McCarthy Receives Sierra Club’s Endorsement

For Leo McCarthy it was a sweet Thursday.

Time and again, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate has stood by while his Republican rival, Sen. Pete Wilson, presented himself as the caring candidate with ethnic groups, environmentalists and even some labor leaders.

But the Sierra Club’s unequivocal endorsement Thursday of Lt. Gov. McCarthy allowed him to turn the tables. Whatever its weight in votes, the prestigious environmental organization’s endorsement gives McCarthy a sorely needed opportunity to boost his stature among his natural constituents, in this instance, liberal environmentalists.

As they say in politics, a candidate must excite his base--the core group of kindred spirits who provide the money and energy with which to win converts. Over long years in the state Assembly, McCarthy worked hard to develop a reputation as a friend of the Earth and an ally of the needy.

During the campaign, however, McCarthy has had trouble capitalizing on that reputation. Short on resources and, some say, resourcefulness, McCarthy has watched Wilson upstage him with a $1-million television ad campaign.

“Compassionate conservatism” has been Wilson’s election year slogan as he tries to preempt McCarthy support.

“Democrats may be in a majority in this state, but you still have to give them a reason to vote a Republican out of office, especially when the Republican is campaigning as a moderate, reasonable guy. You have to put the lie to his message,” said one Democratic consultant who is watching this race from the sidelines.

In the contest for environmental credentials, McCarthy got off to an especially awkward start. He let Wilson beat him to the punch on an important endorsement--support for the campaign to stop onshore oil drilling along Los Angeles beaches. McCarthy not only had to play catch up, he had to live down the fact that one of his top campaign consultants was working for the oil company, Occidental Petroleum Corp., which is leading the fight to drill along the city’s coastline.

Wilson came back to the theme of compassion Thursday, as he dedicated a new wing for homeless veterans at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Los Angeles. He was joined at the event by Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, a fellow Republican who made the same slogan, “compassionate conservatism,” a stock phrase of his presidential campaign.

But this time, McCarthy was ready to launch a counterstrike. While he accepted the Sierra Club’s endorsement in Sacramento, his Los Angeles-based campaign staff was raising questions about several Senate votes by Wilson against aid to indigent veterans.

Wilson’s aides acknowledged that the senator twice voted in favor of budget-balancing measures that reduced aid to needy veterans. But they disputed the McCarthy campaign’s claim that Wilson voted against a 1987 bill authorizing $500 million in relief to homeless people.

“As far as I know, I have supported all homeless measures that have come before the Senate,” Wilson said Thursday.

Although Wilson has received letters of commendation from the Sierra Club for his sponsorship of a 1984 California wilderness bill, he was fully expecting the club’s endorsement of McCarthy. His staff attributes the endorsement to liberal partisanship within the Sierra Club’s hierarchy and insists it says very little about Wilson’s own environmental record.

“This (endorsement) is clearly more of a commentary on Sierra Club internal politics than it is on Pete’s record,” said Wilson’s press secretary, Otto Boss.

Backed Republicans

Sierra Club officials point out, however, that 40% of the organization’s members are Republican and that the club has endorsed Republicans such as Sens. John Chaffee of Rhode Island and David Durenberger of Minnesota.

The Sierra Club’s choice in the Senate race reflects a broad feeling among the state’s most politically active environmentalists that while Wilson has been a friend to the environment, McCarthy has been more of a champion.

“We have asked him (Wilson) to do many things, and he has responded on a few,” said Claudia Elliott, Sierra Club California chairwoman.

Club officials said they found McCarthy’s record superior to Wilson on toxic waste cleanup, air pollution regulation, energy conservation, nuclear energy, coastal protection and park and wilderness policy.