Despite Lead, Wilson Continues to Hammer McCarthy

Determined not to let up despite a solid lead in recent public opinion polls, Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson on Tuesday accused his Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy, of displaying a “derisive, sneering, contemptuous attitude” toward California agriculture.

Wilson was referring to a recent McCarthy campaign commercial that ridicules Wilson for sponsoring resolutions promoting dairy goats and asparagus, which the McCarthy campaign characterized as an elitist vegetable.

“As some farmers say, the only elitist vegetable in the race is the lieutenant governor,” Wilson said, contending that McCarthy has ignored agricultural interests for the 20 years he has been in public office.

Wilson said McCarthy had remained silent on several issues of importance to California agriculture, and invited the lieutenant governor to say where he stands on them.

Urges Clarification

He asked McCarthy to clarify his position on the guest worker program that Wilson sponsored and that allows growers of perishable commodities to hire foreign workers on a seasonal basis.

Wilson pointed out that organized labor, which is a major backer of the McCarthy campaign, opposed Wilson’s efforts to authorize the guest worker program.

Wilson was speaking to a group of about 50 ranchers and farmers who had come to hear him and two other Republican senators campaigning on Wilson’s behalf. They were Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas and Rudy Boschwitz of Minnesota.

Wilson’s campaign trip, through Modesto, Stockton and Coalinga, is his last scheduled swing through an area of the state that has been especially generous to his reelection effort. Political action committees representing agriculture have given Wilson close to one-quarter of a million dollars this year, while giving McCarthy next to nothing.

Talks Tough

Wilson made it clear why he is popular with growers in California. Although he says he is an ardent opponent of protectionism, he talks tough when it comes to retaliating against foreign governments who erect barriers to U.S. farm products.

“I believe in what I call Wilson’s rule: You let me into your markets, and I let you into mine. And if you lock me out of yours, I’m going to break both your legs until you break down those tariff and non-tariff barriers and let me in,” Wilson told a breakfast audience of 450 people in Modesto on Tuesday.

Wilson’s Republican allies in Washington apparently are not worried about his reelection prospects. Boschwitz, who heads the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Tuesday that the committee, at least for now, feels that Wilson does not need advertising assistance from the committee, which is readying $1 million in ads to aid seven or eight Republican Senate candidates who are thought to be in close races.