Bishop’s Intrusion Into Senate Race Stirs Debate : Politics: San Diego prelate’s action turns contest into referendum on abortion.

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 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, Roman 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, a 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.

Even 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 was merely an undercurrent in the campaign.

In fact, the contest between Killea, 67, and Bentley, 44, 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 Tuesday election--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 that his sanction will remain in effect unless Killea recants her position--something that the 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 into 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 also can 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,” Bentley conceded glumly. “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 spokesman for the Washington-based Catholics for a Free Choice.

The race is a repeat of the story line of last summer’s special 76th Assembly District contest won by pro-choice Republican Tricia Hunter of Bonita, which also drew national attention as a referendum on abortion.

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 anticipates that the final price tag of her campaign will approach $250,000, and groups on both sides of the abortion issue have pumped tens of thousands of additional dollars into the race.

While 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. Although abortion remained a major theme of her campaign mailers and television ads, she did not dwell on the subject in her public appearances, often mentioning it only when asked.

Killea’s overnight celebrity status 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 impact 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.”

Recognizing Killea as the chief beneficiary of the focus on abortion, Bentley and her strategists have consistently sought to play down 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 impact 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 crucial 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 five 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 was 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.”