Bentley-Killea Race a Paradox, From Start to Finish : Campaign: The race for the 39th state Senate District seat has been laced with ironies that voters will sort out Tuesday.

For the second time in as many months, San Diego County voters will go to the polls Tuesday to decide a special state legislative campaign that has drawn national attention as a referendum on abortion.

The special 39th state Senate District election also will add a new chapter to the age-old debate over separation of church and state, thanks to a religious leader’s controversial intrusion in the campaign: In mid-November, Catholic Bishop Leo T. Maher barred Assemblywoman Lucy Killea from receiving Communion because of her pro-choice stand on abortion.

In a race laced with ironies, freshman Republican assemblywoman Carol Bentley is running under the slogan “Real Experience” against a four-term Democrat who has been in Sacramento six years longer. Democrat Killea, meanwhile, was catapulted to national fame by the abortion issue, but now professes to be discomforted by the prolonged focus on it--even as her campaign assiduously seeks to capitalize on it.

And, as the abortion issue focused the national spotlight on the race, Bentley--sounding a bit as if she were trying to convince herself--sought to persuade anyone who would listen that the topic is merely an undercurrent in the campaign.

Indeed, the contest between Killea and Bentley has been dominated, in both form and content, by the abortion question, a situation less of the candidates’ making than one created by Maher.

The script for the Dec. 5 race, a rare showdown between incumbents, was largely imposed upon the candidates by Maher’s decision to bar Killea from receiving Communion. Calling Killea “an advocate of this most heinous crime,” Maher said his sanction will remain in effect unless Killea recants her position, something that the 67-year-old former San Diego City Councilwoman has emphasized she does not intend to do.

By making Killea the first American Catholic elected official so severely sanctioned over the abortion issue, Maher ignited a political firestorm that drew nationwide attention to the otherwise obscure race. Along with provoking another heated round in the continuing public debate touched off by last summer’s U. S. Supreme Court decision restricting abortion rights, Maher’s decision also revived the familiar question of church-state separation--drawing alternate interpretations as a deserved punishment of one who flouted church orthodoxy or an unwelcome church intrusion in politics.

For Killea, an underdog candidate running in a heavily Republican district, Maher’s action was an unparalleled opportunity--given that she had, from the outset, sought to highlight the abortion issue. From Killea’s perspective, abortion is precisely the kind of emotional issue that can persuade pro-choice Republicans to cross party lines and generate a higher-than-usual Democratic turnout, factors essential to her chances in a district with a 49%-38% GOP edge among registered voters.

“The bishop’s action certainly played right into her hands,” the 44-year-old Bentley glumly conceded. “In a way, he did my opponent’s work for her.”

In addition to generating saturation news coverage, the controversy also immediately drew dollars and volunteers to Killea’s campaign.

“If the bishop’s intent was to punish Lucy Killea, he seems to have done just the opposite,” said Mary Jean Collins, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based Catholics for a Free Choice.

As of Friday, campaign finance reports filed with the county voter registrar’s office showed that Killea had outspent Bentley by a more than 2-to-1 margin--$317,000 to $128,000. However, Bentley expects the final price tag of her campaign to approach $250,000, and groups on both sides of the abortion and gun-control issues have pumped tens of thousands of additional dollars into the race.

Although Maher’s sanction was a major strategic coup for Killea, who made national TV appearances on the Phil Donahue show and “CBS This Morning,” it also had an equally precipitous potential downside. In particular, Killea’s aides realized that her campaign could be seriously damaged if she appeared overly eager to capitalize on an episode that she herself 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 consultant Larry Sheingold.

To that end, Killea persistently emphasized that the confrontation with Maher “was thrust upon me” and declined press requests to accompany her to Mass on Sunday. Though abortion remained a major theme of her campaign mailers and television ads, she did not dwell on it in her public appearances, often mentioning it only when asked.

Killea’s overnight celebrity dramatically altered the dynamics of the race for the seat that Republican Larry Stirling vacated two months ago to accept a Municipal Court judgeship.

Primarily because of the district’s demographics, Bentley, despite having less than one year’s experience in the Assembly, had begun the campaign widely viewed as the candidate to beat. There is a minor third candidate in the race--write-in Tom Connolly, a public defender from El Cajon--but his effect on the outcome is expected to be negligible.

Even as she saw the campaign knocked off its axis by the furor over Maher’s action, Bentley clung to the statistical comfort that, “this is still a Republican district, and I’m the Republican candidate.”

Though chagrined by the extensive, largely sympathetic news coverage Killea received, Bentley doggedly stuck to her original plan: chipping away at Killea’s superior name recognition by building up her own, emphasizing the candidates’ partisan differences in a district where that distinction clearly benefits her, and trying to paint Killea as a liberal with close ties to Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica).

