CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : U.S. SENATE : McCarthy Ad Attacks Levine Over Wife’s Job

Attacking a U.S. Senate foe on television for the second consecutive day, Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy accused Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica) of using “improper influence” while he was an assemblyman in Sacramento 12 years ago to land a state job for his wife.

After the ad began running, McCarthy Campaign Manager Roy Behr acknowledged that the allegation was based primarily on “implications” drawn from two newspaper articles about the affair.

Behr cited the articles when asked for evidence that Levine intervened to obtain a legal position with the state Public Utilities Commission for Jan Levine, a graduate of the UCLA Law School.

In one portion of the 30-second commercial, the announcer says, “And Levine used ‘improper influence’ to soak taxpayers for a phony government job for his wife until state investigators blew the whistle.” An aide said Levine was “totally outraged” by the charge.

McCarthy, Levine and Rep. Barbara Boxer of Marin County are in a tight and increasingly tense contest for the Democratic nomination for the six-year Senate seat held by Democrat Alan Cranston.

With an anti-Boxer ad Monday, McCarthy became the first Democratic Senate candidate to attack a foe directly on the issue of bad checks written on the defunct House bank.

He recycled the issue briefly against Boxer in the new ad Tuesday, which concludes: “Barbara Boxer and Mel Levine: They’re not right for the U.S. Senate. They’re what’s wrong with Congress.”

So far, polls have indicated that the check issue has not hurt the Boxer campaign. Boxer aides said they are considering responding to the ads with commercials of their own.

McCarthy aides have been trying to interest political reporters for several months in the 1980 allegations that John E. Bryson, a friend of Levine and now chairman of Southern California Edison, improperly directed PUC officials to create a legal job for Jan Levine. At the time, Bryson was the executive director of the commission and Levine was a state assemblyman who sat on a subcommittee with authority over the PUC budget.

An investigation was begun after a complaint was filed with the State Personnel Board. The board ruled that the process used by PUC aides did not follow state personnel procedures and the position and Jan Levine’s appointment were terminated.

Jan Levine told The Times then that she thought she was being discriminated against because she was the wife of a state legislator. The Levines had looked for ways to spend more time together since her husband was elected to the Legislature from Santa Monica and had to spend much of each week in Sacramento, she said.

The ad was based largely on the Times account and an April 1, 1992, story in the San Jose Mercury News, citing the Mercury News headline: “Improper Influence Cited in Levine Hire.”

Asked for evidence that Levine directly used his influence, Behr said, “There are several implications.” Citing The Times’ story, Behr said, “She (Jan Levine) talks about why they wanted it, clearly implying that they originated it and therefore that Mel originated it.”

Levine press aide Hope Warschaw called the ad “the ultimate in sleaze.”

“The intimation that her husband had to get her a job is ridiculous at best,” Warschaw said.

The Personnel Board was prompted to investigate the job at the same time McCarthy was embroiled in a bitter fight with Rep. Howard Berman (D-Panorama City) for the speakership of the Assembly.

Berman and Levine are longtime friends and partners in the Waxman-Berman political organization. Levine supported Berman’s attempt to become Speaker, but the effort became stalemated and Assemblyman Willie Brown ultimately was elected.

McCarthy also began airing an ad Tuesday that portrays him as having been a crime fighter since the age of 23.