Candidates Spar for Seats of Democratic Legislators

A number of Los Angeles County Democrats are leaving the state Legislature this year, sparking keen interest in who will succeed them in districts stretching from Long Beach to Whittier to the San Fernando Valley.

Two veteran Assembly members hoping to succeed Sen. Debra Bowen are questioning each other’s environmental credentials and campaign donors in a district that follows the coast from Wilmington to the Westside.

To succeed Assemblyman Paul Koretz, a health clinic director is sparring with a former Los Angeles city budget chairman in a wealthy district encompassing Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Sherman Oaks.

And two legislators who oversee banking and prisons are targeting each other’s records as they vie to fill Sen. Martha Escutia’s seat on the county’s eastern front.

Some Republicans and third-party candidates are running in these heavily Democratic districts, most with nominal campaigns. Many of these candidates appear not to have raised significant campaign money. One, Republican David Lee Anstrom of Torrance, says he is homeless and lives mostly in his car.

In the June 6 primary, registered Democrats must vote for Democratic candidates, Republicans for Republicans. Those not registered with a political party can vote for a Democrat, a Republican or an American Independent candidate by requesting the party’s ballot at the polling place.

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Senate District 28

Voters in Bowen’s district range from the very poor to the very rich. Half are white, 29% are Latino and 12% are Asian. The district is 47% Democratic and 29% Republican.

Democrats Jenny Oropeza and George Nakano are sparring to represent the long, mostly narrow district, which starts near the ports and refineries, and reaches north to Venice and West Los Angeles.

Both have made much of their environmental records -- Nakano in fighting ocean pollution and protecting wetlands, Oropeza in working to clean the air around local ports.

Nakano, 70, of Torrance, represented the South Bay in the Assembly for three terms. A retired teacher and school administrator, he served 14 years on the Torrance City Council before heading to Sacramento.

As a councilman, Nakano helped the city bring a landmark suit against Mobil Oil that improved safety at the accident-plagued local refinery. He later wrote successful state bills to regulate wastewater and prevent cruise ships from dumping hazardous waste.

Oropeza, 48, worked as a political aide and campaigner, and served six years on the Long Beach school board and six years on the City Council before her election to the Assembly in 2000.

She said that having liver cancer led to her interest in reducing port pollution. A clean-air bill she introduced recently passed the Assembly, and she says to critics who fault her for not taking on pollution earlier, “I admittedly did not have a passion like I do now.”

Oropeza criticizes Nakano for taking money from insurance companies and then failing to support insurance reforms after the 2003 wildfires. Nakano says that, unlike Oropeza, he has not accepted oil company money.

Oropeza’s house is in a tiny piece of the district that juts east into Long Beach, and some critics note that she sat on the panel that approved new district lines. She acknowledges that she lobbied to have her home in the district, saying she wanted to represent its voters.

Two Republicans are running. Anstrom, 50, wants to ban dangerous pesticides, use of mercury in tooth fillings and fluoridated water. Cherryl Liddle, 49, of Redondo Beach, the former co-owner of a medical personnel agency, is highlighting the need for affordable healthcare.

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Assembly District 42

Another tempestuous race is underway in Brentwood, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Sherman Oaks, as Mike Feuer and Abbe Land seek Koretz’s seat in a largely white district that includes some of California’s wealthiest neighborhoods.

The district is 54% Democratic and 20% Republican.

A former Los Angeles city councilman, Feuer, 48, spent eight years as executive director of Los Angeles’ Bet Tzedek, providing free help to the poor and elderly.

He was elected to the council in 1995 and left in 2001 to run unsuccessfully for city attorney. He is currently an attorney at Morrison & Foerster.

Land, 50, was development director at the Los Angeles Free Clinic, which offers free medical care to the needy. She became co-executive director in 2003.

Active in the drive to create West Hollywood, she was a city councilwoman from 1986 to 1997 and returned to the council in 2003.

Both candidates vow to work for healthcare reform. Land says her clinic work makes her uniquely suited.

Feuer says that at Bet Tzedek, he helped needy people get healthcare and that on the City Council, he worked to strengthen paramedic services.

Both also tout their civic experience. Feuer said that as chairman of the City Council’s Budget Committee, he oversaw a $5-billion budget that was roughly 100 times larger than the $50-million West Hollywood budget. Land countered that “size is relative” and that she has helped get city budgets passed since 1986.

