Extended Medfly Spraying Poses Sticky Political Issue

Nobody in political office seemed happy to hear Friday about the state’s decision to abandon its May 9 deadline to end pesticide spraying over Medfly-infested neighborhoods in Southern California--least of all U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson.

A Wilson aide called the decision “unfortunate” for residents, but necessary to save California agriculture. But political analysts said that Wilson, a candidate for governor who supports the state’s Medfly battle plan, was most unhappy about the prospect of facing a politically explosive issue in the midst of a campaign.

So far, Wilson--who during the 1982 Senate race attacked former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. for delaying spraying in a major Northern California infestation two years before--has dodged the issue, as have the two leading Democratic candidates for governor.

But that could change if the state’s decision extends spraying closer to the November election, when the Republican Wilson faces the Democratic primary winner.

In the meantime, elected officials representing strictly urban constituencies were more heated in their public response than Wilson.

County Supervisor Ed Edelman said: “People have been told we are winning the war and now it turns out we weren’t.”

The state’s decision is likely to intensify political opposition to spraying, political analysts predicted Friday. But they doubted that the opposition--no matter how widespread--would sway Deukmejian, a lame duck who has said that he is determined to stop the Medfly from spreading to California’s farmlands.

“Here’s my prediction,” said Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles). State agricultural officials “are going to create an outrage among the people that they have not seen.” Polanco said he is organizing a one-day boycott of fruits and vegetables to pressure the agricultural industry to end the spraying.

State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) said the state’s decision could help him revive a bill he sponsored to ban spraying. The bill was recently defeated by the Senate Agriculture Committee after heavy lobbying from the agricultural industry.

But Torres, speaking from Sacramento, acknowledged: “It is still real tough to buck ag interests up here. That is something I don’t know if I will ever be able to overcome.”

Sal Russo, a political consultant and former Deukmejian aide, said the state’s decision will again intensify public opposition to spraying--which subsided after the state set a deadline for the spraying. But he said the level of intensity will depend on how well the state explains the reasons for extending the spraying and “how many entomologists are disagreeing on the evening news” about the way to eradicate the pest.

“My advice would be they continue to make their best estimates when the spraying is going to stop,” he said. “They’re going on the basis of the best information they have at the present time, but that information changes. If it happens too many times, their credibility is going to go down the drain. I don’t think they have gotten to that point.

“They made their best scientific guess and tried to stop the PR bleeding and hoped the science would come in on the money,” Russo said. “As it turned out, it didn’t. Now they take a PR bath. They don’t have a choice.”

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) said the state’s decision will help an environmental initiative that supporters are seeking to place on the November ballot. The initiative, dubbed Big Green, would impose strict controls on pesticides, but would not ban malathion spraying.

“They probably just increased the margin that Big Green will pass,” Katz said. “This will increase the pressure to begin finding a long-term solution and not the knee-jerk treatment with a chemical,” Katz said, adding: “The person at risk now becomes Pete Wilson. He has been able to stay away from this subject.”

All of the gubernatorial candidates have sought to avoid the issue.

That is because of the seemingly impossible task of pleasing both powerful agricultural interests, who favor spraying, and Southern Californians, who fear damage to their health and car finishes from malathion.