Riordan Backs Lockyer for Attorney General

Mayor Richard Riordan, a political maverick who has never been shy about bucking his Republican Party, endorsed Democrat Bill Lockyer for state attorney general Tuesday in large part because of the candidate’s strong support of a state law restricting assault weapons.

While never directly criticizing Lockyer’s Republican opponent, Dave Stirling, chief deputy to Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, Riordan said “it makes no sense” for any politician to oppose outlawing assault weapons.

Stirling said he opposes efforts to restrict gun ownership. Lockyer has called for tougher enforcement of California’s gun laws and, with Riordan’s endorsement and a battery of campaign commercials, the Democrat is working hard to make gun control the defining issue of the campaign.

Riordan aided Lockyer’s political cause by announcing his endorsement outside the Los Angeles Police Department’s North Hollywood Division, which is home to officers who battled gunmen armed with assault weapons in the 1997 bank shootout that left 20 injured and both robbers dead.

“It doesn’t make any sense, like in the North Hollywood shootout, that these criminals had their incredible, powerful assault weapons,” Riordan told a small gathering of reporters at the lunchtime event. “People have a right to have guns in their home, they have a right to have guns in their business. But it makes no sense for them to have assault weapons.”

Lockyer uses television footage from the North Hollywood shootout in recent campaign commercials touting his support for the assault weapons law.

In a recent debate, Stirling, who was endorsed by the National Rifle Assn. in the Republican primary, said the notion that removing guns from society will make California’s schools and streets safer is “fiction.” Instead, the Republican favors tougher sentences for criminals.

Riordan dismissed questions about his loyalty to the Republican Party, and said that he endorsed Lockyer because he was the best candidate for the city of Los Angeles.

“I’m voting for the person who I believe will do the best job in helping us make our city safer, not based on party politics, not based on partisanship,” Riordan said.

Riordan often has rankled his fellow Republicans with his independent, unpredictable politics. In 1994, Riordan endorsed Democrat Dianne Feinstein in her successful 1994 bid for reelection to the U.S. Senate, and this year he upset Lungren and Gov. Pete Wilson when he publicly mulled running for governor--then dropped the idea just before the filing deadline.

Lockyer, the former Senate president pro tem, gushed with admiration for the mayor. The Hayward Democrat said the streets of Los Angeles are safe because of the mayor, who supports gun control, put more police officers on the street and led an economic development boom that created more jobs and opportunities in the city.

Lockyer also expects that the endorsement, coming from the respected Republican mayor of California’s biggest and most influential city, will catapult his campaign in a race that has been lost in the shadow of the battle over the governor’s mansion.

“It’s encouraging in the last two weeks of the campaign to have the mayor step up this way,” Lockyer said. “He’s been a man with guts, and I appreciate his forthrightness here today.”

Riordan praised Lockyer as a candidate who will help deliver the new technology that police need to fight today’s high-tech, heavily armed criminals.

Along with Lockyer, Riordan has endorsed Lungren, the Republican gubernatorial candidate for governor, who has come under attack for his failure to enforce California’s assault weapons restrictions while attorney general.

Lockyer said Lungren generally supports the assault weapons law.

“Stirling is significantly to the right of that,” Lockyer said. “Now, I didn’t think there was any oxygen there, but that’s his view, and it’s one I disagree with.”

A spokesman said Stirling’s campaign is not worried about Riordan’s endorsement.

“I don’t think it’s going to have much of an effect,” said campaign spokesman Mike MeCey.

When people are voting for attorney general, they want someone who has support from law enforcement, and Stirling has more support from California police officers and prosecutors than Lockyer, MeCey said.

MeCey also called the assault weapons law nothing but “hocuspocus supported by liberals.” Lockyer has devoted so much time to the issue to avoid explaining his positions on other topics important to voters, MeCey said.