Senate Candidate’s Latino Emphasis : McCarthy Stumps L.A., Ignores His Rival

He visited a Boyle Heights hospital and talked about Medi-Cal reform. He toured a Skid Row child care center and urged private industry to do more. He met with Broadway merchants and extolled the virtues of small business.

Traveling through Los Angeles on Friday, Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy, Democratic contender for the U.S. Senate, seemed willing to chat about just about anything . . . anything, that is, except for a certain recent foreign affair.

That affair was Bill Press’ bold, quixotic but ultimately successful foray into Nicaragua last weekend, where he persuaded the Sandinista government to release American rancher James Denby from prison.

Press, a former KABC commentator, is McCarthy’s opponent in the Democratic primary June 6 to determine a challenger to Republican incumbent Pete Wilson.

“I’m going to resist the temptation,” McCarthy said with a front-runner’s grin, when pressed for a comment on his rival’s diplomatic coup.

Campaign finance statements released Thursday showed McCarthy with $1.53 million raised, and $688,893 remaining in the bank, while Press had raised $228,000 and had $78,262 left. A Field Poll in December showed McCarthy leading Press by 59 points.

The best way to beat Press, McCarthy clearly believes, is to ignore him.

“For each Bill Press-Leo McCarthy story there will be one less Pete Wilson-Leo McCarthy story,” the candidate explained. “I have to keep focused on my real opponent.”

Hospitals and Medi-Cal

And on potential voters. On Friday, the emphasis was Latino. The Spanish-language media covering McCarthy’s visit outnumbered the English-language press 4 to 1.

White Memorial Medical Center in Boyle Heights offered a window on the financial problems for hospitals that rely on Medi-Cal reimbursements in serving poor communities. In the neonatal intensive care unit, McCarthy was shown a baby girl born Jan. 28--16 weeks premature, weighing in at 14 ounces, and, like her mother, drug addicted.

But the Medi-Cal allowance of $640 a day covers only a fraction of the cost of treating the infant--and is the same amount as that required to treat a tonsillectomy, according to Tammie McMann, neonatal unit director.

A reimbursement structure recognizing the intensity of care is needed, McMann told McCarthy.

The next stop was Para Los Ninos, a social service center in the heart of Skid Row that provides a variety of services to poor families, including child care. Executive director Tanya Tull told McCarthy the child care program has had 90 children--and has had to turn down 200 applications because of financial limits.

McCarthy paused briefly with a group of toddlers, all of whom had removed their shoes. “Do you want to take your shoes off?” a child asked. McCarthy kept his wing tips on.

Para Los Ninos has had contact with about 500 families, but the lack of affordable rental housing has trapped them into a cycle of poverty on Skid Row, Tull said. “The opportunity to move up and out is nonexistent.”

McCarthy listened, took notes and nodded. Later, he suggested that part of the blame for Medi-Cal, child care and housing problems rests with Pete Wilson. “What I’m really running against,” the candidate declared, “is an absentee senator.”