Wilson Angrily Revises Sierra Club Political Ad

Sen. Pete Wilson’s uneasy romance with environmental activists in California grew testy this week after Wilson sought to capitalize on one of several letters of appreciation he has received from the Sierra Club.

Club officials objected to a Wilson campaign commercial that cited a 1984 letter from the Sierra Club thanking the Republican senator for his support of legislation that added 1.7 million acres to the state’s inventory of wilderness land.

Otto Bos, Wilson’s campaign manager, said Tuesday that the offending language will be removed from the commercial. But Bos said that Wilson was angered by the club’s reaction to the commercial.

Letters of Praise

“We felt we were justified in showcasing a letter that was freely sent,” Bos said. He also pointed out that Wilson received three other letters between 1984 and 1986 from the club, praising him for his work on offshore oil issues and for his efforts to help preserve wilderness status for the Tuolumne River.

The incident underscores tensions between the club and Wilson, who has been striving to portray himself as a “compassionate conservative” with a record of responsiveness to the state’s environment.

Wilson prides himself on being a Reagan loyalist who is, nevertheless, willing to break with the President over such matters as offshore oil drilling. His campaign commercial says he fought developers when they threatened the beauty of San Diego, where Wilson was mayor during the 1970s. He cites his opposition to offshore oil drilling favored by the Administration and mentions his support of the 1984 wilderness bill.

The commercial ends with the words “For the wilderness bill, wrote the Sierra Club of America, ‘Thank you, Sen. Wilson.’ ”

Test Showing

Bos said that line has been struck at the request of the Sierra Club. He said the commercial in its original format was aired for just one week--to test it--in the Monterey-Salinas area, but that plans are to run it again in its edited form.

Sierra Club officials said Tuesday that, as a matter of policy, they object to the use of their name in political ads by candidates they have not endorsed. The club has not made an endorsement in the Senate race where Wilson is being challenged by the state’s Democratic lieutenant governor, Leo T. McCarthy.

Joanne Hurley, the club’s national public affairs director, said that Wilson’s mentioning the Sierra Club’s letter in his ad could be construed as an endorsement.

“It’s the sort of thing where people aren’t always listening that closely to commercials, and they hear ‘Sierra Club’ and mistake it for an endorsement,” Hurley said.

Despite that explanation, there were lingering hard feelings in the Wilson camp where some people believe that the Sierra Club is embarrassed at owning up to its past praise of a Republican officeholder.

Pending Bill

More recently, relations between Wilson and the club have become strained over a bill pending in Congress that would grant wilderness status to more than 9 million acres of California desert land. At a meeting of club officials in March, Wilson received a cool reception when he discussed his reservations about the bill, which the club strongly backs. He indicated that he believed that that provisions of the bill barring vehicular access to the desert were too broad.

McCarthy is eager to make the desert bill, which he supports, a litmus test of environmental credentials.

In such an atmosphere, the Wilson camp is quick to suspect complicity on the part of Sierra Club officials and employees. As evidence of pro-McCarthy sentiments within the Sierra Club, a Wilson supporter recently pointed to a $500 contribution from a Sacramento Sierra Club employee to the McCarthy campaign. The contribution is listed on McCarthy’s latest campaign finance report, filed with the Federal Elections Commission on April 15.