Fiedler, Davis Fire New Salvos: She’s ‘Sorry for Him’ and He’s ‘Outraged’

“I feel sorry for him . . . it’s sour grapes.”

“I don’t think she is innocent . . . I am outraged.”

Despite the dismissal Wednesday of the indictment against Rep. Bobbi Fiedler and her top aide, Paul Clarke, the war of words continued between Fiedler and her accuser, state Sen. Ed Davis.

In a telephone interview Wednesday from her Washington office, Fiedler was asked if she was angry at Davis for charging that she and Clarke tried to entice him out of the Republican U.S. Senate race with a $100,000 campaign contribution.

“I’m not hurt or angry at Ed,” the Northridge congresswoman replied. “I continue to feel the same way I did from the beginning. I feel sorry for him.”

But, confronted later in the evening with Davis’ statement that the dismissal of Clarke’s indictment should be appealed, Fiedler got tougher.

“I think his comments are nothing more than sour grapes by somebody who has lost an effort against an opponent he desperately wanted to (defeat),” Fiedler told KCBS-TV’s Jess Marlow.

As soon as the indictments were dismissed Wednesday, Davis jumped on a plane in Sacramento and flew to Burbank for a news conference, where he said that while he agreed with the dismissal of Fiedler’s indictment, “I don’t think she is innocent. I just don’t think there is enough evidence to convict. Paul Clarke would not on his own launch such a foul scheme.”

The Valencia senator added that he was “outraged by the judge’s decision to dismiss the indictment against Paul Clarke.”

“I am going to insist that the proper legal remedies are pursued against Paul Clarke,” Davis continued. “I am confident that Paul Clarke will be charged and tried in Superior Court. You can bet your boots on that.”

Asked if he thought his own Senate campaign had been damaged by the Fiedler affair, Davis said:

“Frankly, I don’t give a damn. If it means I don’t win the U.S. Senate race, so be it. I don’t have to be U.S. senator. But I must live with myself and be able to have my own self-respect. . . . I think the people of California are more for someone who has the guts or the courage to do the right thing when offered a $100,000 bribe than they are for someone who says he would look the other way . . . or someone who would offer (a bribe).”

Wednesday’s fresh salvos in the Fiedler-Davis dispute also grazed Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, himself an ambitious politician.

Fiedler was asked in the telephone interview if she is angry at Reiner, a Democrat, for his office’s investigation of her.

“No,” she replied. “Alan Cranston (the incumbent senator) is the only one in the Democratic Party I am focusing on now.”

But that was before Reiner said at a press conference Wednesday, “I don’t think she (Fiedler) is in a position to complain or bellyache about what has happened. She was involved with her campaign manager (Clarke) in some pretty shoddy business, and that is trying to buy out an opponent. She is relying now and has so far escaped on a legal technicality. . . .”

Reiner was referring to Superior Court Judge Robert T. Altman’s dismissal of Clarke’s indictment based on his interpretation of key words in the statute used to indict Clarke and Fiedler.

After Marlow replayed Reiner’s remarks for her on television, Fiedler responded, “I think he is trying to protect his own political future. . . . He is trying to escape the political stigma attached to the entire way the investigation was handled. . . .”

Clarke was not available for comment on the dismissal of his indictment, but in a short prepared statement he implied that Davis and Reiner were “desperate politicians” whose “massive dirty trick” had backfired.

In the telephone interview, Fiedler preferred to dwell on the positive, saying that she was excited by her prospects now in the Senate race. She and Davis and five others are fighting for the Republican nomination to oppose Democrat Cranston in November.

“I think . . . I have exacted a benefit by being able to reach a larger number of people in the state and show that I can stand up under very difficult circumstances,” Fiedler said.

“It isn’t the way I would ordinarily expect to reach them, but one has to take situations as they come in life and deal with them straight on. When you are involved in politics this is one of those things.”

Fiedler said the situation reminded her of how the Los Angeles anti-busing movement unexpectedly brought her to prominence, leading to her election to the Los Angeles Board of Education in 1977 and her election to Congress in 1980.

Political professionals say there is no question that the indictment increased Fiedler’s name identification in California, particularly in the North, where she was virtually unknown. But opinion is divided on whether she is ultimately helped by the episode.

Some professionals agree with Los Angeles political consultant George Young, who said Wednesday the dismissal of the indictment could be “a real opportunity for Fiedler” if she and her campaign staff are able to capitalize on it in speeches and commercials.

California Poll director Mervin Field noted at the time of the Jan. 23 indictment that Fiedler was getting a lot of publicity at a time when no Republican candidate had broken out of the pack, and also that “ordinary people, not just political junkies, are suddenly paying attention to the Senate race” because of the Fiedler-Davis dispute.

But Field agreed recently with Los Angeles Times Poll Director I. A. Lewis that only a scientific survey can determine voters’ views of Fiedler should her indictment be dismissed.

A Times Poll taken right after the indictment found after being told of the indictment, 36% of the Republicans said it would cause them to be “less likely” to vote for Fiedler.

Some political professionals wondered privately whether, in the words of one, “the voters will still think that where there’s smoke there’s fire” and not be affected by the dismissal of the indictment.

Fiedler entered the year with $458,000 in her campaign war chest. Federal reports due on April 15 could show how the indictment has affected her recent fund-raising.

Contributing to this article was Times staff writer Janet Clayton.