Mailer a Dirty Trick, Hayden’s Foe Charges : State Senate: GOP’s McRoskey calls claim that he’s not a 23rd District candidate outdated, false.

Republican Leonard H. McRoskey wants voters in the 23rd State Senate District to make no mistake about it: He is an active candidate for the seat, despite a recent mailer from Democrats suggesting otherwise.

McRoskey, a write-in candidate, on Monday charged that the state Democratic Party and his opponent, Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) are “stooping to unethical acts” by sending a misleading mailer that said he had withdrawn from the race.

The mailer was based on old news.

After interviews with McRoskey in mid-September, The Times and other local papers accurately reported that the 73-year-old Westwood businessman and former undersecretary of the Navy in the Reagan Administration was suspending his campaign against Hayden in the heavily Democratic Westside-San Fernando Valley district.

“I now believe mine is not a winnable race, “ McRoskey said at that time.

Later, McRoskey reconsidered and is now back in the contest full-tilt, as was reported in a subsequent Times story Oct. 15. He said his change of heart was the result of a “groundswell of support” from Republicans and disaffected Democrats.

But the disputed mailer, received by registered Republicans late last week, ignores McRoskey’s renewed campaign efforts, offering reprinted portions of the earlier stories to buttress its message:

“Mr. McRoskey is no longer an active candidate. . . . Do not waste your vote.”

McRoskey decried the mailer--a blue-and-white postcard bearing a GOP elephant logo--as “a thinly disguised effort by Tom Hayden and the Democratic Party to steal Republican voters--my votes.”

He has filed a complaint with the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

An attorney for the California Republican Party, Charles H. Bell promised to take the Democrats to court if they continue to misappropriate the official Republican symbol.

Hayden did not respond to a series of phone calls on Monday. Through an assistant, Hayden campaign manager Duane Peterson said the Hayden campaign was not responsible for the piece.

State Democratic Party political director Bob Mulholland, who until this year worked for Hayden’s political organization, Campaign California, was happy to take credit for the mailer and defended its accuracy.

“There were several newspaper articles he created,” Mulholland said. “Now he’s saying something else.”

The Republican candidate got on the ballot the hard way. He mounted a last-minute effort after looking at his primary ballot and discovering that no Republican had filed in the newly drawn 23rd State Senate District.

Hayden won the Democratic nomination by narrowly defeating State Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles). Pacific Palisades businesswoman Catherine O’Neill came in third.

Libertarian R. William Weilburg and Peace and Freedom Party candidate Shirley Rachel Isaacson are also on the ballot.