LaRouche’s Prop. 64 Is ‘Evil,’ Wilson Says

U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson, taking the most forceful stand of state Republican leaders, denounced Lyndon H. LaRouche as “contemptible” and his AIDS measure on the Nov. 4 ballot as “an evil proposition.”

Leaders of both parties have strongly attacked LaRouche and the initiative, Proposition 64, but the harshness of Wilson’s remarks Wednesday night charged up a Los Angeles fund-raising dinner where Hollywood stars pitched in for the anti-64 campaign.

Wilson was joined by Kenneth W. Kizer, the top health official of the Deukmejian Administration, who likened LaRouche’s political organization to Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. “It is a battle of good versus evil,” Kizer said of Proposition 64.

Both attacks were based on the overwhelming belief in medical circles that Proposition 64, while purporting to control AIDS, is a political ploy that would deplete blood supplies and severely damage research on AIDS, which is spread by sexual contact and tainted blood.

Preys on Fears

The measure would circumvent a state law that encourages confidential testing for the AIDS virus by requiring that all positive test results be reported to state authorities. In addition, the initiative might require the firing of food-service workers and school personnel who test positive, bar infected children from classrooms or lead to expensive mass testing and quarantines.

Wilson, joined on stage by his wife, Gayle Wilson, said the initiative preys on unwarranted public fears. He urged voters to stop LaRouche’s plans for AIDS measures in other states.

“We are not going to remove children from classrooms who pose no health threat to other children,” Wilson said. “We are not going to remove people from jobs who pose no threat. We are going to . . . remove ignorance and prejudice and fear and we are going to send packing this evil proposition.”

Made AIDS Key Issue

LaRouche has made AIDS the key issue of his fourth presidential campaign in 1988, a fact both Wilson and Kizer noted.

“Never before have public health and political views been so intertwined,” Kizer said. “It won’t prevent one single case of AIDS and, I fear, it would result in more cases.”

Wilson also signed a letter urging members of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, which opposes Proposition 64, to attend the dinner. Passage, he warned, would give California a black eye and waste millions of dollars that should be spent to fight AIDS.

However, the audience of more than 700 was mainly entertainment figures and gay activists.

Campaign advisers expressed some disappointment at the low turnout by Los Angeles business leaders, whose San Francisco counterparts have become major figures in the fight against AIDS.

Performers from singer Little Richard--who said it was his first live stage appearance in more than a decade--to “Hill Street Blues” star Daniel J. Travanti and comedian Dick Shawn performed or quoted passages from LaRouche writings.

Laughter greeted such LaRouche statements as: “There was no plan to specifically exterminate Jews in Nazi Germany--and only a million Jews perished in concentration camps,” and his view that “jazz and rock music are inferior art forms designed by evil forces to disrupt the brain functions and learning ability of the listener.”