Bradley Hits Governor on Ballot Issue Stands

SACRAMENTO —  Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley rekindled an old issue Wednesday and criticized Gov. George Deukmejian, his Republican opponent in the governor’s race, for not yet taking a position on major measures that will be on the November ballot.

Deukmejian fails at leadership, Bradley charged, by refusing to reveal his position on the Lyndon LaRouche-backed AIDS initiative--which has attracted early bipartisan opposition--and measures on toxic wastes, public officials’ salaries and making English the state’s official language.

“Where does George Deukmejian stand?” Bradley said in a speech here to more than 1,000 members of the California School Employees Assn., which represents bus drivers, classroom aides and other non-teaching school workers. “My midterm grade for this man is an F.”

Kristy Flynn, press secretary for Deukmejian’s reelection campaign, said in response Wednesday that the governor usually waits until closer to an election before announcing his positions on ballot measures.

“The governor has every intention of taking a position on all the measures in plenty of time for the voters to know how he stands,” Flynn said.

The candidates’ positions on ballot controversies became an issue early in the campaign after Bradley declined to reveal whether he favored the reconfirmation of California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird. Bird and five other justices will appear on the November ballot.

Bradley has said that he prefers to keep gubernatorial politics out of the nonpartisan judicial election. Deukmejian has been a vocal advocate of Bird’s removal.

Mayor’s Challenge

Last month Bradley sent a letter to Deukmejian challenging him to join the list of public officials from both major parties who have signed on as opponents of the LaRouche measure on AIDS. Bradley has received no response, and Wednesday he told the school employees, “That one should have been easy . . . an automatic no on that one.”

Proposition 64, the LaRouche measure, would classify persons who carry the AIDS antibody--but who are not ill with the disease--as infectious and would ban them from schools and food-service jobs. Their cases would also have to be reported to the state.

Bradley said he opposes the LaRouche initiative and the measures that would make English the state’s official language and reduce salaries of public officials. He has endorsed the toxics initiative.