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McCarthy a Friend of Elderly, Pepper Says

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Times Staff Writers

Smarting from the rap that he has been insensitive to senior citizens, Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy hastily sought and received Wednesday the endorsement of Rep. Claude Pepper, the 87-year-old Florida Democrat who is Congress’ most formidable champion of elderly Americans.

“This country needs you, and especially the senior citizens,” Pepper told McCarthy during a joint news conference in Washington in which Pepper went on to describe McCarthy as a “real dedicated friend of senior citizens.”

Latest Round

The Pepper press conference was the latest round in a skirmish over Social Security between the two Californians running for U.S. Senate this year: McCarthy, the Democratic challenger, and Pete Wilson, the Republican incumbent. Both sides estimate that 25% to 30% of the people likely to vote in the November election will be 60 or older.

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The Pepper endorsement is the kind of high-profile event that McCarthy hopes will counter the advantage that Wilson’s better-funded campaign enjoys in advertising its views on television at this early stage in the race.

McCarthy drew first blood in the fight for the elderly, reminding voters of the day in 1985 when Wilson, recovering from an appendectomy, was carried into the Senate on a stretcher so that he could cast the deciding vote to reduce the deficit by cutting an array of benefits, including Social Security and Medicare cost-of-living increases. The McCarthy camp enjoyed pointing out that Wilson cast the vote at a time when he was recuperating in “a taxpayer-subsidized hospital bed.”

McCarthy, known for his dogged efforts to improve the quality of nursing home care in California, believed he would be holding the high ground in any contest with Wilson over issues bearing on the elderly.

But Friday, Wilson struck back with a new campaign commercial accusing McCarthy of trying to hide a 1982 vote for a state budget that reduced Social Security benefits for about 700,000 aged, blind and disabled Californians. In effect, the ad says McCarthy is guilty of doing the same thing he attacked Wilson for doing--balancing a budget on the backs of old people.

The ad enraged McCarthy supporters, who contend that McCarthy has done more for senior citizens in California than any elected official in the state’s history. In addition to championing nursing home reform, his aides point out that he has sponsored legislation to expand nutrition services.

On Friday, the day that Wilson’s ad appeared, McCarthy’s staff quickly set about arranging the news conference with Pepper, whose endorsement has become a prize among candidates courting older voters.

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Besides praising McCarthy, Pepper spoke of Wilson as “a fellow who doesn’t tell it like it is”--a reference to Wilson’s criticism of McCarthy’s record on Social Security.

McCarthy then listed 25 occasions during the last five years when, he said, Wilson voted to restrict Social Security or Medicare benefits. McCarthy said Wilson’s record is “so bad, he (Wilson) shouldn’t utter the words Social Security outside the confessional.”

McCarthy pointed to Wilson’s rating on issues relating to the elderly as compiled by the National Council of Senior Citizens. On a scale of 100, Wilson received an average score of 15 over the last four years.

Highest Score

In fact, that average is based on the years 1983 through 1986 and does not reflect Wilson’s highest score, a 44 last year, according to council officials.

But the officials point out that, even with the 44, Wilson comes in well below the median score of 70 among all members of Congress.

Adrienne Weisman of the national council said McCarthy, on the other hand, was one of a handful of state legislators to win the council’s Award of Merit, an honor usually reserved for members of Congress.

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“Leo McCarthy probably sponsored more legislation on behalf of nursing home residents than anyone anywhere in the country,” Weisman said.

Wilson, who countered Wednesday with his own news conference, made light of Pepper’s endorsement.

“There’s a news story,” Wilson said. “Claude Pepper endorses yet another Democrat.”

Wilson said Pepper “has never met a Democrat he couldn’t endorse.”

Otto Bos, Wilson’s campaign manager, acknowledged that Wilson has made “some difficult choices” when it came to balancing Social Security and Medicare considerations against the need to lower the deficit. But he said Wilson, as opposed to McCarthy, has always been “up front” about admitting to his votes.

“Pete has acknowledged that he cast some very tough budgetary votes to balance the budget, to make the economy sound and to lick inflation,” Bos said. “But he has never hidden one of those votes, unlike McCarthy, who played games and got caught.”

Budget Bill

Bos was referring to McCarthy’s 1982 vote in the California Assembly for the budget bill that reduced Social Security benefits, a vote that McCarthy confessed to only after he was confronted by a newspaper reporter, according to Wilson.

Bos also questioned the objectivity of the National Council of Senior Citizens, an organization with close ties to organized labor and a markedly liberal agenda.

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With 4.5 million members and a budget of about $60 million, the council does tend to favor Democratic officeholders. Moreover, its rating system is based on votes on a broad range of issues not exclusively related to senior citizens. For example, the council subtracted points from Wilson’s 1987 score because of his votes in favor of a line-item veto and to confirm Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.

With seven months to go before the election, both candidates are focusing much of their current efforts on raising money. To that end, McCarthy held a $1,000-a-person cocktail party in Washington Wednesday that took in $240,000, according to the event’s host, Smith Bagley, a Washington businessman.

Guests at the event, including labor leaders and several members of the California congressional delegation, took pains to underscore the presence of Democratic Reps. Howard Berman of Panorama City and Mel Levine of Santa Monica.

Fund Raising

The two are members of the influential Berman-Waxman organization, and their enthusiastic participation in McCarthy’s campaign could help him overcome the edge in fund raising that Wilson currently enjoys. Significant help from the organization would also be taken as a sign that a longstanding feud between McCarthy and Berman is over.

“I’m personally very committed to his candidacy,” Berman said at the party.

Congressman Vic Fazio (D-Sacramento) urged a reporter to “use something from Berman” in order to show, in Fazio’s words, that “the wounds are healed.”

Lichtblau reported from Washington and Clifford from Los Angeles.

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