Some in Races Hit Assembly Chiefs’ Aid to Rivals

With less than a week remaining before Tuesday’s primary election, some Republican and Democratic candidates for Assembly seats are complaining bitterly that their rivals are receiving the support of lower-house party leaders in contested races.

Assembly GOP Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale and Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown prefer to call it a case of sour grapes.

For example, four GOP Assembly contenders recently accused conservative Nolan and five of his Southern California allies of a “naked power play” designed to strengthen their hand by endorsing and financially backing Republican rivals.

“The Assembly Republican Caucus is spending outrageous amounts of money to defeat other Republicans,” said Ray Narbaitz, a GOP candidate in Northern California’s 3rd Assembly District who served as spokesman for the four disgruntled candidates. “We should be saving those funds for November to spend against the Democrats.”

“It is quite simply a case of sour grapes, because I declined to support them,” Nolan replied. “Their real complaint is not that there is outside involvement, but that it is not in support of their candidacies.

“Our party would be better served if these candidates were working in their districts, carrying a positive message to the voters. It is interesting to note that the other 11 candidates (in the four contested GOP Assembly primaries) have chosen the positive approach.”

Many statewide political figures--the governor, for example--take sides only rarely in primary contests, but this hesitancy does not necessarily extend to the Speaker and other legislative le1633969522money to candidates they would like to see in the Legislature.

William E. Saracino, a staff assistant to Nolan, estimated that individual Republican members of the Assembly have donated a total of $150,000 to $200,000 so far to Nolan-backed candidates in four Northern and Central California races.

They are attorney Chris Chandler in the 3rd District; rancher Martin McClure, 8th District; businessman Bill Duplissea, 20th District, and former GOP legislative aide Henry Olsen, 22nd District.

All four are seeking seats being vacated by assemblymen who are quitting to run for other offices: Wally Herger (R-Rio Oso) in the 3rd District and Ernest E. Konnyu (R-Saratoga), 22nd District, who are running for Congress; Don Sebastiani (R-Sonoma), 8th District, who is running for state controller, and Robert W. Naylor (R-Menlo Park), 20th District, who is running for the U.S. Senate.

On the Democratic side, meanwhile, Brown has been criticized for backing Edward K. Waters, son of a Brown political lieutenant, Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), in the nine-candidate Democratic primary for the open 54th Assembly District seat in southeastern Los Angeles County. Incumbent Assemblyman Frank Vicencia (D-Bellflower) is retiring after 12 years in office.

“We are openly resentful; we are insulted by his (Waters’) candidacy and the Speaker of the Assembly of the state of California, who has tried to shove him down our throats,” Larry Ward, a Bellflower school board member and one of the nine candidates, said at a forum recently.

Asked for comment, Brown replied, “I am not going to engage in any name-calling, because I expect to be soliciting their vote (for Waters in the general election). However, I also would recommend that they not engage in any name-calling either--just in case they want to solicit my vote.”

Waters, who hopes to become part of the first mother-son combination in California legislative history, has reported that Brown lent his campaign $10,000 and provided him with support services worth an additional $36,000.

The Assembly leader also has come under fire for helping Richard Polanco, a former Democratic legislative aide, who hopes to replace former Assemblyman Richard Alatorre, now a Los Angeles city councilman, in the Eastside’s 55th Assembly District. Businessman Mike Hernandez, considered to be Polanco’s chief Democratic rival, has attacked Polanco for being an outsider who moved to the district after being “hand-picked” by Brown and Alatorre.

Times staff writer Mark Gladstone also contributed to this story.