Bad Taste? Wise Politics? Polly Klaas Ad Raises Furor

SAN JOSE , Calif.- In what might be the most emotional television campaign spot of this election, the death of 12-year-old Polly Klaas has become the focus of the race for California attorney general.

Labeled politically brilliant by some and the height of sleaze by others, the 30-second spot produced by Assemblyman Tom Umberg partly blames Attorney General Dan Lungren for Polly's death because Lungren cut funding for a database on violent criminals that might have helped catch the girl's alleged killer shortly after she was abducted.

The ad features Polly's grandfather, Joe Klaas, placing flowers at a memorial to Polly and wearing a T-shirt that reads, "Remember Polly. Dump Lungren."

In the ad, Joe Klaas says, "A year ago, Richard Allen Davis, a two-time parolee, kidnapped Polly. Ninety minutes later, the cops questioned him. . . . When they radioed in, there was no criminal record. They let him go.

"Attorney General Dan Lungren increased his (public-relations) budget instead of spending $123,000 on the criminal-tracking system, a system Lungren conceded could have made a difference."

The ad ends with a somber-looking picture of Democratic challenger Umberg, a two-term legislator from Orange County. The ad is viewed as so potentially damaging that Lungren, a Republican who won election in 1990 by less than a 1 percent margin, held a news conference to denounce the spot before it was broadcast.

"The ad is not only sleazy, it's just plain wrong," Lungren said. "If Tom Umberg tramples on the death of Polly to run for office, he will have etched in stone his reputation as one of the sleaziest candidates for office in California history."

TWO NEWS CONFERENCES

Joe Klaas, who appeared at two news conferences this past week with Umberg, responded: "What's disgusting is to cut the very program that would have identified Richard Allen Davis as a parolee kidnapper and then come out as tough on crime."

Klaas, 74, said he approached Umberg a month ago and offered to help his election campaign. Klaas said he voluntarily participated in the television spot and dismissed assertions by Lungren's staff that the spot exploits Polly's death.

"I think Polly would be proud of what I'm doing," Klaas said, responding to criticism. "Politicians have to take responsibility for the things they do that harm people."

Marc Klaas, Polly's father, declined to comment on the ad. But Joe Klaas said that he told his son about it and that Marc Klaas did not object.

Donna Lucas, a veteran Republican political consultant, called the ad a "last-ditch effort by Tom Umberg to score a touchdown."

Umberg trails Lungren by 15 percentage points in the most recent Los Angeles Times poll. Lucas said the emotionally charged spot could backfire, but perhaps not.

"It's almost going too far, but unfortunately that's what you get in the last weeks of election season," she said.

"It all depends on how it's played. People get outraged, but then they remember it. It could work to Umberg's advantage."

WORKED FOR BUSH IN 1988

Lucas was working for George Bush in 1988 when Bush's campaign produced the famous Willie Horton spot against Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. Horton was a convicted murderer who was on a weekend furlough from a Massachusetts prison when he raped a woman and attacked her fiance. The television spot devastated the Dukakis campaign.

The issue behind the rhetoric in Umberg's ad is the Violent Crime Information Center, a statewide database of ex-convicts for which Lungren cut funding in 1992.

Although he was forced to make budget cuts that year, Lungren had wide discretion as to where to trim spending, according to John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara, chairman of the state Assembly's Ways and Means Committee.

Vasconcellos, who has endorsed Umberg, also said in a letter to Umberg that Lungren increased his budget for press relations the same year by about $90,000.

Lungren press secretary Dave Puglia said the attorney general was forced to cut $16 million during fiscal 1991-92 and opted to eliminate the $376,000 violent-offender database with the intention of refunding it later. The database software cost $123,000.

Polly was abducted during a slumber party in her home on Oct. 1, 1993. Her body was found weeks later 25 miles north of Petaluma off Highway 101.

The suspect in the slaying, Davis, is awaiting trial in Sonoma County.

TRESPASSER REPORTED

Ninety minutes after Polly was abducted, two Sonoma County sheriff's deputies encountered Davis on a remote road 12 miles from Polly's house after a resident called police to report a trespasser. Polly is believed to have been alive somewhere nearby at the time.

Davis aroused the deputies' suspicions when he told them he was "sightseeing," but he came up clear when they checked their computer, which told them that there were no warrants out for Davis' arrest and also that he had a valid driver's license.

During the 38 minutes they spent with Davis, deputies did not hear the radio bulletin on Polly's abduction. Davis had twigs in his hair and wet pants at the time, but deputies had no reason to detain him any further, so they helped him get his car out of a ditch and let him go.

The state criminal database was outdated, but if it had been accessible to deputies it would have told them that Davis was a convicted kidnapper.

Shortly after Polly Klaas' death, Lungren told the San Jose Mercury News that if the violent-criminal database had been available, "that system would have helped our officers" in Sonoma County.

CLAIM IS DISPUTED

Lungren's staff vehemently disputes that a fully funded, up-to-date database would have saved Polly because deputies did not know there had been a kidnapping when they stopped Davis.

"Had there been 5,000 (computer information) systems in place, it would not have made any difference because the officers at the scene had no probable cause to make an inquiry," said Ken Khachigian, Lungren's senior adviser.

"As far as they knew, this guy was a stranded motorist, and they helped his car out of the ditch, and that was it."

Umberg defended the ad.

AD IS RUNNING STATEWIDE

"Facts are stubborn things," Umberg said. "Mr. Lungren may try to deny those facts, but they're very stubborn things."

Umberg's campaign director, George Urch, would not divulge what the spot cost or how often it would run. He said the ad was showing statewide.