CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS U.S. SENATE : McCarthy Officially Opens Campaign

Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy formally opened his U.S. Senate campaign Tuesday by declaring himself the advocate of middle-class Californians who have watched their earning power decline, who can no longer afford proper health care, and now even fear for their jobs.

The 61-year-old San Francisco Democrat launched his ritual three-city announcement tour in a public park in Burbank, where he pledged to work for “people who live in neighborhoods like this one--or would like to.”

With the recession and federal defense budget cuts eating into the California economy, McCarthy said, “Their dreams are being shattered. These people are on the ropes in California.”

McCarthy is in a three-way race with Reps. Barbara Boxer of Marin County and Mel Levine of Los Angeles for the Democratic nomination for the six-year Senate seat that will become vacant with the retirement of Democrat Alan Cranston in January. He repeated his announcement statement later in the day in Sacramento and in San Francisco, by the Mission District flat where his family lived after immigrating from New Zealand in 1933.

Also Tuesday, Rep. Tom Campbell of Palo Alto, one of the Republican contenders for the Cranston seat, filed his nominating papers at the Santa Clara County courthouse in San Jose. Campbell used the occasion to link two unrelated campaign themes: economic growth and abortion.

“Government has become an obstacle to the very values on which America was founded--freedom and opportunity,” Campbell said. He attacked “shameless overspending” and excessive taxation and added: “Now we face the danger that big government might intrude into the most personal decision a woman can make--the right to choose.”

This year, for the first time since the founding of the state, California voters will elect two U.S. senators. One will fill the Cranston seat and one will serve the final two years of the Senate term won in 1988 by Gov. Pete Wilson. When Wilson resigned from the Senate to take office as governor a year ago, he appointed Republican state Sen. John Seymour of Anaheim to serve in the Senate until the next election.

Seymour, a moderate like Wilson, is battling conservative Rep. William E. Dannemeyer of Fullerton for the GOP nomination for the two-year seat. A third candidate planned to formally join the contest today. He is Bill Allen, 47, a professor of government at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont and a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

The conservative Allen released a 14-point economic program that he labeled “A New Economic Freedom.” Allen, a black who was born one of 12 children in rural northern Florida, called for a transition from the progressive income tax to a flat tax, repeal of the capital gains tax and privatization of federal pension systems.

McCarthy’s campaign opening represented another milestone in an up-and-down public career that spans nearly three decades.

One pinnacle of his career was his election in 1974 as Speaker of the Assembly, usually considered California’s second most-powerful state position after the governorship. But he was ousted in 1980 after a bitter power struggle with now-Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), a political ally of Levine, one of McCarthy’s primary election foes.

McCarthy challenged Wilson for the Senate in 1988, but was outspent $13 million to $7 million in the campaign and lost 53% to 44%.

Asked what is different about this year, McCarthy said, “No. 1, I’m not running against an incumbent and No. 2, I will not be outspent 2-1 as I was before.”

In his Burbank announcement, McCarthy chided Levine and Boxer as being part of a system of “pickpocket politics” in which members of Congress “waste tax dollars on useless programs, phony foreign trips and special interest favors.”

By focusing on foreign issues, Levine is out of touch with Californians, McCarthy said. As for Boxer, he said, “I’m not quite sure how to describe the range of issues she’s been talking about.” One of Boxer’s issues is that money saved through defense cuts can be used to finance programs that will help Americans hurt by the recession.

McCarthy said he has been talking about the economy and recession since he began running for the Senate last year.

While McCarthy was critical of President Bush and the Democrat-controlled Congress for failing to respond to the recession, he declined to accept the mantle of “outsider,” the fashionable description adopted by most candidates who are not currently in Congress.

“I’m running as someone who is very skilled at what I do,” McCarthy said. “I have the best record of doing specific, tangible things. I can show what I’ve done.”

He proposed a variety of programs, some in specifics and some in concept. They include a tax cut for middle-class Americans, investment tax credits to keep businesses in California running, and a health care system that would contain costs, focus on preventive treatment and protect the elderly.

McCarthy did not respond directly when asked whether his emphasis on the middle-class implied a lessened commitment to the poor in California, part of his traditional liberal Democratic base. He said, “The middle class now is mainly composed of the working poor.”

Without a strong middle class, there would be little or no opportunity for the working poor to improve their economic condition, he added.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Tracy Wilkinson and Doug Shuit.