Candidate forum puts questions to Democratic candidates for state Senate and the Assembly
Speaking to a small audience in Glendale this weekend, Phlunte’ Riddle, a Democratic candidate for state Senate, had a message for male legislators considering issues related to abortion and Planned Parenthood: “Don’t play.”
“It just floors me when I see a group of men sitting before a congressional table discussing how I am going to make a decision for what goes on with my body,” said Riddle, a retired Pasadena police officer and educator. “Absolutely not.” She added: “You want to see me get ugly? I still carry a gun.”
The sparse audience at the candidate forum hosted by the Glendale Democrat Club laughed. Riddle’s comments on Saturday afternoon came a few weeks after Democrats condemned Republican anti-abortion rhetoric in the wake of a shooting that left three people dead at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Riddle was one of three candidates at the forum expected to vie for the 25th Senate District seat now held by La Cañada-Flintridge Democrat Carol Liu.
Former Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada-Flintridge), who is also expected to run for the post, was absent due to a schedule conflict.
Joining Riddle were Chris Chahinian, a Pasadena businessman, and Katherine Perez-Estolano, a Pasadena businesswoman and educator with a background in urban planning and transportation. They answered questions at the forum, held at the Pacific Community Center in Glendale.
Gerry Vaughan, a spokesman for the Riddle campaign said Tuesday that the remarks were meant as a light-hearted comment and shouldn’t be connected with the events late last month.
Five Democratic candidates seeking the 43rd Assembly District seat also fielded a series of 10 questions earlier in the day before an audience of about 30, which thinned somewhat for the Senate candidate session. Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Glendale), who currently holds the post, will be termed out in 2016.
The Assembly candidates included Andrew Blumenfeld, president of the La Cañada Unified School District Governing Board, Glendale City Councilwoman Laura Friedman and Glendale City Clerk Ardy Kassakhian. Rounding out the panel were Rajiv Dalal, a former economic development adviser to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and Burbank High School teacher Dennis Bullock.
For several of the Assembly candidates, it was clear they sought to distinguish themselves from the pack on their records rather than their positions, which on many of the issues were similar.
For example, all supported a single-payer universal healthcare system, all favored stronger efforts to combat climate change and all said homeless veterans need more resources to help them get jobs and housing.
“There’s not a lot of disagreement,” Friedman said at one point, when discussion turned to education reform. “We should have invited the Republicans.”
In terms of experience, Friedman said voters can look at her progressive voting record and know where she stands. Kassakhian said he wants to be a voice in Sacramento for working-class families “as I always have been for the last 10 years” as Glendale City Clerk.
Blumenfeld said his experience “on the ground” in classrooms and on the school board has taught him that Sacramento needs forward-thinking instead of “business as usual.” Dalal pointed to his experience working to push forward a tax incentive to keep film and television production in Los Angeles as preparing him for the kind of leadership needed in office.
Meanwhile, Bullock, who described himself as “the outsider’s outsider” who has never held an elected position, focused on his ideas, such as a tax incentive plan to encourage businesses to give school districts a financial “shot in the arm.”
The Senate candidates were the only ones asked about Planned Parenthood, but all three spoke in favor of the women’s health organization. Though Friedman plugged her efforts to block a gun show on city-owned property, only the Senate candidates were directly asked about gun control reforms.
Chihanian said that what happened in San Bernardino was an act of terror, and that no matter what regulations are in place, “bad guys” will get guns. Perez-Estolano said she supports the 2nd Amendment, but is seeking to understand what more the state can do to control firearms, which she said outnumber residents.
Riddle said gun ownership is a right, but noted her efforts supporting the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which imposed background checks for gun buyers in 1994, and warned the audience about the clout of the National Rifle Assn., a member-supported gun rights lobby.
“Smart gun ownership — I’m not quite sure what people mean by that these days.” Riddle said. “We have to fight for sensible gun control.”
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Chad Garland, chad.garland@latimes.com
Twitter: @chadgarland
