Prop. 63 Backer Will Try to Defeat Opposing Candidates

Angered by what he called “rude treatment” from a state legislative panel, Stanley Diamond, chairman of the California English Campaign, declared Tuesday that his well-financed organization will target for defeat all state Assembly and Senate candidates who do not support Proposition 63 on the November ballot.

The measure would declare English to be California’s “official language.”

“We’re going to do our very best to insist that people only vote for supporters of 63 and we will oppose every candidate who opposes it,” Diamond said in an interview after he participated in a Proposition 63 debate before a San Francisco business group.

Diamond was upset, he said, because a “hostile panel” of largely Democratic lawmakers “showed no respect” for him or for former Republican U.S. Sen. S.I. Hayakawa when they testified in support of Proposition 63 at a hearing in San Francisco Monday.

“After that experience, I thought, ‘Let our state senators and assemblymen who are up for election, let them go to the public on this issue, so the voters will know where they stand,’ ” Diamond said. “We have 70% of the voters in this state with us on this.”

(Diamond was basing this statement on a Los Angeles Times poll, published Sept. 13, which showed 70% in favor of the measure, 22% opposed and 8% undecided.)

Direct mail will be used to reach voters, Diamond said--either a statewide mailer to all registered voters or mailings to “targeted districts.”

He said an endorsement by, or opposition from, the California English Campaign could make a difference in close Senate and Assembly races.

“This issue, to many in the state, is critical,” the 60-year-old retired U.S. Army colonel stated.

Diamond said 200,000 people pay $20 a year to belong to U.S. English, the national umbrella organization supporting Proposition 63 and similar efforts in other states, and that half of these members live in California.

The California English campaign reported contributions of $264,877 between April 17, 1985, and June 30, 1986, according to documents filed with the California secretary of state.

In addition, the California English campaign received a loan of $338,000 from the political action arm of U.S. English.

Diamond said only $88,000 remains unspent for the Proposition 63 campaign so far, but that more funds would be available from U.S. English if needed for the Assembly and Senate efforts.

English Being Eroded

At the Monday hearing, Diamond testified that Proposition 63 is needed because “the English language is being eroded” by such things as bilingual ballots and ineffective bilingual education.

Hayakawa, honorary chairman of the initiative campaign, said the measure would “protect California against Hispanic leaders who say America must become a bilingual nation.”

Both Diamond and Hayakawa were questioned closely by a special two-house subcommittee that included state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblymen Elihu Harris (D-Oakland), Philip Isenberg (D-Sacramento), Sunny Mojonnier (R-Encinitas), Louis Papan (D-Millbrae) and Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles).

(Mojonnier asked no questions and made no statements.)

At one point Torres said to Diamond, “You and Sen. Sam (Hayakawa) may be wonderful human beings, but you don’t control the kooks who are supporting you.”

Later, Papan, who is of Greek descent, told Hayakawa, “You are being used and it’s wrong. . . . Your motives may be good, but you’re hurting California and our society.”

“I’m not being used by anybody,” Hayakawa shot back. “The whole thing is my damned idea,” prompted by the “misguided idea to try to impose French in the non-French-speaking provinces of Canada.” Hayakawa was born in Canada and emigrated years ago.

The subcommittee will hold a second hearing on Proposition 63 today at the Museum of Science and Industry in Los Angeles.