CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR : Rival Campaigns Clash Over New McCarthy Abortion Ad

In the toughest television commercial to appear in California this year on the volatile issue of abortion, Democratic Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy will begin airing an ad today implying that his Republican opponent wants to jail women who terminate their pregnancies.

In fact, state Sen. Marian Bergeson of Newport Beach has said she would like to outlaw most abortions. But Bergeson has made clear that she favors punishing doctors who perform abortions, not the women who obtain them.

Bergeson’s campaign manager, Kevin Sloat, called the commercial “an offensive, sleazy ad.”

“This goes way over the line,” Sloat said. “McCarthy is trying to con the voters into believing something that he knows is not true.”

The dramatic 30-second commercial, which was scheduled to begin running on Southern California stations today, weaves an anti-crime theme that McCarthy has used before with the message that Bergeson opposes abortion.

The spot begins with McCarthy talking to a guard in front of an empty jail cell.

“You can tell a lot about people by who they’d like to put in jail,” an announcer says before mentioning that McCarthy voted to lengthen prison time for rapists and wrote a bill creating the crime of sexual battery.

Then the picture changes to a freeze frame of Bergeson taken from a television appearance. Bergeson, the announcer says, “wants to make abortion a crime. Bergeson has always opposed abortion and would like to see it outlawed.”

The cell door slams shut as the announcer states: “Leo McCarthy wants to throw rapists in jail, and make sure California women keep their freedom.”

McCarthy’s campaign consultant, Roy Behr, acknowledged that the ad implies that Bergeson wants to jail women who have abortions.

“She has said she wants to outlaw abortion,” Behr said. “She has not said how she intends to do that. One is hard pressed to find anything banned or outlawed where you don’t put people in jail or impose heavy fines on them.”

But in an Oct. 9 debate at a Los Angeles radio station, Bergeson told McCarthy that she does not want to punish women who obtain abortions. Instead, she said, she supports fining doctors who perform the procedure.

“Abortion is a tragedy,” she said. “Women are the victims and deserve compassion and understanding. In no way have I supported or implied that abortion should be made criminal.”

Sloat said he believes McCarthy decided to run the ad because recent polls have shown a narrowing of the two-term incumbent’s lead over Bergeson. He said a poll commissioned by the California Republican Party found that McCarthy had an edge of just 4 percentage points over Bergeson.

“They’re on the defensive,” Sloat said, adding that the spot seems to react to Bergeson’s charge that the state Assembly under McCarthy’s leadership in the 1970s had a reputation for being soft on crime. “They know the numbers show us neck and neck.”

Behr said McCarthy still maintains a “big lead” over Bergeson, but he conceded that many voters have not made up their minds. Behr said he believes that Bergeson defeated state Sen. John Seymour of Anaheim in the Republican primary because many voters did not realize that she was antiabortion and that Seymour favored abortion rights.

“There was a lesson to be learned in the primary,” Behr said. “In a low-priority race, voters don’t have the slightest idea what the positions of the candidates are on abortion. The vast majority of voters went into the voting booth assuming Marian was pro-choice because she is a woman.”

He said McCarthy’s own polls have shown that only 10% of the state’s voters know Bergeson’s position on abortion and that not many more know that McCarthy favors abortion rights.