Killea Remains Low-Key on TV Talk-Show Circuit

When a candidate in an otherwise obscure state Senate race goes from riding in the Mother Goose Parade in El Cajon one day to appearing on the Phil Donahue show in New York the next, something is up.

So it has gone for Lucy Killea, Media Superstar for a Day, who spent Monday in New York making the national talk-show rounds even as she runs for a seat in a district 2,000 miles away--the latest strange chapter in the frenetic, suddenly unpredictable 39th state Senate District race.

In the week since Roman Catholic Bishop Leo T. Maher barred Killea from receiving Communion because of her pro-choice stand on abortion, the Democratic assemblywoman has been transformed from an underdog candidate in a race that was drawing yawns from most local voters into a national cause celebre whom networks are fighting over.

Basking in the Warholian spotlight that has been hers for the past week, Killea appeared on both “CBS This Morning” and the Donahue show Monday, sharing the stage of the latter with former Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro. In the process, Killea must have burned up a sizable chunk of the 15 minutes of fame that the late pop artist-philosopher Andy Warhol predicted would come to everyone in his or her life.

“All the attention has been a little embarrassing, really,” Killea said as she sat before dawn in a waiting room in the CBS studios on West 57th Street--while down the hall, “This Morning” co-anchor Kathleen Sullivan was having her hair blow-dried in her dressing room.

Reiterating that same theme on camera, Killea told interviewer Charlie Rose: “It’s uncomfortable having part of my private life . . . brought into public this way. It’s something I don’t relish.”

Later, Donahue would add a different hue to the same canvas, telling his audience: “There’s all kinds of things she’s got to watch. She doesn’t want to look like a hot dog. She doesn’t want to be Joan of Arc. She wants to be a hard-working legislator who’s dealing with all the complicated problems of her district.”

Still, Killea acknowledges that there is an undeniable headiness to being courted by the barons of the airwaves--especially for a local official more accustomed to wondering whether what she does might merit a mention in Michael Tuck’s commentary. In recent days, Killea’s staff joked that, with her new-found celebrity, Geraldo might want to book her to appear on his video-tabloid program with a group of mud-wrestling pro-choice priests.

Killea treated her appearances on the CBS and Donahue shows, however, seriously--a recognition of their potential significance in the outcome of her race against Assemblywoman Carol Bentley (R-El Cajon) for the state Senate seat vacated by Republican Larry Stirling when he accepted a Municipal Court judgeship last month.

Conceding that abortion is one issue on which most people have a strong opinion, Killea conceded in advance that her appearances are unlikely to change many minds or win over converts. Nevertheless, an appearance on the Donahue show clearly is a public-relations coup for a local candidate, one that Killea’s strategists hoped might expand the largely sympathetic reaction she has received to date.

“I don’t think it has much impact in terms of being a persuasive thing,” said Killea consultant Craig Reynolds, who accompanied her to New York. “What it does do is heighten the significance of the race. Sort of, ‘If it’s on Donahue, it must be important.’ ”

Perhaps, except it is difficult to reconcile that analysis with today’s topic on Donahue: “Call girls and gigolos tell you how to have a happy marriage.”

Regardless, Killea was the center of attention Monday in the Donahue studio in Rockefeller Plaza--and, after a shaky start, she made the most of the opportunity.

To avoid charges of audience-stacking and in the hope of getting more spontaneous reactions, the Donahue audience is kept unaware of the day’s guests and subject matter until minutes before the taping begins. When a show official announced Killea’s name, the reaction was tepid, at best, and there were even a few disappointed groans from people who perhaps had been hoping for a show with a little more glitz.

“Oh, heck, I was hoping for Connie Chung and Maury Povich,” one woman sighed.

Any disappointment was only momentary, however, and had largely disappeared by the time the producer gave a final pep talk in which she repeatedly told the audience: “Get involved! Do your yeas, boos, aahs and oohs!

“Make some noise so Phil . . . can feel some energy up here,” she pleaded.

The audience did just that as Donahue himself came bounding out on stage amid loud applause and squeals of delight. Bantering with the audience and incessantly running his fingers through his thick white hair, he, too, exhorted everyone to “help me out there--help make this thing work.”

“Please don’t be afraid of saying something stupid,” Donahue said in the closing preshow seconds. “I hold the record.”

Then, as if to prove the point, he began the show by introducing his guest as “Kay Killea.”

For Killea, Monday’s appearances marked the climax of the huge, yet risky, political break handed to her when Maher made her apparently the first Catholic elected official in the nation so severely sanctioned for her pro-choice views.

Indeed, though Killea’s aides recognize the political firestorm ignited by Maher as an unparalleled opportunity--given that she has, from the outset, sought to highlight the abortion issue--they also realize that it has an equally precipitous potential downside. In particular, Killea’s campaign could be seriously damaged if she appears overly eager to capitalize on an episode that she herself has described as “emotional and painful.”

“There’s a thin line between reacting effectively to the situation and going overboard in a way that you come off looking bad,” said Killea campaign coordinator Larry Sheingold. “We’re determined not to cross that line.”

To that end, Killea has persistently emphasized that the confrontation with Maher “was thrust upon me,” and that she did not initiate the dozens of TV, radio, newspaper and magazine interviews that she has conducted over the past week.

