CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS: THE AD CAMPAIGN

The race: State attorney general. Whose ad: Republican candidate Dan Lungren. Cost: Lungren campaign refuses to disclose. Producer: Ringe Media Inc.

In his latest TV spot, Lungren hammers his Democratic foe, Arlo Smith, for a poor prosecution record during his 11 years as San Francisco’s district attorney.

The half-minute ad opens with an image of Smith’s face and a narrator stating that Smith has the worst felony prosecution statistics in the state. Then a set of prison bars slams down over Smith’s visage.

The spot concludes with Lungren strolling through the corridors of a government building as the narrator states that the former five-term congressman is “tough on crime and drugs.”

Elements of the Lungren ad, with an analysis by Times staff writer Paul Feldman:

Ad: “San Francisco D.A. Arlo Smith has the worst felony prosecution record of any district attorney in the state.”

Analysis: State Department of Justice statistics show that nearly half of the felony arrests in San Francisco in 1989 went unprosecuted. Smith’s prosecution rate of 51.2% was the lowest in the state, with Los Angeles, at 67.4%, the next lowest among California’s major metropolitan areas.

Defending his record, Smith emphasizes that virtually all defendants tried in Superior Court cases were convicted--4,507 of 4,642 in 1989. That, however, is true in counties across the state. Smith also says that nearly three times as many defendants were sent to prison last year as in 1979, the year he took office.

Ad: “The San Francisco Chronicle said Smith had a ‘woeful’ record in prosecuting child molesters.”

Analysis: In 1985, the Chronicle published an editorial calling Smith’s record “woeful,” stating that his staff won only 15 convictions in a year that 389 molestation reports were made to San Francisco police. Smith responded with a three-page letter saying that his office actually won 56 court convictions for child molestation and physical abuse. He added that criminal complaints could not be filed in all the cases reported to police.

Ad: “Arlo Smith broke his promise to stop plea bargaining and allowed them on everything from assault to murder, dropping charges along the way.”

Analysis: During Smith’s first campaign for district attorney in 1979, San Francisco newspapers reported promises by Smith to eliminate plea bargaining in serious cases. But since taking office, Smith, like other prosecutors in major metropolitan areas, has engaged in plea-bargain agreements. Legal experts say that without such agreements, the justice system virtually would grind to a halt in big cities where criminal cases clog the court calendars.

Ad: “Over a hundred police chiefs, sheriffs and district attorneys have endorsed Republican Dan Lungren for attorney general.”

Analysis: Lungren has received endorsements from more than 100 law enforcement officials, among them Sheriff Sherman Block and Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates. But so has Smith, who has been endorsed by several major statewide police organizations as well as Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, whom he defeated in the June Democratic primary.