Malathion Cloud Forms Over 72nd Race

Democrat Jerry Yudelson hoped to turn the brown malathion mist into political gold Thursday as he launched his campaign against Republican Assemblyman Curt Pringle by attacking the incumbent’s response to the controversial medfly spraying.

But the issue of helicopters spraying pesticide over Garden Grove’s 72nd Assembly District loomed as a possible major issue between all three candidates in the race, as each strongly protested the malathion spraying Thursday and emphasized the steps he is taking to halt its use.

Immediately after the first of two late-night sprayings over Garden Grove, Yudelson said he organized a citizens opposition group to fight the use of the pesticide.

“I’ve testified against the spraying more than half a dozen times; I’ve written letters to the community newspapers, and now I am organizing a campaign to pressure the state commissioner of food and agriculture to come here to Orange County and hold hearings on this issue,” Yudelson said at a press conference in Garden Grove.

“Where, we might ask, has our state Assemblyman Curt Pringle been during all of this?” he said. “We haven’t seen him at a single public hearing on the issue. We were told early on that he wrote a letter to the governor expressing concern. . . . Big deal.”

Pringle said Thursday evening that Yudelson is “just dead wrong about my response.”

The freshman assemblyman said he has supported two bills to regulate the spraying, including one Democrat-led proposal that would halt the spraying until the governor’s health panel rules that malathion is safe.

“The people who are running for office against me are coming in and saying, ‘Look at the wonderful things I am doing for you,’ and all they’re doing is attending rallies,” Pringle said.

Democrat Tom Umberg, a candidate in the June 5 primary against Yudelson, said Thursday that he also opposes the spraying and that he agrees that Pringle’s response has been weak.

Umberg said he is working with Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles)--whose district is also being sprayed--to make sure “Orange County is included in any effort to stop the spraying.”

“We’ve been bouncing around various suggestions . . . everything from overflight height limitations to restricting the helicopters from taking off at Orange County airports,” Umberg said. “My house is being sprayed too, and I have three little kids. I am concerned.”

The race for the 72nd Assembly District is shaping up as one of the most hotly contested campaigns in Orange County during the 1990 election cycle.

Umberg has the backing of some of the county’s most wealthy and influential Democratic Party leaders. Yudelson has been endorsed by Orange County Democratic Chairman Michael Balmages, who was at his side at the press conference.

Yudelson, who ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) in 1988, is an environmental consultant and a former state environmental officer under former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. Umberg is a former U.S. attorney.

Yudelson also said Thursday that he would run his race against Pringle, and not against a fellow Democrat.

Both Democrats have promised to attack Pringle for his role in the decision to place uniformed guards at several polling places in Latino neighborhoods on Election Day in 1988. Federal and local agencies are investigating whether it violated the voters’ civil rights.