Local Elections : Mother Joins Fray : Martin Belts DuBose as Debate Runs Amok

A spirited, no-holds-barred debate may have been what members of Chula Vista Republican Women Federated expected when they sponsored a forum Wednesday between combative Assembly candidates Jay Martin and Tom DuBose.

Instead, they got a demonstration of political fisticuffs as Martin let his right hook, not his rhetoric, do the talking.

According to witnesses, Martin, 30, stormed across the stage and punched DuBose, 54, in the shoulder after DuBose disputed accusations Martin had made in a campaign mailer. A brief fracas ensued during which Martin’s mother, Ella, yelled loudly and waved her cane menacingly at members of the DuBose campaign staff.

“Jay just got hot--he got real hot--and his mother got hot,” said Jamie Walter, who was sent by state Republican Party officials to manage the DuBose campaign. “He took a swing at Tom and there was yelling and screaming. . . . Jay’s mother was in there with her cane fixing to hit somebody.”

No one was injured, police were not called and the incident will go down as just one more round in the bitter contest.

Martin, who is battling DuBose in the Republican primary for the chance to wrest the 80th Assembly District from Democrat Steve Peace, was unavailable for comment. However, Ella Martin said her son only lunged at DuBose after the man told her to “sit down and shut up.” She is acting as her son’s campaign treasurer.

“Jay grabbed for him and I took my cane and stopped him from hitting Mr. DuBose,” said Mrs. Martin.

But June Brines, president of Chula Vista Republican Women Federated, said the Martins started the ruckus when DuBose told the audience he had been smeared by Martin campaign literature. Throughout the race, Martin has charged that DuBose lied about his military service, even after DuBose showed him a copy of his honorable discharge papers, Brines said.

DuBose, the second of the two candidates to speak, began by dismissing Martin’s allegations about his military record. That, Brines said, is when the trouble started.

“Jay started yelling, ‘Forgery, forgery!’ over the discharge papers and his mother was getting pretty loud,” Brines said. “Then Jay crossed behind me on the speaker’s platform and punched (DuBose) in the shoulder. . . . Tom saw it coming and turned. Otherwise it would have hit him in the head or the face.

“I just turned to (Martin) and said, ‘Now you really blew it.’ ”

John Hattendorf, manager of Sir George’s Smorgasbord, where the forum was held, said he ran into the meeting room when he heard screaming.

“I saw this lady with her cane over her head and she was yelling,” Hattendorf said, adding that he told Mrs. Martin he would call the police if she didn’t calm down. The Martins left the restaurant immediately after the fight. DuBose also departed quickly, but was described as being “in a mellow mood.” DuBose couldn’t be reached for comment later in the day.

Wednesday’s incident capped an increasingly bitter campaign between DuBose, the choice of both local and state Republican leaders, and Martin, a local political activist. DuBose has said Martin is not a serious candidate, pushed into the race by his mother. The Martin camp has responded by labeling DuBose “a throwaway candidate,” the choice of turncoat Republicans who want to see Peace retain his Assembly seat.

In his latest salvo, appearing in a campaign flyer that was to be mailed this week, Martin accused DuBose of lying, not only about his service record, but about his support for President Reagan.

“We came out with a hit piece against Mr. DuBose--just the facts,” said Mrs. Martin. The attack, she said, was in reprisal for comments DuBose had made in the press, in which he suggested that Jay Martin had never held a real job and that his mother was dominating his campaign.

Mrs. Martin said Chula Vista Republican Women Federated had misled her son, originally telling him he would be the only candidate speaking Wednesday.

“They set Jay up at the women’s club,” she said. “Jay didn’t want to go today and I shouldn’t have insisted that he go.”

Peace, reached during an evening budget hearing in Sacramento, smiled and said: “I’m doing my best not to make any comment.”