Press Backs McCarthy but His Criticism Lingers

Bill Press is gone from the California U.S. Senate race, but his criticism of Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy resonates in the minds of Democrats who say they are concerned about whether McCarthy can excite the kind of supporters and contributors he needs to beat the Republican incumbent, U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson.

Press, a former television commentator who formally withdrew from the race Wednesday, never mounted a serious challenge against his fellow Democrat, McCarthy, but he touched a nerve on the campaign trail, reminding some Democrats of their reservations about McCarthy’s candidacy.

Press had described McCarthy as a man of “stale ideas” and “status quo politics.” When it came to bold leadership and new ideas, Press had said, there wasn’t “a dime’s worth of difference” between McCarthy and Wilson, whom Press referred to as “a political eunuch.”

McCarthy following Wilson to the Senate, Press said, would be a case of the “bland leading the bland.”

Friends Again

On Wednesday, however, Press and McCarthy were friends again. They sat beside each other at a joint news conference in which Press pledged his loyalty and insisted that any differences between him and McCarthy “paled” when compared to the differences between the two Democrats and Wilson.

“Pete Wilson has to go,” Press said. “And if I’m not the one to do it, then I am happy it is Leo McCarthy. Leo and I have worked together for many years. We have been united fighting for the environment. We have been united fighting for human rights.”

But people close to McCarthy said it will take more than Press’ help to rally the Democrats’ support and dollars behind a candidate who has never been known for his political magnetism.

“It’s time for Leo to show some spark and some passion,” one observer said. “It’s not that people won’t give. They’ll contribute, but you want them to give the extra dollar that you get only if they feel good about giving. To get that, Leo has to reach out and shake them in their chairs.”

McCarthy starts the campaign with about $700,000 on hand, while Wilson has more than $3 million.

McCarthy said Wednesday that he will raise $9 million and do it mostly with small contributions from individuals, as opposed to the corporate political action committee donations that, McCarthy said, make up the bulk of Wilson’s financial war chest.

But McCarthy, too, looks for help from big players in Democratic politics. Among them are the Hollywood Women’s Political Committee; the Berman-Waxman organization, the fund-raising powerhouse built around Democratic Congressmen Henry A. Waxman and Howard L. Berman of Los Angeles, and U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston, who is renowned for his money-raising prowess.

None of those people have yet committed to McCarthy. With Press gone, it is expected that most of the Democratic heavyweights will come to McCarthy’s aid. But since passion breeds passion, a lot will depend on McCarthy’s ability to fire up his own campaign and foment a crusade against his Republican rival.

McCarthy and Wilson are facing an important early skirmish on Saturday, when each is to be questioned by members of the Sierra Club about his environmental record.

McCarthy said Wednesday that he plans to explode any claim Wilson has of being an environmentalist by attacking the senator for not taking a harder stand against the use of pesticides and for taking no stand, yet, on a proposed bill to enshrine much of the state’s desert land in national parks.

It is a different message than the one conveyed recently by McCarthy’s campaign manager, Larry Kamer, when he was quoted in the March issue of the “Golden State Report” as saying that Wilson has “been trying to do the right thing on the environment.”