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By Larry Gorfine
 SAN DIEGO—During the 1991-92 California senate campaign, I was Dianne Feinstein’s San Diego driver. Feinstein was running against former California Attorney General John Van de Camp in the Democratic primary to determine who would run against the Republican in the general election, just a few short months away and it was during this historic campaign that Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer first became “soulmates”.
The day had started out benign enough although she wasn’t in a great mood as our internal tracking showed her having dropped a point to JVC in the polls (we still had a substantial lead and Barbara Boxer would have loved to have been that far ahead of her opponent). We first drove to a San Diego TV station in Kearney Mesa to cut a commercial and I went about doing what I usually did: making my personal and business phone calls (prior to cell phones), setting up my business day and week, kibbitzing with the receptionist, and generally trying to stay out of sight, while she campaigned.
During that time, I was also chairman of Democrats for Navarro when my buddy Peter Navarro was running for mayor of San Diego. It was either local ABC or local NBC that had just endorsed Navarro and I thought it was the station we were at. So for the first time, DiFi actually introduced me to the station manager. Taken by total surprise, I thanked him for endorsing Navarro and he told us it was not their station we were at but the other one on Engineer Road (his station had actually endorsed Golding).
When we got out to the car, Dianne was livid and shook her finger at me “Larry, don’t you ever do that to me again. You make it sound like I endorse Peter Navarro and I’ve never even met him." She was right, of course, but I told her I was a volunteer and then not to introduce me to anyone since I was merely a driver. Needless to say, it was a quiet ride back to the hotel. (It should be noted that two of Susan Golding’s biggest supporters were M. Larry Lawrence and Murray Galinson--both respected members of our Jewish community).
After lunch, our first campaign stop was a fundraiser by MAPA (Mexican American Political Association) at the El Fandango Restaurant in Old Town, and I hoped she had forgotten the debacle from the morning. I was driving the car, DiFi was in the passenger’s seat, her aide was seated behind me, and our great friend Joan Dean, formerly of San Diego, was sitting behind Feinstein.
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Apparently, Dianne doesn’t like to be encumbered while speaking and, as I was parking the car, she turns to me and says “Larry, I want you to old my purse." Hold her purse?
She wants me to hold her purse? I looked at her and said “Dianne, I don’t hold purses”. (When I took my mother shopping, I wouldn’t even hold her purse). To this day, I’ll never forget the look on her face and I believe, it was Joan who grabbed the purse to prevent any additional problems. Now you might be saying, “Gorfine, you’re a male chauvinist pig”! But let’s really be fair here. I was 45 at the time and didn’t want my friends seeing me standing there like I had gum on my shoes and holding a purse. I would never ask her to hold my socks and she shouldn’t ask me to hold her purse. Period!
So, anyway, my day had now gone from bad to worse to abysmal and we still had one more event. We drove up to Rancho Santa Fe to the home of former NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle and his wife Carrie (daughter of a team owner Jack Kent Cooke), where DiFi was speaking to a small audience of mostly women. Dianne told me when they lived in San Francisco, they called her “Lady Di”. I told Pete I was a fan and he took me into his sports den to show me his sports memorabilia.
But first we sat down in two adjoining seats facing a wall. Then he pushed a button and the wall lifted, revealing a huge TV screen. I seem to remember a baseball game from Detroit that day and we were sitting right on the pitcher’s mound watching it. He showed me the 4 large satellite disks in his backyard and told me he was paid $100,000 from the NFL as a consultant. I also remember a large glass case with his football souvenirs, including a football signed by OJ Simpson, prior to his trial. He gave me a souvenir that day but to this day, I can’t remember where I put it or even what it was.
My long day had now ended and I drove DiFi to Palomar Airport where she had a private plane waiting to take her to the Long Beach Airport. As we were all saying our goodbyes, I thought I absolutely needed something witty to say to her so I shook her hand and said, “Goodbye Diane. I hope the next time I see you, you’re ‘honorable again’ (she had, of course, been mayor of San Francisco). She gave me another look and boarded the plane without speaking to me.
On the way back to San Diego, I asked Joan Dean why Feinstein was mad at me now and she said I made it sound like I thought she had been dishonorable! Go figure.
I didn’t see Dianne again until the 2000 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles when I went to her private reception, also attended by Congressman Bob Filner, at the top of the Occidental Building. When she finally arrived and walked by the people who were there, she stopped in front of me and asked, “Didn’t you used to be my driver or something”? They never forget.
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