Negative campaigning in Gatto, Krikorian race is reflected in voter sentiment

The contentious campaign for the 43rd Assembly District seat between incumbent Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake) and Republican Glendale school board member Greg Krikorian was reflected in voter sentiment at the polls Tuesday.

For a race in which the two campaigns pointed fingers and made accusations to the very end, perhaps it wasn’t surprising that voters harbored some of that tartness in the voting booth.

Many referred to the deluge of campaign materials as having had an impact on their decision-making.

“I think they’re both superficial,” said Elizabeth Wood, a paralegal, outside a polling station in Glendale. “I don’t care for Gatto, but I don’t care for Krikorian more.”

Juana Kindom, 62, said initially she planned to vote for Krikorian, but then she received a flier a few days ago that said the school board member was a co-debtor in his wife’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy case filed last year.

“If he cannot manage his bankruptcy at home, how can he manage the state?” said Kindom.

But Krikorian was not without his supporters, such as Arussik Siroun, who lives in senior apartments in Glendale.

She said she voted for Krikorian because “he’s a good man.”

And Harma Mirzakhanian, a doctor who lives in La Crescenta, said he voted for Krikorian after hearing accusations that Gatto’s campaign was trying to mislead voters in a series of last-minute phone calls.

“Anything that’s dirty, I don’t like,” Mirzakhanian said.

ELECTION 2012:

As campaigns wind down, rhetoric and accusations heat up

California election season sees hundreds of complaints to watchdog agency

-- Brittany Levine and Jason Wells, Times Community News

Follow Brittany Levine on Google+ and on Twitter: @brittanylevine.