GOP Raises Klaas Case in 3 Close Contest

At least three Republican candidates in close California congressional races have run advertisements linking their Democratic rivals to Richard Allen Davis, the murderer of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, in a bid to highlight their opponents’ stand on the death penalty.

Use of the ads sparked protests from Marc Klaas, the father of Polly, who was murdered by Davis three years ago after he kidnapped her from a slumber party at her Petaluma home.

“I wish people would stop using Polly’s situation to promote their own political ends,” Klaas said Thursday.

Last Saturday, Rep. Andrea Seastrand (R-Santa Barbara) began running radio and television ads spotlighting the Klaas case in the 22nd Congressional District, where she is locked in a tight reelection campaign against Democrat Walter Capps.

The ads do not mince words: “When Richard Allen Davis got the death penalty he rightly deserved for murdering Polly Klaas, two people were disappointed: Richard Allen Davis and Walter Capps.”

Capps, the ads say, opposes the death penalty. The radio ad says the Democrat “cares about criminals. Andrea Seastrand cares about victims.”

The ads echo similar messages that have aired in two other hard-fought California House races.

In the 3rd District, which encompasses much of Sacramento, Republican Tim LeFever’s campaign has been running ads that alternate images of Davis and longtime Democratic incumbent Vic Fazio.

LeFever, who came close to unseating Fazio two years ago, said the ads are justified because Fazio, the third-ranking Democrat in the House, voted as a state assemblyman in 1977 against California’s death penalty. “Had [Fazio] had his way with his vote in 1977, Richard Allen Davis would not be facing the death penalty today,” LeFever said.

Fazio’s campaign accused LeFever of distorting the incumbent’s record, noting that he has voted numerous times for capital punishment when it has been part of broader anti-crime bills, according to the release.

In Northern California’s 1st Congressional District, Republican incumbent Frank Riggs used the Klaas case in an ad to highlight Democrat Michela Alioto’s opposition to the death penalty.

Like Seastrand, Riggs is a freshman trying to retain his seat in a race the national Democratic Party has targeted as one of its high priorities.

On Wednesday, the Alioto campaign released its own ad, in which Marc Klaas says: “Frank Riggs should stop exploiting my daughter’s death to further his political ambitions.”

Beau Phillips, Riggs’ campaign manager, said that his candidate, a former police officer, has great sympathy for victims of violent crimes, including the Klaas family.

But he added, “Mr. Klaas himself spoke from the platform of the Democratic National Convention a few weeks ago, and is now appearing in an ad for Michela Alioto. So it’s clear that he has chosen to inject himself, and by extension this case, into partisan politics.”

Several hundred miles down the coast, Capps’ campaign also denounced the Seastrand campaign ads as being exploitative.

“To manipulate public feelings around this tragic story is about as low as you can go in a political campaign,” said Cathy Duvall, Capps’ political director.

Will Bos, spokesman for the Seastrand campaign, said the controversy over the ads forced Capps “to change his mind on the issue of capital punishment three weeks before the election.”

The ads are scheduled to stop running today, he said. “There’s no telling whether we’ll run them again or not.”

The Klaas case has festered in the public consciousness since Davis abducted Polly. Marc Klaas emerged as a national spokesman for tougher penalties against criminals who victimize children, and Polly became a symbol in anti-crime campaigns.

Allen received the death penalty last month.