Five other candidates are running, including Democrat Cynthia Toussaint, 45, of Valley Village, a healthcare activist who has a chronic pain disease called reflex sympathetic dystrophy. Campaigning from a wheelchair, she promises to work for medical reforms because “I’ve lived it. I know what it’s like not to get healthcare.”

The other Democrats are Eric M. Fine, 42, of Beverly Hills, a property manager who wants to legalize marijuana and lower taxes, and Mark Gonzaga, 44, of West Hollywood, producer of a cable television talk show who supports improved education, animal welfare and more access to healthcare.

On the Republican ballot, Clark Baker, 48, of Los Angeles, a writer and retired LAPD officer, wants stronger border protection and education money assigned to each student to attend public, charter or private schools.

Steven Mark Sion, 43, an attorney from West Hollywood, said that he would propose a bill to break up large school districts and create smaller ones and that he supports incentives to promote alternative fuels.

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Senate District 30

A tense race is unfolding in eastern Los Angeles County, where Escutia’s upcoming departure is pitting Democratic Assemblymen Ron Calderon and Rudy Bermudez against each other.

The district is 75% Latino and sprawls from Huntington Park to Hacienda Heights and south to Norwalk, including some of the working-class cities and warehouses along the 710 Freeway.

Bermudez, 48, of Norwalk, was a law enforcement officer for 23 years with what were then called the California Youth Authority and the Corrections Department. He served on the Norwalk school board and City Council before his 2002 Assembly campaign. He said he wants to move to the Senate to improve education and public safety.

Calderon, 48, of Montebello, was elected to the Assembly in 2002 and is chairman of the Banking Committee. He said he wants to ensure that Proposition 98 money is spent on education as voters intended, and supports healthcare reform and public safety.

Bermudez heads the budget subcommittee on corrections, while remaining a member of the prison guards union. Calderon says Bermudez is too close to the powerful union. Bermudez says he has held prison officials accountable for mismanagement.

Calderon sits on the Insurance Committee, where reforms faltered after the 2003 wildfires. He has been criticized for taking $112,900 in insurance industry money in 2003-04, but says he was not swayed by the donations.

Calderon succeeded his brother, Tom, in his Assembly district. Another brother, former state Sen. Charles Calderon, is running for Ron’s Assembly seat.

Republican Selma H. Minerd of Whittier is also running in the district, which is 55% Democratic and 25% Republican.

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Senate District 26

Sen. Kevin Murray termed out this year, prompting a contest between two Democrats for the district that stretches from Century City to USC and from South L.A. to the Hollywood Hills.

Mark Ridley-Thomas, 50, was elected assemblyman in the 48th District in 2002 after 11 years on the Los Angeles City Council. In the Senate, he would like to focus on economic development, the environment and healthcare. His Democratic opponent, Marvin Columbus McCoy, 29, a business consultant, wants to improve education and prevent crime. He calls Ridley-Thomas out of touch with the black community.

The district is 65% Democratic and 12% Republican.

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Assembly District 43

Democrats Paul Krekorian and Frank Quintero are running for the seat held by termed-out Democratic Assemblyman Dario Frommer, who represents Burbank, Glendale, North Hollywood, Silver Lake and Los Feliz.

Krekorian, 46, of Burbank, is an attorney and cites his three years on the Burbank school board, where he says he helped close a budget deficit and prevent teacher layoffs. He wants to give students better resources and attract good teachers.

Quintero, 60, of Glendale, a five-year city councilman, is the retired director of a vocational development firm. He supports vocational training in high schools and lowering tuition in community colleges.

Also running is Republican Michael Agbaba of Burbank.

The district is 44% Democratic and 29% Republican.

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Assembly District 48

Three Democrats are sparring to replace Mark Ridley-Thomas in this Central and South Los Angeles district.

Mike Davis, 47, is a senior deputy to county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and has her endorsement. He favors smaller class sizes, reduced community college fees and universal healthcare.

Edward R. Turner, 52, a sheriff’s field deputy for community affairs and bishop of Power of Love Christian Fellowship Church, stresses crime prevention, better vocational training and early childhood education.

Anthony Willoughby, 49, a civil rights and business attorney supported by Ridley-Thomas, promises to strengthen elementary school education and find innovative methods for high school vocational training.

Republican Brenda Carol Green is also running in a district is that is 71% Democratic and 8% Republican.