CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / SENATE : Herschensohn, Campbell Fire Bitter Barbs

The long-simmering hostility between Republican Senate candidates Tom Campbell and Bruce Herschensohn boiled over into a public dogfight Tuesday with each campaign accusing the other of lying about its record and waging a negative campaign.

To a considerable degree, at least about negative campaigning, both were correct.

Mostly, the candidates left the rough talk to their handlers, as is fairly typical of campaigns when the going gets tough. But the Campbell campaign went onto the airwaves Tuesday with two 10-second ads that didn’t mince words, both declaring at the outset: “Bruce Herschensohn is lying.”

“Campbell’s deceptiveness has become his hallmark,” Herschensohn campaign manager Ken Khachigian said in a statement.

Ron Smith, Campbell’s campaign strategist and media consultant, called a Herschensohn television commercial “outrageously false” character assassination and “a full-scale, Grade-A butchering of the truth.”

The white heat of the campaign reflected the sharp ideological differences between Herschensohn, the conservative commentator from Los Angeles, and Campbell, the generally moderate two-term congressman from Stanford, who maintains that he is the best economic conservative.

The closeness of their contest has added to the rising tension. Campbell and Herschensohn have been running neck and neck in the most recent public opinion surveys. They are the major contenders in the June 2 primary for the GOP nomination for the six-year Senate term, one of two Senate contests to be decided in California this year.

Also running for the seat now held by retiring Democrat Alan Cranston is former Palm Springs Mayor Sonny Bono. Bono has taken a pox-on-both-your-campaigns attitude, and has not been directly involved in the recent exchanges.

Bono, whose underfinanced campaign cannot afford TV ads, has been doing grass-roots campaigning in Northern California, he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. He therefore has been basically invisible in Southern California, where the majority of voters live. But he said, “I think I’m a factor” in the race.

Another contributing element to the campaign animosity is the fact that Election Day is less than two weeks away. The campaigns have entered a crucible period during which voters are beginning to focus on the primary election and make up their minds on the candidates. By now, virtually every campaign is blanketing television.

Donna Lucas, a Sacramento-based Republican campaign consultant, observed, “I think this is a particularly close race. Both sides realize they have to go all out, especially when one group starts doing comparative ads.”

“You’d better get out there and start talking about the other person’s record,” Lucas said.

The tension is echoed in the Democratic primary by the three closely grouped candidates in the race for Cranston’s seat. Rep. Mel Levine of Santa Monica has tried to forge in front with law-and-order ads in the wake of the Los Angeles riots. Opponents Barbara Boxer and Leo T. McCarthy were critical of Levine’s tactics during a radio debate Monday in Santa Monica.

All year long, Campbell and Herschensohn have sniped at each other’s records, largely through press releases faxed to the news media, but also during their several debates. But the exchanges generally caught little public attention.

This week’s public exchange between Herschensohn and Campbell got rolling late last week when both candidates went on the air with ads raising questions about the other’s record. Both campaigns accused the other of being first with the negative ads.

Herschensohn aired a 30-second television commercial branding Campbell a liberal on issues of crime and taxation. A Campbell ad attacked Herschensohn on his positions on abortion, Social Security, AIDS research and the federal role in education.

“The Herschensohn ad is so outrageously false, we had to set the record straight about Tom Campbell’s record and Bruce Herschensohn’s,” said Campbell strategist and media adviser Ron Smith.

Campbell retaliated with the two 10-second spots that claim Herschensohn lied when he accused Campbell of favoring tax increases and being soft on crime. “Tom Campbell has never voted for a tax increase,” one ad said. “The National Taxpayers Union gives Tom Campbell its highest rating.”

In the other spot, the announcer says, “Tom Campbell voted to extend the death penalty to 27 crimes and was named Legislator of the Year by the California Fraternal Order of Police.”

The Herschensohn commercial did not actually say Campbell voted for any tax increase, only that he “advocated” them. He had done so in the past, primarily on gasoline, tobacco and alcohol to finance deficit reduction.

Khachigian complained that Campbell’s ads distorted Herschensohn’s position on AIDS research, although he did not say precisely how it did that. Mostly, Khachigian’s response to the Campbell ad consisted of attacks on Campbell’s record.

For example, in response to Campbell’s statement that he is in favor of abortion rights, Khachigian said, “Mr. Campbell, who once referred to abortion as ‘killing’ and ardently supported and raised money for staunchly pro-life Sen. Marian Bergeson, now tells California voters they should not support pro-life candidates, even if he did.”

Khachigian was incensed that the most recent 10-second Campbell spots used an announcer’s voice to make the allegations and were not taped by Campbell himself. Previous commercials had been made by the candidates.

Khachigian said, “He’s got to have the courage to do it himself.”

The Campbell campaign protested earlier that Herschensohn put his ad on the air without first giving the news media a preview. Previews have become relatively common practice in the past two years, since newspapers and some television stations began analyzing the ads and the accuracy of their allegations.