CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / SENATE : McCarthy Ad Targets the Middle Class

Portraying himself as a leader who will fight for jobs and the middle class, Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy unveiled a television commercial Tuesday aimed at solidifying middle-of-the-road support in his quest for the U. S. Senate.

The simple, 30-second spot, which began airing statewide Tuesday morning, shows a montage of grayish photographs of McCarthy. In the ad, McCarthy advocates deporting illegal immigrants who commit felony crimes in California and urges curtailing the federal money spent on European and Japanese defense programs.

McCarthy is in a tight race for the Democratic nomination for the six-year seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Alan Cranston. His opponents are U. S. Reps. Barbara Boxer of Greenbrae and Mel Levine of Santa Monica.

Levine and Boxer have raised more money than McCarthy, but McCarthy started the race much better known by voters.

The ad is part of a $1.25-million television campaign launched in the final two weeks before the June 2 primary, said Roy Behr, McCarthy’s campaign manager. Other spots have been prepared but have not yet been released or scheduled, he said.

Behr said McCarthy’s campaign wanted to saturate the airwaves in the final days of the campaign for maximum exposure at a time when voters are paying attention.

The ad uses newspaper headlines to underscore McCarthy’s points as his photograph flashes on the screen.

“He wants to save 300 million tax dollars by deporting convicts who are illegal aliens to jails in their own countries,” an announcer intones in one portion of the spot. State officials have estimated that 15,000 of the 100,000 inmates housed in California’s prisons are undocumented foreign nationals.

“He’ll put the middle class first,” the announcer says, adding that projects financed by California taxpayers must create jobs in the state, not overseas. The remark refers to McCarthy support for laws giving bidding preference to California companies seeking public works projects in the state.

The commercial also says that McCarthy will fight to “make Europe and Japan fight for their own defense” and to see those tax dollars spent at home “to re-educate, retrain and rebuild.”

Behr said the simplicity of the commercial was intended so that the visuals would not detract from McCarthy’s message.

“The pictures help support the image that people already have of Leo: a hard-working, familiar guy who’s been working on middle-class issues his whole career,” Behr said. “You don’t convey that message with a lot of glitzy over-production.”