CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / ATTORNEY GENERAL : Lungren ‘Sleaze’ Is Assailed : At Umberg event, grandfather of slain Polly Klaas also attacks Gov. Wilson, Senate hopeful Huffington for utilizing girl’s name.

Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren and other Republican candidates are “dancing a jig” on the grave of Polly Klaas to push their own agenda on crime, the young girl’s grandfather charged Tuesday.

Joe Klaas lashed out at Lungren, Gov. Pete Wilson and GOP senatorial candidate Mike Huffington at a news conference called by Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove), Lungren’s opponent.

Lungren, Wilson and Huffington--who is co-chairman of Proposition 184, the so-called “three strikes” initiative--have all used Polly’s death, allegedly at the hands of a twice-convicted kidnaper, to push for stricter sentencing laws.

“They are dancing a jig on Polly’s grave, and that is sleaze,” said Joe Klaas, a Democrat.

The elder Klaas also is appearing in an Umberg television commercial that began running Tuesday. It blames Lungren for contributing to 12-year-old Polly’s death, saying he was responsible for shutting down a statewide computer database that provided local law enforcement officials with information about convicted felons.

Both Joe Klaas and Umberg charged that Polly’s death might have been prevented if the database--which can be accessed by patrol car computers--was available to officers when they briefly questioned Richard Allen Davis the night of the girl’s abduction in October, 1993. Had the two Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies known he was a parole violator, they would have arrested him, Umberg said.

When officers approached Davis, his car was in a ditch at the side of a road, and at the time the deputies did not know of the kidnaping.

Polly, who was taken from her Petaluma home, was found slain two months later. Davis has told investigators that Polly was still alive but hidden nearby when he talked to the deputies.

Steve Telliano, Lungren’s campaign spokesman, said the allegations made by Klaas and those in the advertisement are outright fabrications.

He said the officers who talked to Davis were unaware that there had been a kidnaping and did not radio to the department’s dispatcher to check on his criminal history. Had they done so, the dispatcher would have called up a record replete with felonies, including two kidnaping charges, Telliano said.

“The Sonoma Country sheriff has said repeatedly that the officers did not check the system because they didn’t know there had been a kidnaping,” Telliano said. “Had they known, had they radioed in, then they would have known about the kidnaping and maybe it would have been different. But it’s a huge stretch that Umberg is making.”

Telliano said the commercial may well backfire on Umberg.

“This ad may prove to be a grenade that Tom Umberg pulled the pin on, but forgot to let go of,” he said. “It may end up doing in his own campaign. People are absolutely outraged by this sleaze-ball ad.”

Umberg, a former federal prosecutor, charged that the database--part of the Violent Crime Information Center--could have kept operating had Lungren not cut the program to save $120,000. In fact, the program was restored a year later, after Klaas’ body was discovered.

“Had (Davis’) name been in the computer at the time, it would’ve made a difference,” said Umberg. “This ad is factual. If it were not, I should not be attorney general of California.”

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Klaas charged that “Lungren’s lack of responsibility” contributed to his granddaughter’s death. He appears in the Umberg commercial wearing a T-shirt reading “Remember Polly. Dump Lungren.”

“For $120,000 Lungren could’ve let every cop on the street know they’re dealing with a parole violator” in Davis’ case, Klaas said.

Lungren has denounced the commercial and the charges by Klaas and Umberg. On Monday, Lungren called Umberg a sleazy politician and demanded that he “pull the plug” on the commercial. The attorney general also suggested that Klaas was being used by the Umberg campaign.

On Tuesday, Klaas denied that he was duped and said it is he who first got in touch with Umberg and “volunteered to help in any way I could to defeat Lungren.”

Klaas also had bitter words for Wilson and Huffington, accusing both of exploiting Polly’s death.

“We were exploited unmercifully last December when the governor called and asked if he could speak at Polly’s memorial service,” Klaas said.

Wilson appeared at the memorial service after he had rejected a family request to use National Guard troops to search for Polly’s body when she was missing, he added.

Huffington, who is in a bitter U.S. Senate race with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, used Polly Klaas’ name without the family’s consent to solicit money for the Proposition 184 campaign he co-chairs, Joe Klaas charged.

He said that Huffington, as Proposition 184 co-chairman--continued to use Polly’s name to solicit contributions for the initiative even after the family requested that he stop.

Lungren, Wilson and Huffington “have got to take the responsibility of exploiting my family to push their own agenda,” Klaas added.

Sean Walsh, the governor’s spokesman, said that no one in the governor’s office or the California National Guard can recall any request from the Klaas family to use the guard to search for the girl. He also said that the governor was invited to the December memorial service by the Klaas family and has not exploited them.

Instead, he said that it is inevitable that the death of Polly Klaas and Kimber Reynolds, the daughter of “three strikes” author Mike Reynolds, ignited the firestorm of public outrage that led to passage this year of numerous tough anti-crime laws. Kimber Reynolds was shot to death in 1992 by a convicted felon in Northern California.

“It’s sad that it took the death of two young ladies to call the full attention of the state to our terrible crime problem,” Walsh said. “We now have tough anti-crime laws on the books, and the state owes a great deal of gratitude to the Klaas and Reynolds families for standing up and calling for change.”

Huffington spokesman Bruce Nestande denied that Huffington exploited Polly’s death to promote the “three strikes” initiative.

“It’s absurd. We have spoken to the issue of ‘three strikes’ but never commented on Polly’s death,” said Nestande.