Governor Admits Expected Bradley Race Sparked His Statewide Trips

Gov. George Deukmejian, acknowledging concern about his expected opponent in the 1986 governor’s race, said Friday that Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley’s attacks on his record prompted him to undertake a hectic schedule of campaign-like appearances in recent months.

The Republican governor, who has been crisscrossing the state, mixing state business with campaign fund-raisers and high-visibility news media events, said his own frequent criticism of Bradley and active political schedule was an effort “to get the record straight and get it straight just as early as possible.”

Deukmejian, during the taping of a KNBC Channel 4 “News Conference” program that will be shown Sunday morning, said Bradley “started it.”

“He started it on Labor Day, attacking me, attacking our programs and our policies,” Deukmejian said.

Waste Sites

Deputy Mayor Tom Houston said Bradley stood by his criticism that Deukmejian was not adequately moving to relieve overcrowding in state prisons and to clean up toxic waste sites.

“The failings of Gov. Deukmejian on prisons is going to be a major issue, because it is a major problem,” Houston said.

Houston suggested that Deukmejian was concerned about the strength Bradley was showing in public opinion polls, not the mayor’s criticism of his record.

“The reason Deukmejian has been all up and down the state is he is behind in the polls, and it is a shocking state for an incumbent to be in,” Bradley’s chief aide said.

Bradley, who was narrowly defeated by Deukmejian in 1982, has not formally declared that he will be a candidate in next year’s gubernatorial election. Neither has Deukmejian, even though the governor has raised more than $3 million so far for his reelection effort.

Job Approval

Deukmejian told interviewers that he was not concerned about polls. He said polls showed him to have a high job approval rating among voters.

In response to other questions, Deukmejian said he thought the November, 1986, confirmation election of Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird would be a “major factor” in his race against Bradley.

Like other Republicans, Deukmejian believes Bird will have trouble being confirmed, because of liberal court rulings and delays in implementing the death penalty.

“I have said without any question that I am not going to vote to give Chief Justice Rose Bird another 12 years. My opponent--who I think will be my opponent in the upcoming race--has been a strong supporter of hers in the past,” Deukmejian said.

On another issue, Deukmejian said he planned to meet with some of the religious leaders who sent him a letter asking him to fire David Stirling, the general counsel to the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board, because of Sterling’s alleged bias against farm workers.

Church Leaders

Deukmejian, however, said he believed that the criticism, as well as the timing of the letter, was unfair, because the church leaders had not given him a chance to respond, before going public with their anti-Stirling letter.

Amplifying on his remarks to reporters later, Deukmejian said “it’s only fair and proper” to allow him a chance to respond., He said he was giving full support to Stirling, a former Republican assemblyman appointed by Deukmejian to the farm board post in 1983. The governor told reporters he thought Stirling “is doing a splendid job.”

Speaking on still another issue, Deukmejian told his television interviewers that state Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) had misrepresented his record in criticizing a letter the governor wrote to conservative-voting Democrats in Riverside County asking them to reregister as Republicans.

Urged to Register

Roberti called the governor’s appeal deceitful, because the governor cited Democratic opposition to Proposition 13 (the 1978 property tax-cutting initiative) in urging the voters to register Republican. The Senate leader said Deukmejian was “a principal opponent” of Proposition 13, a claim Deukmejian challenged.

The governor acknowledged that he had supported a rival tax-cut measure proposed by the Democrat-controlled Legislature to counter Proposition 13. However, he denied being “out in front” of opposition to the initiative, laying the blame for that on Democratic leaders.

The rivalry between Deukmejian and Bradley spilled over into the weekend, as both politicians focused their attention on issues of interest to Jewish voters.

Bradley headed to Israel for a five-day “trade and commerce” tour, while Deukmejian’s office released a copy of a letter from the governor calling on President Reagan to make the plight of Soviet Jewry a topic in his upcoming summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.