Deukmejian, Heston on Richardson Ads

Sen. H.L. Richardson (R-Glendora) on Friday unveiled television and radio commercials featuring actor Charlton Heston and Gov. George Deukmejian as part of his campaign to capture the Republican primary nomination for lieutenant governor.

Richardson, a staunch conservative best known for his advocacy of gun ownership and efforts to help elect conservative candidates during his 20 years in the California Senate, is up against former Lt. Gov. Mike Curb in the June 3 Republican primary.

Because Richardson was a Curb supporter before the two had a falling out over a campaign debt that Curb owed him, and later paid back, some suggested that the primary would be a “grudge” match. But the Richardson commercials previewed Friday at press conferences in Los Angeles and throughout the state made no attacks on Curb, concentrating instead on Richardson’s conservative credentials.

In the commercials narrated by Heston, Richardson is listed with President Reagan and Deukmejian as one of California’s three “extraordinary leaders” of “conservative Republican leadership.”

Governor Neutral

Richardson has been critical of the governor in the past, but Richardson said Friday the two “have been friends for a long period of time.” Although Deukmejian fought a bitter gubernatorial primary race against Curb in 1982, the governor has said he would remain neutral in this GOP primary race for lieutenant governor.

But Deukmejian does appear in the Richardson commercials in a posed shot of the two of them sitting together, appearing to discuss legislation. That shot appears in all three of Richardson’s 30-second spots, with a tag line: “Gov. Deukmejian, Bill Richardson--the conservative leadership we need.”

The commercials are “positive,” Richardson said, but he did not rule out a more hard-hitting approach later against Curb, who Richardson called at a press conference “a nice young boy.”

The radio and television ads start Monday for about a week at a cost of $199,000, Richardson said.