Evidence of Erosion in Support for Reynoso and Grodin Boosts Bird Foes

With the Tuesday unveiling of two hard-hitting television commercials, the political opponents of California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird believe they are finally breaking a logjam of public indifference toward their two other targets on the court--Justices Joseph Cruz Reynoso and Joseph R. Grodin.

“We feel it it particularly significant that the polls are showing undecided voters moving away from Grodin and Reynoso,” said Stewart Mollrich, advertising director for Californians to Defeat Rose Bird.

Mollrich cited the results of a recent Los Angeles Times Poll that showed Grodin and Reynoso winning, but by margins that have shrunk since their opponents started their television campaign early this month.

Similarities Stressed

The new ads stress similarities among Bird, who is losing by a 2-1 margin in the latest poll, Grodin and Reynoso. One of the ads highlights Bird’s voting record on death penalty cases and contends that Reynoso has voted with the chief justice 98% of the time and that Grodin has sided with her 83% of the time.

(Bird has voted to overturn death penalty sentences in all 59 capital cases that have come before her; Grodin has voted to overturn 38 of the 43 cases he has considered, and Reynoso has voted to overturn 44 of 45.)

Meanwhile, another television commercial by a group supporting the three justices has drawn a frosty reception from the chief justice, one of the ad’s intended beneficiaries.

Making the case that business interests like “big oil” and used-car dealers are behind the campaign against the justices, the ad shows a man pointing a machine gun made out of money at the seven members of the Supreme Court. The ad, which is to run during the week before the Nov. 4 election, is sponsored by the Independent Citizens’ Committee to Keep Politics Out of the Court. The group is headed by former Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown.

‘It’s Unsettling’

“We’re concerned about their ad. . . . It’s unsettling,” said Steven Glazer, director of communications for Bird. “There is concern that the ad does not maintain the dignity of the court.”

The ad was crafted by the political consulting firm of Zimmerman, Galanty, Fiman & Dixon of Santa Monica. It is a firm known for serving liberal candidates and causes and which worked briefly for Bird last year. According to its president, Bill Zimmerman, the company could not agree with the chief justice on what strategy to employ.

On Tuesday, the Bird campaign also released the script of a new television commercial, its fifth to date, which presents the chief justice stressing the importance of judicial integrity. Bird mentions the word “integrity” four times during the commercial, saying that it means “pledging your allegiance to the law and the Constitution, not to a political party or special-interest group.”

The ad implicitly reinforces Bird’s main campaign message of late, that her opponents, in particular Republican Gov. George Deukmejian, want her out of office because she abides by the law and refuses to bend to their political will.