Antonovich Blisters His 2 Leading Senate Opponents

With only a week to go before the election, behind in the polls and burdened with an image as a lackluster campaigner, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Antonovich figures that there is a workable option at hand.

Attack.

It’s not your polite excuse-me-sir kind of political challenge, but one of those assaults that calls up every steel-jacketed adjective one can grasp to bring the opponents down.

“Crazy! irresponsible! naive! deceitful!” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Antonovich in describing the ideas and deeds of two front-running rivals, Rep. Ed Zschau of Los Altos and political commentator Bruce Herschensohn.

“Deceitful” is how Antonovich described a round of television commercials that told Northern Californians but not Southern Californians that Zschau opposed the Peripheral Canal.

(The canal proposal was a regionally divisive issue rejected by voters. It would have made possible greater shipments of northern water to the south at a cost over $1 billion.)

“A U.S. senator cannot be a regional senator, one who places certain special interests from the north over equally vital interests of the south,” Antonovich told a press conference here.

It was the first of three press conferences around the state this week in which Antonovich intends to criticize his opponents’ records and appeal to uncommitted voters for support.

Zschau, in an interview, responded that he was merely attempting with the commercials to drive home his environmental concerns in a fashion that would be meaningful to different regions of the state.

“When asked, I say the same things in the north as I do in the south,” Zschau said.

Antonovich had a difficult time hitting the target with a second accusation against Zschau.

“Crazy, irresponsible,” was how Antonovich described Zschau’s support for loosening controls on the export of high-technology electronics and other products. Zschau, who founded a successful high-tech business, is closely identified with issues that affect the industry.

“He has voted to weaken the defense of this country to make a buck!” Antonovich declared.

Antonovich referred to a vote in the House of Representatives last week in which some members of Congress representing high-tech districts led the fight to permit freer exports of modern electronic equipment, even over the opposition of the Reagan Administration. Opponents said that such products are too sensitive to export without restrictions and that they could fall into the hands of terrorists.

Charge Has Flaw

The trouble with Antonovich’s charge was that Zschau was in California campaigning during the vote.

Zschau said in a interview that he actually would have voted with the President because the measure went too far in opening up exports. Zschau said his record of votes during the committee process showed him in favor of a more-limited expansion of high-tech exports.

Antonovich’s campaign acknowledged misstating Zschau’s vote. But a spokesman said “the weight of evidence” showed that Zschau favored broad new export opportunities for high-tech products. The spokesman said Antonovich remained “adamant in opposition to that idea.”

When it came to Herschensohn, Antonovich branded him “naive and irresponsible” for proposing a revolutionary flat income tax.

No Deductions

Herschensohn’s idea is to have Congress enact a budget each year and then set a uniform tax rate for every taxpayer to pay for it. No deductions would be permitted.

“This would deny home ownership to many people,” said Antonovich. He also complained that the lack of deductions would hurt charities. And to tie a tax rate to each year’s budget, Antonovich insisted, is the same as giving Congress a “blank check.”

At a Los Angeles news conference, Herschensohn dismissed the criticism.

“Mike Antonovich either doesn’t understand or wants to create an issue because he doesn’t have one and he’s behind in the polls,” said Herschensohn. “Most taxpayers (today) are punished far more than they are rewarded. I want to take out all the punishments and all the rewards so everyone pays the same.”