ELECTIONS 23RD STATE SENATE DISTRICT : Gloves Come Off After Hayden’s Call for Ethics Code

Assemblyman Tom Hayden is calling for a truce before the state Senate primary battle he is fighting against state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal and businesswoman Catherine O’Neill gets too bloody, but his opponents say he should examine his own campaign rhetoric before trying to censor theirs.

In a letter made public recently, Hayden asked his Democratic primary opponents in the 23rd Senate District to agree to a code of ethics that includes a pledge not to send out “poison pen” mailers at the end of the campaign and establishment of a truth squad to examine the candidates’ criticisms of one another.

Hayden also proposes weekly debates with Rosenthal and O’Neill, and calls for them not to collude with each other or to take Republican money.

“I’m running as a candidate critical of what I call the Special Interest State and legalized corruption in politics . . . beginning with the campaign,” Hayden said.

No Republican has entered the race in the heavily Democratic district, so the winner of the June 2 Democratic primary will face only minor-party opposition in November.

The newly drawn 23rd District encompasses most of the Westside north of the Santa Monica Freeway and the southwestern San Fernando Valley.

It has been widely forecast that the primary battle would be expensive and nasty, but before Hayden issued his call for cordiality the campaign had been generally polite and low-key.

Now, however, the gloves are coming off.

O’Neill dismissed Hayden’s plan as “the height of chutzpah” while Rosenthal accused Hayden of “disingenuous . . . political trickery.”

Although he has been in the Assembly for 10 years, Hayden has cast himself in the role of an outsider in his effort to defeat Rosenthal, who has been a legislator for nearly twice as long--10 years in the Senate and eight in the Assembly.

Rosenthal has the backing of the powerful organization of Reps. Henry Waxman and Howard L. Berman, and his campaign is being run by the consulting firm headed by Berman’s brother, Michael, and Carl D’Agostino.

Hayden, meanwhile, has over the years built a strong fund-raising and campaign organization of his own, drawing heavily from community and environmental activists centered in Santa Monica.

O’Neill, a public relations specialist who was narrowly defeated 20 years ago in her bid to become the first woman in the state Senate, also has a base of affluent Westside supporters, including many who supported her earlier foray into politics.

In cable-TV campaign ads and public appearances, O’Neill has been sharply critical of both legislators.

She has accused Rosenthal’s campaign consultants of running “sneaky campaigns” that “have skirted the edges of reform law for a very long time.”

She has attacked Hayden for using public funds earlier this year to send voters a survey that she charges is campaign-related.

And she makes frequent and pointed references to a survey published recently in the California Journal, a monthly political magazine, that in an integrity rating listed Hayden 59th out of 80 Assembly members.

This week, O’Neill blasted Hayden’s call for a campaign ethics code by saying, “It’s the height of chutzpah--that he would presume to set an integrity standard for this campaign is laughable.”

O’Neill was also miffed by a campaign mailing sent out by the Hayden forces at about the same time as his letter that proposed the ethics code.

In that campaign mailing, O’Neill was portrayed as anti-environment because restaurateur Michael McCarty, who lost a fight to put a luxury hotel on the beach in Santa Monica, had hosted two fund-raisers for her.

The “Dear Neighbor” letter received by selected Pacific Palisades voters on Monday also said O’Neill is being advised by Marathon Communications, a consulting firm that tried to defeat the 1988 ballot measure that banned oil drilling in the Palisades.

The mailer also criticized O’Neill’s past work for the International Monetary Fund, contending that the organization’s policies encourage destruction of tropical rain forests.

O’Neill replied that Marathon is not her consultant, paid or otherwise, and said the co-chairman of her campaign is attorney Roger Diamond, a longtime opponent of oil drilling along the coast.

And she accused Hayden of indulging in “McCarthyism” for trying to taint her with guilt by association.

Hayden said O’Neill’s attacks on him underscored the need for an impartial truth squad, composed of representatives from the League of Women Voters and Common Cause.

He said the voter survey for which O’Neill criticized him was approved by an Assembly committee and the office of the legislative counsel when he had not yet decided whether to run or which seat to seek.

As for the low standing in the California Journal rating of legislators, Hayden said it was based on a survey answered by about 200 people, including lobbyists.

The survey was conducted, he said, soon after his legislative colleagues had voted to carve up his district during reapportionment. Hayden responded with critical public statements about the way business is done in Sacramento.

The Rosenthal campaign also lashed out at Hayden’s attempt to take the moral high ground.

In a prepared statement issued through Rosenthal’s campaign manager, Lynette Stevens, Rosenthal said, “It’s just another politics as usual disingenuous attempt by Tom to gain political advantage when he publicly calls for a campaign code of ethics that . . . asks for prior censorship of attacks after he has mailed two attack pieces against me.”

One of the mail pieces is a copy of a list reprinted from the Capitol Weekly in Sacramento listing more than 500 gifts Rosenthal reported receiving from lobbyists and others over a three-year period ending in December, 1991.

The Capitol Weekly published the list in response to a Rosenthal statement in The Times that he had always fought against special interests taking control of the Legislature.

Another Hayden mailer is a reprint of a letter written to Rosenthal from prominent Westside Rabbi Allen Freehling that outlined his reasons for supporting Hayden.

The letter criticized Rosenthal for running in a new district for a four-year term, rather than letting his current term run out in two years, at which time he could retire at age 76.

If Rosenthal wins, a special election to fill the seat he now holds will cost taxpayers $1 million, a point on which he has been criticized by his opponents.

Stevens said Rosenthal is not against debating, but is tied up in Sacramento doing his job.

“I take that as a rejection,” Hayden said. “What in the hell would you be busy with that is more important than a debate? Let’s call Hersch out of obscurity and let’s get a debate going.”

Rosenthal was unavailable for an interview, but his campaign manager had an answer.

“What can be more important is that he does the work he is paid to do by the public,” Stevens said. “Tom may not share that work ethic.”

The blood bath has begun.

Q&A;: B4