoralty three years ahead of schedule, Brafford found herself caught in the cross fire of a kind of public relations no-man’s land.

On one side was the press, clamoring daily for explanations of Hedgecock’s seemingly convoluted personal and campaign finances. On the other side was Hedgecock and some of the mayor’s staffers, who felt that, as press secretary, she ought to be able to do something to help quell the controversy.

“That was a difficult time because we were trying to provide answers at a time when none of us--even Roger--had all the facts,” recalled Brafford, who, because of that experience, is occasionally invited to speak to college public relations classes about crisis management.

Shortly after Hedgecock’s first trial ended in a mistrial in February, 1985, with the jury deadlocked 11-1 for conviction, Brafford resigned as press secretary--not because she had lost faith in Hedgecock but because she felt “this was no longer a battle I could help him win.”

“Once the case went into court, public opinion didn’t matter--it was just 12 people influenced by attorneys,” said Brafford, who joined Hedgecock’s staff when he was a county supervisor.

Describing her attitude toward politics as “once burned, twice shy,” Brafford has consciously remained on the political sidelines for the last year and a half--as much because of her inability to find a candidate that she “can be excited about” as over her concern that her close association with Hedgecock “might be more hurtful than helpful” to candidates she supports.

She added that she expects to return to politics “when the right candidate comes along.”

After leaving City Hall, Brafford began writing stories on cooking for the San Diego Union, as well as restaurant reviews and articles on design for San Diego Home-Garden magazine.

Brafford, who spent several years as a reporter for the Associated Press in New York and for the Union before going to work for Hedgecock, said she is considering returning full-time to journalism. In the meantime, Brafford and her husband, former public relations executive L.J. Cella, have been “catching our breath” by traveling extensively.

Brafford has bittersweet memories of her two years at City Hall, with the euphoria of Hedgecock’s first six months in office, a heady time of major legislative achievements “when anything seemed possible,” offset by the depressing denouement.

“There’s definitely a sense of loss, but I don’t dwell on it,” Brafford said. “I’m basically optimistic and feel like there will be other opportunities for all of us. Life’s not over at 30.”