Herschensohn to Leave Air to Enter GOP Senate Race

Conservative television commentator Bruce Herschensohn announced Thursday during his evening commentary on KABC-TV in Los Angeles that he is leaving the air to run for the U.S. Senate in California.

“I’m leaving KABC-TV, ‘Eyewitness News,’ ” Herschensohn told his viewers on the 6 o’clock news. “. . . I’m leaving for one reason and one reason alone: I want Alan Cranston’s job as a United States senator. I want it a lot, and I better start on that pursuit full time.”

Cranston, a Democrat, will be seeking his fourth Senate term in November. Herschensohn will become the ninth Republican to enter the party’s U.S. Senate primary.

Herschensohn thanked his viewers for watching him over the eight years he has done the commentaries:

“We regard that click of your dial as an invitation to come into the place in which you live,” he said. “Thanks for that. It’s a very highly regarded invitation here; it is not taken lightly. . . . But now I want to do something about the things that I have talked about for the past eight years. . . .”

Herschensohn, who has been conducting an exploratory campaign for several months, said his announcement on KABC-TV was not a formal entry into the Senate race. That, he said, will come sometime before the March 7 filing deadline.

Herschensohn has had two commentary slots on KABC-TV, one during the 4 p.m. segment and the other at 6 p.m. When he made his announcement Thursday during the 4 o’clock segment, viewers got a chance to compare him to Cranston. Immediately before Herschensohn’s commentary, the station showed Cranston speaking at a Senate hearing on the Philippine elections.

In his announcement during the 6 p.m. news segment, Herschensohn, responding to questions from anchorman Jerry Dunphy, got an opportunity to appeal indirectly for campaign funds and to mention his ties to one former official in the Reagan-Bush presidential campaigns.

“When do you start, what’s the program?” Dunphy asked.

“The program,” Herschensohn replied, “is, I think, about 12 fund-raisers that have been lined up. I’m doing some engagements naturally out of Los Angeles now.

“I haven’t had the opportunity to travel much naturally. . . . I have to concentrate on funds, because believe it or not, a primary campaign for the Senate costs about $2 1/2 million dollars. I remember when that’s what a presidential race cost. . . .”

Dunphy said, “You’ve laid the groundwork, you have a campaign committee?”

“You bet,” Herschensohn said. “The campaign director is Angela Bay Buchanan Jackson. She was treasurer for Reagan-Bush in ’80 and ’84 and United States treasurer. She’s terrific.”

After Herschensohn’s announcement, campaign spokesman Rick Minyard said, “KABC had hundreds and hundreds of phone calls, people wanting to know more, and they referred them to us.”

Final Appearance

Herschensohn is scheduled to make his final radio appearance on KABC’s “Ken and Bob Show” this morning and will appear on the “Michael Jackson Show” later in the morning.

Minyard also said that Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) will appear at a fund-raiser for Herschensohn on Feb. 15 in Los Angeles.

The other announced candidates for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination are Claremont professor Bill Allen; Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich; Rep. William E. Dannemeyer of Fullerton; state Sen. Ed Davis, Valencia; Rep. Bobbi Fiedler, Northridge; economist Arthur Laffer, Rolling Hills Estates; Assemblyman Robert Naylor, Menlo Park, and Rep. Ed Zschau of Los Altos.