Campaign TV Ads

* Enough is enough is enough!

The Dianne Feinstein-Michael Huffington TV feud plus that of Kathleen Brown and Pete Wilson prove beyond any doubt there is a need for a type of campaign reform to relieve us in the future of the type of sickening political garbage we’ll be subjected to over the next three-plus months prior to the November election.

News reports indicate that GOP Senate candidate Rep. Michael Huffington has already spent in excess of $9 million to gain name recognition. That and the anticipated spending by all the other political wanna-bes could make this the most expensive election in history. And where are most of the funds spent? On TV, of course, leaving John Q. Public the victim of nauseous verbal dysentery filled with distorted half-truths if not outright lies.

I propose the following:

Federal legislation is required to mandate through the FCC that TV stations, as a requisite for maintaining their licenses, must provide free prime time for perhaps two months prior to election day for all political candidates and issues. They must be forbidden to accept political advertising. First Amendment violations and loss of revenues? Hogwash. TV stations are already restricted from accepting liquor and tobacco ads and are limited in explicit sexual presentations.

The foregoing could also have another positive fallout. No longer will the more affluent politicos dominate our lives on the airwaves. No more will there be the need for PACs, fund-raisers, kowtowing to lobbyists and vying to build political war chests.

Of course there are still newspaper ads and mailers. But those we can skip over and throw away as compared with our now having to sit through time-consuming political junk while watching our favorite TV shows.

BEN URMAN

Van Nuys

* The extreme amount of money spent on statewide campaigns is maddening in and of itself. But what is truly alarming about Huffington is the shamelessness of his move from Texas to California--apparently only to run for public office. Is this the political wave of the future? Millionaires will look across the political landscape to see which states have an available Senate seat up for sale, then quickly set up shop attacking the incumbent.

Like many other Californians, I’ve come to the sad conclusion that “politician” and “crook” are essentially the same word. But if I have to choose between the politician I don’t trust from California, and the politician I don’t trust who’s moved here from Texas since my last smog check, I’ll take the home-grown every time.

Aren’t there a couple of Senate seats up for sale in Texas that their millionaires can buy without bothering us in California?

JOHN SMART

Los Angeles

* I cannot believe that The Times is still talking about Huffington’s tax returns (July 20). Did you guys get the hint that voters do not care about tax returns, but that they care about real election-year issues?

I want to know where Rep. Huffington and incumbent Sen. Feinstein stand on the issues of crime, the economy, jobs, defense spending and other important issues. I do not care if one of the candidates did not release his or her tax returns.

When are career politicians like Feinstein going to learn that they need to talk about issues and not personalities?

RALPH W. FLICK

Redondo Beach

* Feinstein was on her way into a gathering at which she was to be honored when Huffington approached her and started to argue (July 19). Of all the poor taste, ill-mannered and actually rude behavior! If ever I had a tolerance of Huffington and his $9-million donation to himself--it is certainly gone now! How really clownish can you get?

M. C. CRANE

Nipomo

* Feinstein owes Huffington a public apology for injecting racism into the senatorial elections. Evidently Democrats are trying to win votes by resurrecting the old stereotype of Jews as “victims” to scare us back to the Democratic Party, the same way some black leaders yell “racism” at every opportunity to manipulate their constituencies.

Jews in America are not “victims.” We have been well-rewarded in America for our efforts with wealth, respect and high office. Resorting to such a cheap political trick as undeservedly labeling an opponent “anti-Semitic,” playing on old fears, reveals how desperate Feinstein and the Democratic Party must be.

MIRIAM JAFFE

Thousand Oaks

* I propose that we balance the state budget by putting a tax on mudslinging. The money we get from this year’s Senate contest would guarantee a surplus well into the next century.

WILLIAM V. FERRARO

Seal Beach