Bradley Assails Governor for Using Students at Campaign Rally

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Bradley on Friday again accused his rival, Gov. George Deukmejian, of a “lack of integrity”--this time because of the Deukmejian campaign’s use of public high school students at a rally.

Bradley made his remarks during a speech at a breakfast meeting of the Municipal Elections Committee of Los Angeles, an influential gay political group that has endorsed Bradley.

The Los Angeles mayor was reacting to a Times account of a Deukmejian campaign headquarters opening in Walnut on Wednesday, when Walnut High School cheerleaders and band members were taken out of classes for the event and arrived on buses that school officials said would be paid for by the governor’s campaign committee. The cheerleaders yelled “Go, go, go, Deukmejian,” and “Beat, beat, beat Tom Bradley.”

Bradley spokeswoman Ali Webb said the campaign received a telephone call Thursday from a top Walnut school official, whose name she said she did not recall. “He was apologizing. He said he didn’t realize it was a political event. He was told it was a civic event.”

Deukmejian, Bradley said, “misled schools officials that this was simply an affair to talk about governmental matters. . . . But it was strictly and totally a campaign appearance. Those students and their parents ought to be outraged.” The use of high school students at the Deukmejian rally, Bradley said, “is a gross example of lack of integrity.”

The Republican governor, speaking to a group of political reporters Friday, replied that participation by students in the rally was voluntary.

“Nobody was forced to go,” Deukmejian said. “And from what I read, I think school officials indicated that as far as they were concerned, it was an educational experience for those students. “

Deukmejian said Bradley’s comment that the governor’s campaign misused the students was “ridiculous.”

“If that’s all he’s got to talk about in his campaign, no wonder he’s not doing too well.”