Valley Candidates Took a Drubbing at Home in GOP Senate Voting

The three San Fernando Valley area politicians who suffered defeat in the Republican Senate primary Tuesday found no comfort at home.

They also lost in their own backyard, an analysis of the Valley vote showed Wednesday.

Television commentator Bruce Herschensohn collected more Valley votes than the combined totals of Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, Rep. Bobbi Fiedler of Northridge and state Sen. Ed Davis of Valencia. (The very conservative Herschensohn, however, lost statewide to Rep. Ed Zschau of Los Altos, who will meet Democratic U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston in the November election.)

The Valley vote was Herschensohn, 43,716 votes or 47%; Zschau, 15,164 or 16%; Fiedler, 13,969 or 15%; Antonovich, 12,602 or 14%, and Davis, 4,672 or 5%. The remaining vote was split among candidates, who finished farther back.

Herschensohn’s prevailing over the politically moderate Zschau in the conservative Valley was not surprising. Herschensohn carried every one of the Los Angeles City Council districts that take in parts of the Valley by at least a 2-1 margin over his nearest rival. A similar pattern was found in Burbank and the unincorporated community of Calabasas.

Zschau, from Northern California’s Silicon Valley, finished second to Herschensohn of Santa Ana in most of the Valley. One notable exception was the very conservative northwest Valley, where Fiedler finished second. Zschau, however, still finished ahead of Antonovich and Davis there.

Aides Not Surprised

Campaign aides to Antonovich and Fiedler said they were not surprised by the local vote.

Paul Clarke, Fiedler’s chief of staff, said that, although Herschensohn neither lives nor works in the Valley, he is well known to Valley voters through his work as a political commentator for KABC-TV.

West Valley Councilman Hal Bernson, a Republican who is close to Antonovich and Fiedler, suggested that a lot of local voters didn’t think their own politicians had a chance of winning.

“If people feel their candidate is out of the race, they’re liable to vote for someone who they think has a shot,” Bernson said.

If anyone should be concerned about the local vote, Clarke said, it is Davis, who is up for reelection to the state Senate in 1988.

Davis ‘Could Have Problems’

“I think that, if someone decided to challenge him in the Republican primary in 1988, Davis could have some problems. Here you are in your stronghold, and you can only pull 5%.”

Neither Davis nor any of his campaign staff could be reached for comment. Relations between Fiedler and Davis have been cool since Davis early this year accused Fiedler of offering to pay off his campaign debt to get him to drop out of the race. Fiedler was subsequently indicted, but the case was dismissed.

Of Fiedler’s election performance, Clarke said, “The problem is money. Zschau outspent everybody, and Herschensohn had millions and millions of dollars of free media for many years.

“We’re obviously disappointed about how things turned out, period,” Clarke said. He said Fiedler, who gave up her congressional seat to run for the Senate, plans to go into some kind of yet-to-be-decided business after her term expires at the end of the year.

Kathleen Crow, finance chairman of Antonovich’s campaign, said several voters told her they didn’t support Antonovich, whose 5th District includes most of the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, because “they wanted him to stay as their supervisor.”

Antonovich and Davis will continue to serve in their posts.