Deukmejian’s Backing of Prop. 102 Puts New Face on AIDS Campaign

Two years ago, Gov. George Deukmejian joined with the American Red Cross and California Medical Assn., his own AIDS experts, the biggest names in both political parties and many of the state’s top religious leaders in denouncing Proposition 64, the LaRouche AIDS initiative. For a major public controversy, the unity was striking.

Now virtually the same glittering company of California leaders, with a few added names, opposes Proposition 102, the AIDS initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot--with the prominent exception of Deukmejian.

The governor’s break from the pack to endorse Proposition 102, which has been slipping steadily in the polls, has put a new face on the campaign to decide whether the nation’s most populous state will veer away from the AIDS strategy recommended by most national health leaders.

Deukmejian aides said the governor only expressed how he intends to vote and will not become more involved in the controversy. “He is not going to campaign . . . and will not spend one dime on Proposition 102,” press secretary Kevin Brett said.

But his announcement gave a new and unexpected boost to the measure’s sponsors--tax crusader Paul Gann, Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) and a physician group financed by Dannemeyer. “It was a real shock,” said Gann, whose exposure to the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS is discussed in radio ads for the campaign.

Deukmejian’s position means that opponents can no longer claim to have the unanimous blessing of influential state leaders, a valuable tactic used to turn opinion against the earlier measure sponsored by political extremist Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr.

Opponents, led by the California Medical Assn. and other health organizations, counted on the image of unanimity to persuade voters that Proposition 102 is a dangerous measure foisted on the public by extremists. They concede now that the governor’s switch makes that a much harder sell, although they still have the support of a number of California health experts, academic leaders and elected officials of both political parties.

Proposition 102 began the campaign season leading in the polls, as did all earlier AIDS measures submitted to California voters. But as the measures receive more attention from voters and the news media, support has inevitably slipped.

A Los Angeles Times Poll in late October found Proposition 102 losing 51% to 36%, with 13% undecided. Other recent polls have found the measure winning, but by a much smaller margin than earlier in the fall. A poll taken last weekend by the opponents found Proposition 102 being favored 45% to 36%, with 18% undecided, campaign manager Bruce Decker said Tuesday.

However, Decker said, the poll found that voters do not care about Deukmejian’s endorsement. When those polled were told the measure was opposed by the California Medical Assn. and AIDS experts, it lost 48% to 32% with about 20% still undecided, Decker said.

Leaders of the opposition campaign, who are also running radio ads, said that conservative men were the only group of voters that seemed to be swayed by Deukmejian’s opinion. “The governor is very popular generally, but doctors and medical experts have much more influence on this issue,” said campaign spokesman Craig Merrilees.

Considered Both Sides

Deukmejian’s spokesman said the governor thoroughly considered the arguments on both sides, but he would not give any more details such as whom Deukmejian consulted. Opponents said the governor’s message read like campaign statements handed out by Dannemeyer, and two prominent AIDS physicians said that Deukmejian did not appear to understand the disease during a recent phone conversation.

There are important differences in the approaches used by Proposition 102 and the unsuccessful LaRouche measure to change California’s approach to AIDS, but also some similarities.

Both begin with the basic assumption that most doctors and public health officials in California are ignoring sound medical practices when it comes to AIDS and that college presidents, scientists and business leaders have somehow been lured into going along. Dannemeyer has often charged that the political power of homosexuals and leftists was to blame, and in a letter to the New York Times this week he refers to “Berkeleyites” and “the usual suspects in the (San Francisco) Bay Area.”

LaRouche and his followers in 1986 coined the slogan that “AIDS should be treated like every other communicable disease.” They argued that AIDS was being handled as a civil rights issue and the government’s ability to address the epidemic was tied by restrictive laws that protected the rights of AIDS patients. The sponsors of Proposition 102 have also used this argument.

Steps Called Worthless

Proposition 64 and a second unsuccessful LaRouche initiative, Proposition 69, sought to force county health authorities to use quarantine and other powers against all AIDS patients, although most health experts say those steps are worthless in dealing with AIDS.

Proposition 102 does not try to force quarantines, but it would limit the discretion of health officials by requiring that they trace the sexual contacts of everyone reported as carrying the human immunodeficiency virus that leads to AIDS. Doctors and testing centers would be required to report everyone who tests positive for the virus, not just people with AIDS, so that authorities would have a complete registry of who should be investigated.

Sponsors of Proposition 102 argue that tracing of sexual contacts has been used successfully against venereal diseases and was endorsed as a tactic against AIDS this year by the American Medical Assn.

But opponents contend that the initiative would destroy the system of testing and education endorsed by all major experts, including the President’s commission on AIDS, and also wipe out research and lead to more deaths.

Gann, the feisty tax crusader who is co-sponsor of Proposition 102, falls into the category of people who are not now reportable but who would be under Proposition 102.

He contracted the virus from a 1982 blood transfusion. When he fell ill with symptoms of HIV infection last year, he told a Sacramento press conference he had the “death sentence” of AIDS.

Doctors think all patients who test positive for HIV will become ill with AIDS if they live long enough. But in an interview this week, Gann said he has been lucky to avoid coming down with one of the debilitating diseases that fits the clinical definition of AIDS. His weight has risen from 121 pounds to his normal 150 pounds, and he is no longer being treated with the experimental drug AZT, Gann said. He has also voluntarily reported to the health department, Gann said.

“A lot of people thought I did have AIDS,” Gann said. But he credits a weekly shot of Vitamin B-12, 3,000 units a day of Vitamin C and a diet of pureed vegetables for the strength to campaign around the state. On Monday he got up at 3 a.m. to debate Proposition 102 on the “Today Show.”

“It has been a miracle,” Gann said.