“They came to us, not the other way around,” Killea said between appearances Monday. “We didn’t initiate a single phone call.”

Not wanting to do anything that “looks tacky or like I’m trying to milk this,” Killea also declined press requests to accompany her to Mass last weekend, slipping quietly in and out of a Saturday night service.

Of course, Killea did fly cross-country two weeks before an election to appear on nationwide television--a decision she argued had all but been made for her “because this thing has grown way beyond San Diego.”

When she began her day Monday, after getting only about four hours sleep after a post-midnight arrival at her hotel, Killea set out dual goals for her two nationwide appearances: better explaining of her own position, both on abortion itself and on the dispute with the bishop, and trying to alleviate any wariness among other pro-choice Catholics in public office who fear that they could face similar sanctions.

“There are a lot of other Catholic elected officials out there who are concerned and could be affected by how this turns out, so I want to do a good job,” Killea said. “I don’t want anyone to feel intimidated by my situation, so I feel a certain responsibility to how this could affect others. At the same time, I don’t want to make it look like I’m going around with a huge burden on my shoulders.

“I’m confident that my religious beliefs and political role are compatible.”

Reiterating the position that she has adhered to throughout her four-term Assembly career, Killea told her interviewers Monday that, although she is personally opposed to abortion “and would never contemplate it myself,” she believes that government should not intrude in that area, adding that the state and U.S. constitutions guarantee individuals the right to make that decision privately.

“Abortion is a tragedy,” Killea said on the Donahue show. However, even as government works to expand family-planning programs that could curtail the number of abortions, she said, it also must ensure that abortions “are legal and safe--and rare.”

Though she had expected to have the stage to herself on the Donahue show, with the other invited guests seated in the audience, Killea spent most of the program sitting next to Ferraro, another pro-choice Catholic who drew strong criticism for her position from New York Cardinal John O’Connor and other priests in the 1984 race. Killea was visibly disturbed by the last-minute change in plans--not, she insisted later, because she was fearful of the lingering controversy surrounding Ferraro, but rather because “I didn’t want to be in a position where others could put words in my mouth.”

Ferraro was strongly supportive of Killea throughout the show, saying at one point that a major reason she objects to actions such as Maher’s is that “it kind of makes it look like Catholic legislators come to their decisions haphazardly.” Nevertheless, after the one-hour show, Donahue apologized to Killea for what he described as a communications mix-up.

Maher has said that Killea’s pro-choice TV ads in her race against Assemblywoman Carol Bentley (R-El Cajon) prompted him to bar her from receiving Communion unless she recants her position as, in his words, “an advocate of this most heinous crime.”

Both the CBS and Donahue programs began with a clip from Killea’s pro-choice ads being aired. In the morning, the ad was followed by interviewer Rose leading Killea through a recitation of points that she has made repeatedly since Maher’s action.

Yes, “I think I’m being made an example of,” Killea said, adding that, no, “I don’t know what motivated” Maher--though she speculated that sending a signal to other pro-choice politicians was part of the reason.

At least on religious grounds, Killea said she finds no fault with Maher’s sanction, saying: “That’s his domain--I respect that.” Sidestepping another question about whether she expects any defection of Catholic voters because of Maher’s decision, she said simply that she has been gratified by “overwhelming expressions of support” for her position.

“People have been expressing their concern, primarily Catholics, that they really do feel that the action was unjustified,” Killea said.

That attitude certainly was the consensus among the Donahue audience, as all but a handful signaled their pro-choice position through their applause. “Oh, you liberal New Yorkers,” Donahue chided, half-jokingly--which may be one reason that Bentley, citing schedule conflicts, declined an invitation to appear with Killea.

Throughout the Donahue show, the audience’s sentiments were heavily slanted toward Killea.

“I think because she’s a woman, she’s being picked on,” one woman in the audience told Donahue as he began working the aisles in his trademark style, racing up and down the steps, his hand-held microphone drawn like a magnet to people with impassioned expressions to match the frequently exaggerated ones of his own.

How can the church deny Communion to Killea, another woman asked, when Catholics who use birth control or are divorced--transgressions of other church tenets--receive the sacraments every day? That observation drew thunderous applause.

“This won’t hurt her campaign at all,” another woman remarked.

Anti-Killea sentiment--or, more properly, anti-abortion opinion--also was expressed, if to a notably lesser degree.

“When you say pro-choice . . . what you’re really saying is pro-death,” said James Likoudis, president of Catholics United for the Faith, another guest on the Donahue show. “Catholic pro-choice involves a contradiction in terms.”

Accepting Maher’s explanation that his action was motivated not so much by Killea’s pro-choice record as by her TV ads detailing her views, Likoudis added that Killea deserved to be censured for “creating a public scandal.”

Well aware that on television, appearance is often as important--if not more--as substance, Killea maintained her low-key style and easygoing demeanor during both appearances.

Underlining that point, midway through his show, Donahue turned to Killea and said simply: “Ms. Killea, you don’t look like a radical to me.”

“Actually, I’m more of a conciliator,” Killea responded.

Her sprint through the New York City media spotlight completed, Killea summed up her day late Monday by saying that she felt she had “made the points I wanted to and got across my message.”

If she has any concerns about her TV appearances, Killea said, it is simply that they may reinforce the perception that the 39th District campaign is a one-issue race.