Deukmejian, Steaming Over Bradley’s TV Spots, Assails Him as ‘the Mayor of Mud’

Gov. George Deukmejian, venting his anger uncharacteristically in public, called Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley “the mayor of mud” Tuesday and accused him of spreading “outright lies” while running for governor on a strategy of character assassination.

Asked by reporters to specify what his Democratic opponent had done to warrant the title “mayor of mud,” the normally cautious, even-tempered governor shot back:

“He currently is running a TV spot that says I’m dishonest. He also in earlier spots said that I was for sale. I haven’t seen any kind of political campaign--certainly on a statewide basis--that has been more irresponsible, or that has been any dirtier. . . .

“He has been attacking me personally, my integrity and spreading outright falsehoods, outright lies in order to try to mislead the voters to try to win some votes. Now, if that isn’t slinging mud, I don’t know what is.”

Deukmejian spoke these harsh words--and many more like them--at a press conference before addressing several hundred people at a San Diego City Club luncheon. His denunciation of Bradley was extemporaneous, but not exactly spontaneous. He had been working up to it for weeks, aides said.

“He’s been watching TV (commercials) and really been stewing,” said Deukmejian’s campaign manager, Larry Thomas. “He’s more than irritated.”

Another campaign adviser and longtime Deukmejian associate, speaking on condition he not be identified, said, “The governor’s real steamed. Here the guy spends 24 years in public life building up a reputation for integrity, and these other guys come along spending 3 to 4 million (dollars) trying to tear it down by portraying him as a crook.”

The Bradley television commercial that caused Deukmejian to boil over into angry rhetoric, aides said, is one that accuses the governor of selling out to toxic polluters and ends by depicting a little blonde girl about to drink a glass of polluted water.

Deukmejian’s anger began to rise last spring, the aides continued, with Bradley commercials that accused the governor of taking campaign money from toxic polluters and then siding with them by vetoing toxic regulation and cleanup bills.

The governor last month began trying to blunt Bradley’s charges, in part, by calling him “the sultan of sludge” for presiding over a city that has illegally dumped sewage into Santa Monica Bay.

But with only one week left in the campaign and Deukmejian comfortably ahead in virtually all the public opinion polls, the governor’s “mayor of mud” charge clearly was generated at least as much by personal emotion as by any political strategy.

Deukmejian unloaded on Bradley after a reporter asked whether he thought all the “negative campaigning” this fall by political candidates was turning off voters. The governor said there should be a distinction between negative campaigning that focuses on an opponent’s record and negative campaigning that attacks an opponent’s “personal integrity and character.”

Speaking generally, but obviously with Bradley in mind, he continued: “If a candidate who is making those attacks has any basis for them, he ought to take (the charges) to appropriate government authorities. Otherwise, it is nothing more than a smear campaign.

“The Bradley campaign, when they found themselves way behind . . . they made a conscious decision to attack me personally, and they started it early this spring. They have continued it all the way through up to today. And there’s no question that he’s now established himself as the mayor of mud.”

‘Confident We’ll Win’

Commencing his final week of campaigning, Deukmejian described himself as “very confident we’ll win, but not overconfident.”

It was learned, meanwhile, that actor Clint Eastwood, mayor of Carmel, has agreed to emcee a rally for Deukmejian and all other statewide Republican candidates Saturday in Monterey as part of a final weekend “fly-around-California” campaign blitz.

Much of Deukmejian’s final campaigning will be spent at retirement centers, stumping for votes among senior citizens who tend to turn out on Election Day in relatively heavy numbers and, according to the latest Los Angeles Times Poll, support the governor by a bigger-than-average margin.