AFTER THE RIOTS: THE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS : Campbell Blames ‘Evil People’ in Thefts, Fires

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tom Campbell said Wednesday that looting and arson are the indefensible acts of “evil people” and cannot be blamed on the failure of federal programs or cured by changes in the welfare system.

Even so, President Bush and Congress will have to address the problems of the inner city in the aftermath of the Los Angeles riot, Campbell said, aligning himself with the “compassionate conservative” program of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp.

“The arson, the riots, the shootings are indefensible. Don’t talk to me about, well, ‘It’s the result of the system,’ ” the two-term congressman from Palo Alto told Los Angeles area political reporters in a breakfast interview.

“But you cannot walk away and say, ‘I am not interested in the inner city,’ ” he added. Campbell is seeking the Republican nomination to run for the Senate in the June 2 primary election.

On Tuesday, Campbell’s principal opponent, conservative commentator Bruce Herschensohn, addressed last week’s rioting and looting exclusively in law-and-order terms and scoffed at the idea of underlying social causes.

The cause is that “some people are rotten,” Herschensohn told reporters Tuesday. He said federal troops should have been summoned immediately and that California’s 15-day waiting period for purchasing a gun should be repealed because it kept law-abiding people from arming themselves against rioters.

Although Campbell did not use the word rotten , he said: “There is no distinction between (Herschensohn’s) view and mine--that people who are arsonists are bad people, evil people.” Campbell said he is proud of his law-and-order record and does not expect that to be an issue between him and Herschensohn.

He challenged Herschensohn’s contention that the firearms waiting period should be repealed. “Would the situation have been better if more guns had been available?” he asked. “I cannot support his position.”

The riot will have a dramatic impact on national elections, Campbell said, because it directs attention to issues of order and urban problems.

Bush will have no problem on law and order, Campbell said, “But when the issue comes to what do you do about the inner cities--even if there hadn’t been a riot, are you happy with the inner cities?--the President cannot say yes.”

Campbell said he expects Bush to embrace Kemp’s proposal of federal help for low-income home buyers and the designation of “enterprise zones” with tax advantages for investors--ideas generally shunned by the White House, and by Kemp, for the last three years.

Campbell said he favors elimination of the capital gains tax--one incentive proposed for the urban enterprise zones--but believes businesses that rebuild or locate in riot-torn areas would get more direct and immediate help from payroll tax credits or outright tax forgiveness.

The congressman questioned some political observers’ assumption that the riot would generate support for Gov. Pete Wilson’s welfare initiative, which will appear on the November ballot.

Campbell said he agrees that welfare should be scaled down, but he said: “If the argument is: ‘There is despair in the inner city because the welfare system is so bad, and this makes rioting more possible,’ that’s a little bit of a stretch.

“Rioting is indefensible. Rioting should not be blamed on the welfare system.”