Having deflected similar charges in her past campaigns, Killea argues that there is a “racist overtone” to Bentley’s TV ads and mailers, noting that most feature a photo of Brown, who is black. Denying that accusation, Bentley consultant David Lewis contends that Brown’s strong backing of Killea, financial and otherwise, makes him “a legitimate person for us to talk about.”

Both candidates’ campaign ads underline the dramatic contrast between their voting records, with Killea’s votes generally falling within a moderate to liberal range, while Bentley typically hews to a conservative line. Among their notable philosophical differences, Killea has voted to ban military assault rifles, opposes oil drilling off the California coast, would replace the two-thirds majority mandated by Proposition 13 for approval of new taxes with a simple majority and has opposed efforts to toughen the death penalty. Bentley takes the opposite position on each issue.

“Lucy Killea likes to tell Republicans she’s a Democrat with a small ‘d,’ ” a Bentley mailer sent to voters last week says. “But her voting record proves she’s a Democrat with a big ‘D’ and a liberal with a big ‘L.’ ”

Her own record, Bentley insisted, is “much more mainstream, much more in tune” with residents of the sprawling 39th District, which covers most of eastern San Diego County, stretching from Ocean Beach to Imperial County and reaching north to Escondido and Ramona.

But their other differences, however substantial, have been largely overshadowed by the abortion issue, a repeat of the story line of last summer’s special 76th Assembly District race won by pro-choice Republican Tricia Hunter of Bonita, which also drew national attention as a referendum on abortion.

Recognizing Killea as the chief beneficiary of the focus on abortion, Bentley and her strategists have consistently sought to downplay the issue’s significance. Faulting Killea for “trying to make this a one-issue race,” Bentley argued during the race’s closing days that many voters “have begun to feel like this abortion thing has been run into the ground.”

The interpretation of choice within the Bentley campaign is that, after all is said and done, Maher’s action could have only a limited effect on the race. Most voters, she argues, are more interested in issues such as drugs, crime and education, and will judge the candidates, not on one issue--even one as critical as abortion--but rather on the basis of overall philosophical compatibility.

Even so, Bentley’s own consultant speculated that the political fallout stemming from Maher’s action could increase turnout by as much as 5 percentage points to the low-to-mid 30s range. Bentley’s challenge, Lewis explained, is to “bring back home” pro-choice Republicans by appealing to their partisan allegiance.

Bentley also used the intense media attention to soften her own anti-abortion image, stressing that she would permit abortions--at taxpayer expense, if necessary--in cases of rape, incest or where the mother’s life is endangered.

“I simply don’t believe in allowing abortions any time, any place for any reason,” Bentley said in her standard stump speech.

Responds Killea: “When you talk about rape or incest, that’s no choice. . . . Women have to live with the decision, so they should be able to make it themselves.”

Mindful of Bentley’s efforts to label her a single-issue candidate, Killea consistently emphasized that abortion was “only one of our many differences” and claimed to be “uncomfortable having part of my private life . . . brought into public this way.”

Despite those protestations, Killea’s message to voters continued to focus on the issue. Her pro-choice TV ads, which Maher cited as the impetus for his sanction against her, remained on the air and most of Killea’s mailers reiterated the theme.

“I have very strong feelings about privacy--feelings not shared by my opponent,” Killea wrote in one recent mailer. “She argues government should outlaw abortions--and dictate a woman’s family planning options. I don’t think that’s any of government’s business.”

Throughout the campaign, another issue kept Bentley somewhat on the defensive--her limited experience in elective office. In large part, Bentley’s “Real Experience” slogan--a recycled version of the “Real Republican” theme that she used in her upset 1988 Assembly victory--was intended to rebut criticism on that point. In both her speeches and mailers, Bentley never failed to mention that her election was preceded by 16 years of experience as a state legislative aide, most recently as chief of staff to former Republican Sen. Jim Ellis, Stirling’s predecessor in the 39th District.

If victorious, Bentley would become the fourth consecutive 77th District Assembly member to become state senator from the 39th District, a historical factor she used to cast her campaign as more a natural, traditional progression than an unseemly bid for a rapid climb up the political ladder.

Killea, however, often drew attention to the differences between the two major candidates’ resumes, usually by simply prefacing her remarks with a phrase such as, “Well, of course, that happened before my opponent was in the Legislature.”

“In experience and philosophy, voters have a clear choice,” Killea said. Furthermore, Killea often reminded audiences that, as a member of the Legislature’s Democratic majority, she is “in a position to accomplish things (Bentley) never could hope to.”

The conclusion of the special election Tuesday will mark the start of yet another special race for the victor’s seat.

“We didn’t have anything to do with that,” Killea said, noting that Stirling’s resignation dictated a timetable that made two special elections likely. “But then, we didn’t control a lot that happened in this race, either.”