Democrats’ Ads Take Aim at Sen. Seymour

Hoping to score political points from the televised bloodletting over Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the California Democratic Party today began a weeklong radio advertising campaign skewering GOP Sen. John Seymour for voting to confirm the newest justice.

Moreover, the ad takes Seymour to task for voting against abortion rights and for not speaking out against Gov. Pete Wilson’s recent veto of a sexual harassment bill.

“What do you call a man who violates the rights of women?” a woman in the ad asks. “Here in California, we call him Sen. John Seymour.”

Seymour’s press secretary, H.D. Palmer, called the advertisement “unfortunate and disgraceful” and suggested that Democrats were moving against Seymour because a recent poll showed him gaining some ground against prospective Democratic Senate candidates.

“I completely reject the notion that somehow the Democratic Party speaks for all the women of California,” Palmer added.

The 60-second advertisement is due to be broadcast in the state’s four largest media markets: Los Angeles, San Diego, the Bay Area and Sacramento. The novel strategy of running the campaign-style ad a full year before the general election underscores Democratic hopes of unseating the appointed senator, who is still relatively unknown to Californians.

California Democratic Party Chairman Phil Angelides said the ad, which cost $50,000, should also be taken as a warning shot across the bows of all Republicans holding or running for office here.

And he drew a distinction between his tactics and the much-criticized behavior of Democratic Senate leaders during the Thomas hearings.

“Clearly, many Democrats are frustrated at what they see as Republicans who go for the jugular and Democrats who let them get away with it,” Angelides said. “At least in California, that day is over.”

The advertisements against Seymour come amid other rumblings of discontent from former supporters. The California Abortion Rights Action League, which backed Seymour during his unsuccessful 1990 bid for the lieutenant governorship, last week sent him a sharply worded letter declaring its “extreme disappointment” with his vote for Thomas.

The organization’s associate director, Robin Schneider, said Wednesday that she and others had also been dismayed by recent Seymour votes limiting abortion rights for teen-agers.

“We were really hoping . . . that he would be able to withstand the pressure,” she said.

From his 1982 election to the state Senate until the autumn of 1989--when he changed his position--Seymour was a key vote against abortion rights, as the Democratic ad notes. The ad does not give him credit for several votes favoring abortion rights that he has cast since his conversion.

Seymour announced his support for Thomas before the Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings into allegations of sexual harassment brought by former Thomas co-worker Anita Faye Hill. After the hearings, Seymour said that he saw no “credible evidence” that harassment occurred.

The senator, who faces a primary challenge from the party’s right wing in the person of U.S. Rep. William Dannemeyer of Fullerton, has been derided by conservatives angered by his switch on abortion rights. His vote on Thomas, however, earned him vocal support from some conservatives.