On 2nd Thought, Riordan’s El Toro Wish Was a Flight of Fancy

A guy can change his mind, can’t he?

And after the way Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer explained things a few weeks ago to Richard Riordan, the former Los Angeles mayor and presumed candidate for governor apparently figured he had to change his mind.

So, he did. And guess what? Please disregard all those pointed comments Riordan made three years ago about it being Orange County’s duty to build a commercial airport on the El Toro Marine base site.

In December 1998, the then-mayor ventured down here and told a pro-airport crowd that he enthusiastically supported a new airport in Orange County. He went on to chastise anti-airport locals as selfish.

“To stick your head in the sand and say ‘We have ours’ is morally wrong and stupid economically,” Riordan said at the fund-raiser organized by airport backer George Argyros.

Of all the nerve, thought a lot of Orange County residents.

Riordan probably spoke from the heart that day in Irvine, but how was he to know he’d someday be thinking about running for governor? And that, if he did, he might need to win over Orange County Republicans to win the primary? And that winning them over would be impossible if he supported an El Toro airport?

Thanks to Spitzer, Riordan now knows all those things.

And so Riordan has done what most politicians do when their positions butt heads with potential votes: They change positions.

His Honor said this week that, gee whiz, maybe Orange County doesn’t need a huge new airport after all. Or if it does, we should decide it ourselves. Maybe one could be built in, uh, the Inland Empire, he said.

Spitzer, one of the two anti-airport supervisors, says Riordan’s advisors contacted him a few weeks ago for a one-on-one meeting with Riordan, a man he’d never met.

“They asked me to sit down with him and explain my perspective on El Toro,” Spitzer says, “and explain to him how significant or insignificant I perceived it to be in Orange County.”

Spitzer’s bottom line: Riordan wouldn’t win a statewide GOP primary without winning Orange County, and he wouldn’t win Orange County if he were pro-airport.

“I just don’t think anyone who’s not in Orange County either on a regular basis or who lives here understands and appreciates the passion associated with this issue,” Spitzer says. “It’s the only issue people care about in South County. I explained to him that Republicans in South County will vote for a Democrat who’s anti-airport over a Republican who’s pro-airport.”

The mayor apparently listens well. Gone are his pronouncements from three years ago on Orange County’s obligations to the poor, who he said would benefit from jobs at a new airport. Gone is his statement that an El Toro airport was vital to solving Southern California’s air travel needs.

Moments like this put spinmeisters in an awkward position, but Riordan press secretary Carolina Guevara does her best. “His position has always been that Orange County needs to expand its capacity to meet the growth in coming years,” she says. Since he spoke three years ago in Orange County, she says, other options have surfaced outside the county.

Even after I read Riordan’s earlier El Toro statements to her, Guevara won’t budge. She says political considerations don’t have “anything to do with” Riordan’s updated El Toro comments.

Nor will Spitzer bite when I ask about Riordan’s epiphany. “I see it as education,” he says. “He said from the very beginning [of his consideration about running for governor] he was going to travel and learn about the issues, whether that was in Fresno, Silicon Valley, Redding or Orange County.”

Spitzer who now has endorsed Riordan, says the former L.A. mayor “will be hands-down the Republican nominee.” Riordan will announce his intentions Nov. 6, Guevara says.

A Riordan sellout on El Toro? A political flip-flop?

Judge not, the Bible says.

I’m just hoping this means we won’t hear any more preaching from Mr. Riordan about our moral duty.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com.