Westside Watch : Hayden Says Out Damned Spot to 30-Second TV Ads

Newly announced gubernatorial candidate Tom Hayden took aim at a lot of things in his full-page, 1,823-word advertisement in Tuesday’s Western Edition of the New York Times. Among his targets were 30-second television campaign commercials.

Such spots, the Democratic state senator said, “sell the personalities and abbreviated messages of candidates like so many products in the commercial marketplace. When television commercials influence more people than the free press itself, the democratic process is in deep trouble.”

Fair enough. But it should be noted that in 1982, Hayden became one of the few Los Angeles-area Assembly candidates to use broadcast TV ads--a strategy considered hugely inefficient in such contests. Locked in a tough Westside Assembly race against Republican Bill Hawkins, he took to the airwaves with, yes, 30-second TV spots.

Reminded this week about those ads, Hayden said: “I don’t mind somebody trying to say something in 30 seconds, but it’s become the primary vehicle of communication and eclipses the free press and I think that’s a dangerous pattern in a democracy.”

Hayden said he does not intend to use 30-second TV or radio ads this time around.

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MOTS JUSTES?: Beverly Hills Mayor Maxwell Salter might have picked a better ice-breaker Tuesday, when the City Council honored the mayor of Cannes, France--Beverly Hills’ sister city.

Cannes Mayor Michel Mouillot, accompanied by his new bride, had spoken to the council in French, through an interpreter. Then Mayor Salter weighed in.

“How is it that when you speak French, it sounds like you’re making love to a beautiful woman?” he asked.

The mayor of Cannes had no immediate response.

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SACRAMENTO STAMPEDE: Hayden isn’t the only Democrat with Westside ties angling for a statewide office.

The parade is led by West Hollywood-resident Kathleen Brown, the poll-leader for governor who once represented part of the Westside on the Los Angeles school board. Then there’s Controller Gray Davis, a West Hollywood resident running unopposed for his party’s nomination for lieutenant governor.

A pair of Westsiders want to become secretary of state--Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles) and former Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo, who represented Hollywood for eight years before mounting an unsuccessful bid for mayor. Moore, incidentally, decided to keep her options open by also filing for reelection for her Assembly seat.

Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles) is hoping to become the second elected insurance commissioner. And state Board of Equalization Chairman Brad Sherman, a Santa Monica resident, is making a bid for controller.

Sherman has also filed for re-election to his post on the state’s elected tax commission. Kathleen Connell of Bel-Air, a financial consultant and educator who served as housing director under former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, is also running for controller.

Meanwhile, state Sen. David Roberti (D-Van Nuys), who represented Hollywood for almost a quarter-century before being elected in a San Fernando Valley district in 1992, has filed for treasurer, though he may run instead for the Board of Equalization seat Sherman currently holds.