39th District May Be Wildest of 11 Area Races on Fall Ballot

Dressed as a cowpoke in a shoot-’em-up Western, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) looked as if he could have been itching for a fight Sunday evening as he mingled with 400 friends and supporters attending his barbecue fund-raiser at the Palomino Club in North Hollywood.

Katz’s get-up, complete with Stetson, cowboy boots, pearl-buttoned Western shirt and bolo tie, was a costume. The showdown was the real thing.

Although 11 state and congressional seats are up for grabs this fall in the Valley and eastern Ventura County, only the Richard Katz-Robert F. Thoreson match promises to be a donnybrook.

The three-term assemblyman from Sepulveda is fighting to hang onto his seat in a district some have regarded as a political Boot Hill. The 39th Assembly District in the past has been notorious for its fickle independent-minded voters who do not hesitate to throw out incumbents.

Katz, a Democratic leader in the Assembly, already has succeeded in holding onto his seat longer than his predecessors in recent times. Voters in this richly diverse district--which encompasses Latino and black neighborhoods in San Fernando and Pacoima, upper-middle-class areas in Northridge and blue-collar tract homes in Sepulveda--usually replace their assemblyman with someone from the opposite party after one or two terms.

Detective Opponent

Katz’s Republican opponent, Thoreson, 42, an auto-theft detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, is hoping history will repeat itself. Thoreson, backed by Gov. George Deukmejian, Assembly Minority Leader Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) and Republican lawmakers up and down the state, says it is his party’s turn to recapture the seat.

The GOP has included the race in its handful of must-win Assembly contests statewide. To show the party’s commitment, the governor appeared as the honored guest at Thoreson’s cocktail party / fund-raiser attended by 175 people last week at the Sheraton Premiere Hotel in Universal City.

“It will be hot and furious in the coming months,” promised Thoreson, a Reaganite conservative who has been with the police department for 15 years.

It will almost certainly be the Valley’s most expensive race. Before the smoke clears, the two opponents predict they each will have invested $500,000 toward victory.

The duel is a rematch. Two years ago Thoreson, a political newcomer, brought thousands of new GOP adherents onto the county voter registration rolls in an aggressive drive and managed to collect 46% of the vote. Nonetheless, Katz still won with a comfortable 54% lead.

Attack Strategy

Thoreson’s chief strategy for the fall campaign season could be summed up in one word: attack. GOP legislative staff members, on loan from Nolan, have helped scour Katz’s six-year voting record on thousands of bills looking for political liabilities. Thoreson, billing himself as a law-and-order candidate, is portraying his opponent as a coddler of criminals, calling him a “taxer and spender” who has little respect for tax-cutting Proposition 13.

But the choices facing the voters are not that black and white. Katz is generally regarded as a moderate who sometimes balks at following the liberal Democratic leadership of Assembly Speaker Willie Brown of San Francisco. For instance, Katz opposes the confirmation of state Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and supports the death penalty.

Katz says he plans to keep his job by reminding his constituents of his legislative achievements and his extensive community involvement, which has included holding district breakfasts with guest speakers such as South African Bishop Desmond Tutu, baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth and astronaut Sally Ride.

Landmark Legislation

Katz, 36, has written landmark legislation on toxic waste cleanup and water trading and has seen many of his anti-crime and small business bills signed into law. As chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee during the past two years, Katz prompted a state investigation of graft by top state Department of Transportation officials and took the lead in attempting to find a way to replace dangerous school buses across the state.

He also challenged the powerful trucking lobby by fighting for his “stop-the-rocks” bill, which would have required trucks to cover their loads with tarpaulins to prevent spilling rock and gravel from cracking motorists’ windshields. The bill was defeated.

“I’m going to run on what I’ve done . . . I think it’s a good record,” Katz said. He said he does not plan to attack Thoreson in the campaign.

The real winner in the race could be the U.S. Postal Service. Since radio and TV advertising is both expensive and impractical in reaching the relatively small audience, both candidates plan to spend much of their money clogging voters’ mailboxes with their literature

But as far as Katz is concerned, he was the big winner Sunday at his fund-raiser when he announced his engagement to Gini Barrett, who is in charge of planning and commercial leasing at Tejon Ranch. “The deal we made was she’d learn about politics if I learn to ride horses,” Katz said.

Another race which might prove exciting pits U.S. Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles) against Republican challenger George Woolverton, 36, a workers’ compensation attorney from Tarzana.

Woolverton, a moderate, was preparing for this match-up even before the winner in the 1984 race was announced in Beilenson’s 23rd Congressional District, which includes Sherman Oaks, Tarzana, Woodland Hills and parts of the Westside. The race gained some national attention when the GOP’s congressional organization announced Woolverton was one of 30 Republican challengers nationwide that it would assist with money and technical advice.

‘One of ’86 Surprises’

Rep. Guy Vander Jagt of Michigan, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, has predicted that the race “looks to be one of the surprises of the 1986 elections.”

But Beilenson does not seem to be rattled by the challenge. The voters have been returning the five-term incumbent to Washington with ever-increasing victory margins. Beilenson, a senior member of the House Rules Committee, has accomplished this without hiring campaign managers or spending much money. He has also done it without help from political action committees. Unlike the overwhelming majority of his colleagues, he refuses PAC contributions.

“The only thing that gives me pause is the increase in Republican registration,” Beilenson said. But he added, “What keeps me relatively sanguine about the outcome is that I’ve always gotten a decent percentage of Republican votes. And there is no reason to think it will be any different.”

