Angelides’ Ads

I am writing this letter regarding George Skelton’s column about my television ads (“Ugly Ads Find Their Way Into Primary Races,” May 19). Here are the facts.

State Sen. David Roberti (D-Van Nuys), throughout his legislative career, has opposed a woman’s right to choose an abortion.

On not one, not two, but three occasions within the last year, he refused to support AJR 26, a resolution which specifically referred to the death of Dr. David Gunn and clinic violence and which called on the federal government to make it a crime to block clinics. This, after hundreds of women and hundreds of clinics had been assaulted by terrorists. What appalls me is that a political leader either can’t see or won’t stand up to that violence.

Roberti has rightly earned his standing as an anti-abortion leader. In 1986, he led the fight to cut off family planning funds, likening Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan in a shocking floor speech. He has consistently voted against Medi-Cal funding and, in 1981, demanded that the treasurer (the office he now seeks) hold up court-ordered funding. According to the California Abortion Rights and Reproductive Action League, he cast not a single pro-choice vote from 1985 to 1990.

My ads are truthful and his votes are in black and white.

PHIL ANGELIDES

Sacramento