McCarthy Rejects Fair Campaign Code, Doubts Curb’s Truthfulness

Stepping up the attack in what promises to be one of the rougher California campaigns, Democratic Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy on Wednesday rejected a fair campaign practices code proposed by Republican opponent Mike Curb and accused him of “having little concern for the truth.”

In turning down Curb’s proposal, McCarthy offered as a compromise a much simpler campaign pledge, a statement declaring, “I will tell only the truth about my opponent and my own record.”

Past Campaigns

“In three previous campaigns, Mike Curb has demonstrated that concepts of truth and ethics are foggy notions to him,” said McCarthy, referring to campaigns that Curb, a former lieutenant governor, waged against Gov. George Deukmejian in 1982 and others.

Fred Karger, Curb’s campaign manager, rejected McCarthy’s one-sentence proposal as “ludicrous.” Karger accused McCarthy of preparing “a vicious, personal-attack type of campaign” because the Democrat was running five percentage points behind Curb in a voter survey conducted by pollster Mervyn Field shortly before the June 3 primary.

“We are very disappointed,” Karger said. “We assumed we were dealing with an ethical man, but if he is planning on throwing our code of ethics out the window and waging a different kind of campaign, I can just guarantee him it will backfire. The public today just does not tolerate negative campaigns.”

One point the two sides did appear to agree on was acceptance, in principle, of a face-to-face debate. McCarthy said he was eager to debate his Republican opponent. Curb said earlier he wanted to debate McCarthy.

When and where a debate would occur remained undecided.

With the general election still five months away, the campaign is growing increasingly strident.

During the primary, Curb called McCarthy “an old hippie leftover from the ‘60s.” He said McCarthy--a former Speaker of the Assembly who was elected lieutenant governor in 1982 when Curb gave up the office to run unsuccessfully for governor--had a history of supporting tax increases.

The hippie comparison angered McCarthy, a straight-laced, stiffly conventional family man.

McCarthy came back with an attack on Curb two days after the primary, challenging the Republican to clear up his military draft record.

Record Producer

Curb, now 41 and a successful record producer, was hurt in his campaign for governor by suggestions that he avoided the draft in the Vietnam War era after being reclassified from 1-A to 1-Y, the classification for people “physically, mentally or morally unfit” for military service.

On Wednesday, McCarthy challenged Curb’s claim that he supported tax increases. He said California’s last statewide tax increase was in 1972 and was supported by Ronald Reagan, then serving as governor.

McCarthy told reporters that he had supported three major tax cuts--elimination of the business inventory tax, indexing of the income tax to protect taxpayers from being pushed into higher brackets because of inflation and a special exemption for widows from the inheritance tax.

McCarthy circulated copies of previous statements made by Curb about Deukmejian. The two Republicans, now running as a ticket, were bitter adversaries in the 1982 gubernatorial primary. In newspaper clippings distributed by McCarthy, Curb called Deukmejian a “career bureaucrat” and said his opponent was in the pockets of the utility companies and was fiscally irresponsible.

Karger said the 1982 comments were made in the heat of political combat and that Curb has since become a strong supporter of Deukmejian. He said Curb made all his draft records available to reporters and has nothing to hide. “That is a 20-year-old situation he (McCarthy) is bringing up.