Foes Criticize Riordan’s Bid to Take Credit for U.S. Program

Richard Riordan’s gubernatorial rivals Sunday criticized his attempt to take credit for last week’s federal approval of a California program that would insure 300,000 working parents.

Riordan’s camp told The Times that a Bush administration official gave them advance notice of the approval and then suggested that the former Los Angeles mayor accept responsibility for influencing the decision.

Despite those comments, Riordan’s two GOP rivals said they continue to believe that the Republican White House will stay neutral in the March 5 primary. To date, President Bush has made no endorsement in the race, but Riordan has said he encouraged him to run.

“It sounds to me like by the time Mr. Riordan got to it, the horse was already out of the barn,” said Secretary of State Bill Jones, a Republican. Riordan’s advisors, he added, are still trying to give the impression that he carries support from the White House, but that perception “has not materialized.”

The rhetorical sparring match involves California’s plan to provide health insurance coverage to low-income parents whose children are eligible for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families. After more than a year of consideration in Washington, the proposal was officially approved Friday by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson during a visit to Los Angeles.

“I lobbied for that,” Riordan said earlier last week. “I had a lot to do with getting it.”

Riordan has criticized Gov. Gray Davis’ proposal to postpone the start of the expanded Healthy Families program until July 2003. Citing a budget deficit of more than $12 billion, Davis had said that the delay would save $215 million.

Reversing course Friday, Davis asked the Legislature to find the money to implement the program this summer. The program would be open to working parents who earn less than twice the federal poverty level, which equals about $35,300 for a family of four.

Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Davis, said Sunday that Riordan should not claim credit for the Healthy Families expansion to low-income parents. Rather, federal approval resulted from continued pressure by Davis appointees and health advocates over 13 months, he said.

“If they were trying to embarrass the governor, it didn’t work,” Maviglio said. “He [Riordan] had as much to do with getting this as he had to do with the sun coming up this morning. Zero connection.”

Riordan and Davis are increasingly directing their attacks toward one another, setting their eyes on the general election race. On Friday, the Davis campaign unleashed a television commercial criticizing Riordan’s record on abortion rights. Riordan fired back with a commercial criticizing Davis’ personal attacks.

When word spread Wednesday of the Bush administration’s approval, Riordan asked a reporter if he had been given credit for his support. In a Jan. 18 letter, he said the program was “particularly important to California as the state currently faces a serious and troublesome budget deficit.”

“Did they mention me and my lobbying?” Riordan asked. “I’m sure they did. I talked to Tommy Thompson and his chief of staff.”

A Jones campaign advisor said Riordan’s bragging could backfire on him and the White House.

“Now you basically relegate the actions of the administration as something that’s just crass politics instead of something that’s just good public policy,” said the advisor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“It’s a minor annoyance that somebody in the administration tipped him off a little bit, but we’re chuckling about ... the ham-handed, silly way that they rolled it out.”

A spokesman for businessman Bill Simon Jr., the third GOP candidate, said the debate over the health insurance expansion has been “a little jousting match between [Riordan] and the governor at this point.”

“We don’t see it as a big problem for us,” spokesman Bob Taylor said. “‘We view this thing as a wide open race, and the White House is not inserting itself into it, regardless of what Riordan says.”

Riordan’s campaign spokeswoman, Carolina Guevara, said GOP candidates “are missing the point on health care issues impacting Californians.”

“The fact of the matter is that hundreds of thousands of Californians are in need of health care,” she said. “What the mayor was trying to accomplish was to put additional pressure on Gov. Davis to live up to his promise to expand the program.”