Joseph D Rodota

In an apparent effort to hone his message and exercise more control over his top appointees, Gov. Pete Wilson on Tuesday named a hard-edged political consultant to a top job among his inner circle of advisers. Joseph D. Rodota, a former Reagan White House aide and an expert in the opposition research that has become central to modern political campaigns, will become Wilson's cabinet secretary, coordinating policy for the Administration.

In an apparent effort to hone his message and exercise more control over his top appointees, Gov. Pete Wilson on Tuesday named a hard-edged political consultant to a top job among his inner circle of advisers. Joseph D. Rodota, a former Reagan White House aide and an expert in the opposition research that has become central to modern political campaigns, will become Wilson's cabinet secretary, coordinating policy for the Administration.

Gov. Pete Wilson put the finishing touch on the team he hopes will guide him into the White House next year, announcing Thursday that his campaign will be run by a former tobacco company executive who helped steer George Bush's 1988 election. Craig L. Fuller resigned his position Thursday as senior vice president of the Philip Morris Cos. in New York to join Wilson's campaign at its Sacramento headquarters. Fuller, 44, will have overall responsibility for running the campaign, Wilson aides said.

After six months of grass-roots organizing for Gov. Pete Wilson's presidential bid, Mitch Zak suddenly found himself out of work when the campaign fizzled last fall. But Wilson took care of him. Within weeks, Zak was installed as a special assistant to the state Fish and Game director. His new salary was 80% higher than his old one as a governor's office assistant--a job that he quit to stump for Wilson.

In baseball, it's scouting. In war, it's spying . In politics, it's called opposition research. You will not hear much about it from candidates themselves, but the California gubernatorial race promises to be a showcase for the age-old practice of digging into the public--and private--lives of political rivals. Just ask Darry Sragow, who is running state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi's campaign for governor.

Even before Gov. Pete Wilson announced he might run for President, he trumpeted the need to shrink government and slice away at a flabby, unresponsive state bureaucracy. But during his first term in office, amid continuing fiscal crises and rolling deficits, the number of his paid political appointees grew at a faster rate than the rest of state government, records show.