As is true elsewhere in the state, Republicans have made gains in this affluent district since the last campaign season. In 1984, 35% of the district’s voters were Republicans, but their ranks have increased to almost 38%. At the same time, Democratic registration has dipped from 54% to slightly under 53%.

Could Spell Victory

Steve Frank, Woolverton’s campaign manager, thinks those figures could spell victory for his candidate if he gets the same percentage of Democrats to vote for him as David Armor did in 1982 when he was the GOP’s candidate in the district.

In an exchange of letters, Woolverton and Beilenson have promised not to clutter utility poles and other public property with campaign posters and have agreed not to wage personal attacks against the other. Beilenson has agreed to debate his challenger, although no date has been set.

The Libertarian candidate in the race is Taylor Rhodes, a marketing consultant from Beverly Hills. Tom Hopke, a Los Angeles musician, is the Peace and Freedom candidate.

Barring surprises, the other Valley incumbents hoping to stay in Washington or Sacramento generally should have little difficulty doing so. Most of the districts have been reapportioned to ensure that they remain safe for the incumbents, whether they be Republican or Democratic. The majority of the challengers are perennial candidates or newcomers with high hopes but little name recognition or cash.

Here is a rundown of those races:

36th Assembly District: Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), a GOP party leader in the Assembly, should have little difficulty winning reelection in this conservative Ventura County district. This might prove to be some consolation to the 30-year-old, who was bluffed out of the 21st Congressional District primary this spring even though he was the favorite. McClintock withdrew from the race when what he thought was the sure winner, Tony Hope, a lawyer and son of comedian Bob Hope, declared his candidacy. However, Hope lost the nomination to Simi Valley Mayor Elton Gallegly.

McClintock’s Democratic opponent is Frank Nekimken, a retired youth counselor and a commissioner with the Ventura County Area Housing Authority. The Libertarian candidate is H. Bruce Driscoll, a Thousand Oaks dentist.

37th Assembly District: Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) also could probably afford a laid-back campaign. She is running against William P. Hesse, a retired business executive from Chatsworth, and Gregory P. Dull, a sales representative, the Libertarian candidate.

38th Assembly District: Marian W. La Follette (R-Northridge), who has beaten off tough challenges before, feels confident she will win a fourth term. Her Democratic opponent, Mark Lit, 65, is a professor emeritus at West Los Angeles College and former president of the Los Angeles College Teachers Assn. Lit contends the assemblywoman has alienated labor and has done nothing to clean the Valley’s contaminated drinking wells.

40th Assembly District: The Republicans have high hopes that someday they can capture this district, which has been the property of Tom Bane (D-Tarzana) for the last 12 years. Registration figures for Republicans are looking better, and this year there was actually a heated battle for the GOP nomination. The winner was Brian Dennis, a former Democrat, who alleges that 72-year-old Bane has retired in office and ignores his responsibilities.

But the race could be something of a David-and-Goliath contest. Bane, who has always received lots of contributions from the savings and loan industry, has about $500,000 in the bank, making him one of the richest campaigners in the state. Dennis has a nominal amount of money for the campaign.

43rd Assembly District: Most of the excitement in this liberal, predominantly Democratic district is already over. In the primary, the big question was whether voters would rally behind a Democratic contender who angrily alleged that the Howard Berman-Henry A. Waxman political organization had handpicked the party’s heir apparent to the seat being vacated by Democrat Gray Davis. Davis is running for state controller in the November election.

But voters overwhelmingly supported the choice of Congressmen Howard Berman (D-Panorama City) and Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles): Terry Friedman, the director of a Jewish legal aid office on the Westside.

He will face Marc Schuyler, a college student from Tarzana, who beat out a Lyndon LaRouche candidate for the Republican nomination. Schuyler is articulate and demonstrated at a candidates’ debate before the primary that he can grab an audience’s attention, but he is probably too young and inexperienced to pose much of a threat.

The Peace and Freedom candidate is John Honigsfeld, an aerospace computer programmer from Los Angeles.

18th State Senate District: The last time Democratic state Sen. Gary Hart faced the electorate, he was involved in a grueling and expensive battle with Republican Charles R. Imbrecht. This time Hart’s opponent does not seem as threatening, but Republican Senate leaders have said they think Dwayne Holmdahl, a Santa Barbara County supervisor, has a chance to win. It will be a rematch of sorts in a district that stretches from Lompoc to Woodland Hills. Hart beat Holmdahl in a state Assembly race several years ago.

20th State Senate District: Another lopsided race should be the one pitting Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) against Republican Lynn Robert Davis, a Granada Hills businessman. Davis lost when he ran against Katz four years ago.

21st Congressional District: This race could get heated if Democrat Gilbert Saldana, the vice mayor of Avalon on Catalina Island, capitalizes upon the bitter fight which erupted during the GOP primary. One of the GOP candidates criticized the eventual primary winner, Elton Gallegly, the mayor of Simi Valley, for financing his campaign primarily through contributions from developers.

However, Gallegly is expected to win in the conservative, predominantly Republican district that stretches from eastern Ventura County through parts of the West Valley to Sunland and Catalina Island. The Libertarian candidate is Dan Weiner of Simi Valley.

The winner will replace Bobbi Fiedler, who gambled and lost her bid for the U.S. Senate nomination in the June GOP primary.

26th Congressional District: One reason why liberal Congressman Berman can share his campaign wealth with so many fellow Democrats is because he always faces minimal challenges in his backyard. This time should be no different.

Berman’s opponent is Robert M. Kerns, a stockbroker from Northridge, who lost two years ago in an Assembly GOP primary. Kerns, relying upon a low-budget campaign, said he opposes Berman’s position on immigration and brands him the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service’s “No. 1 Enemy.”