Woo Ads: 1 Positive, 1 Negative

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Michael Woo on Thursday began running two new TV ads, one seeking to portray rival Richard Riordan as an opponent of abortion rights and another highlighting Woo’s support of abortion rights and gun control and his endorsement from President Clinton.

* THE AD: “Can we trust Dick Riordan?” asks a narrator. The ad shows Riordan saying “I’m pro-choice. I’m pro-choice. I’m pro-choice.” The narrator remarks: “That’s what Dick Riordan says now. But two years ago, this is what Dick Riordan had to say.” The ad then shows Riordan saying: “I surprise myself with my emotions on the abortion issue because I feel very . . . I think it’s murder.” The narrator then says: “Riordan called abortion murder. Think about it. If Dick Riordan isn’t tough enough to tell us the truth on abortion, can we trust him as mayor?” The ad closes with a shot of Riordan as he says: “I think it’s murder.” The other commercial also pictures Riordan while a narrator says: “One candidate for mayor talks tough.” It then shows Woo while the narrator says: “But the other has the strength of his convictions. Mike Woo: To make L.A. safe, he’ll get deadly handguns off the streets.” The ad shows a handgun with the barrel straight ahead at the viewer. “Mike Woo will fight to keep our jobs in L.A. by putting the needs of people first,” the narrator says. A picture of Clinton appears on screen along with a newspaper headline: “Clinton Hails Woo for Putting ‘People First.’ ” Woo will “protect a woman’s right to choose,” says the narrator, who closes: “To make L.A. work, Mike Woo has something even Dick Riordan can’t buy: the strength of convictions.”

* THE ANALYSIS: Riordan--who has contributed to anti-abortion groups as well as to political candidates who favor abortion rights--insists that he favors abortion rights. He said that abortion is murder in a 1991 cable TV interview. Commenting on the 1991 interview, Riordan said this week: “I have said all along that I don’t favor abortion. I have never met anybody that does favor abortion. But I am for the right of every woman to make a choice with respect to her own body. And as mayor, I will support the laws that give women free access to clinics so they can exercise that choice.” While Woo pledges to “get deadly handguns off the street,” city lawyers have cast doubt over whether the city has any power to regulate handguns. That falls under the jurisdiction of the state Legislature.