S.D. County Elections : Incumbent Bradley Is the Unknown in 76th District

It is not often that an elected officeholder agrees with one of his political opponent’s major criticisms of his performance. But Assemblyman Bill Bradley (R-Escondido) admits that Democrat Bob White has a point when he charges that few of Bradley’s constituents in the South Bay portion of the 76th District “even know who their assemblyman is.”

“That’s right,” Bradley said. “But not because I haven’t tried.”

Unusually frank in another respect, Bradley, while proud of his record since being elected to the Assembly in 1982, admits that his likely reelection is attributable more to his district’s demographic makeup--spell that Republican--than to what he has done in Sacramento.

“Lets’s face it; I’m sitting on a 54% Republican district,” Bradley said, referring to his party’s 20% edge in voter registration. “A Democrat is always going to have an uphill race here, not so much because of me but because of the district. About the only thing that can hurt me is if Republicans stay home because they feel that Gov. (George) Deukmejian is going to win easily. This just isn’t a district that a Democrat can win under normal circumstances.”

The 76th District includes much of northeastern San Diego County and parts of southern Riverside County. Within San Diego County, the district extends from Poway and Escondido, east to the Imperial County line. While in Riverside County, the district extends as far north as Desert Hot Springs and as far east as Indio.

In southern San Diego County, the district also encompasses much of the South Bay area--a region that White, a 39-year-old business administrator in his first political race, contends that Bradley has neglected.

“The fact that most people in South Bay don’t even know who Bill Bradley is tells you something,” said White, who lives with his wife and two sons in Bonita. “The whole area has really been shortchanged. Bradley pretty much confines himself to North County because there’s so much growth there. Meanwhile, South Bay is becoming a dumping ground for everything--toxic waste, trash, sludge, prisons. He hasn’t really represented the whole district.”

While Bradley, 67, acknowledges that his name is hardly a household word in the South Bay, he disputes White’s charge about neglecting the southern portion of the district, saying that his “representation doesn’t stop at Poway.” In addition, the two-term assemblyman argues that his low visibility in the South Bay area stems more from its residents’ disinterest in him than vice versa.

“That’s South Bay’s fault,” said Bradley, the former city manager of San Marcos. “Believe me, I’ve tried to change that. I’ve had my staff solicit invitations from groups in the South Bay, but nothing ever comes out of there.”

When he held a town meeting at Southwestern College, for example, only five people attended, Bradley noted.

“No one’s more frustrated about it than I am,” Bradley added. “I really sicked my staff on them. I thought they would be happy to hear from their elected representative. But I’ve found that they aren’t exactly charmed by my presence.”

Meanwhile, White, determined to do more than “just put my name on the ballot,” has made numerous public appearances in his campaign, but he acknowledges the futility of running as a Democrat in the sprawling district. White’s $10,000 campaign budget means that he probably will be outspent by about a 4-to-1 margin, and even the challenger admits that “there are no burning issues in the district.”

“So you’re either Don Quixote or you’re out there banging your head against the wall,” said White, who defeated Alice Keyser, 52%-48%, in last June’s Democratic primary. Combined, White and Keyser received about 14,500 votes--10,000 fewer than Bradley received in his unopposed primary. Peace and Freedom Party candidate Jill Thornsberry, who received 25 votes in June, also will be on the November ballot.

“If I can’t win, my secondary purpose is to make Bill Bradley become more active,” White said. “The district is so big that it takes a lot of energy and get-to-itness to service the whole district, and I don’t see that coming from Bradley. If I can stick a pin in him, so to speak, then I’ll have accomplished what I set out to do.”

Bradley, who underwent surgery for cancer of the colon and liver last November, regards those remarks as thinly veiled references to his health and an effort by White to inject that issue into the campaign. White denies that, saying that doing so would be “tacky.”

Regardless, Bradley himself has raised the sensitive subject “to clear the air . . . and let people know I’m going to be around.”

At the time of his surgery, when doctors diagnosed his cancer as terminal, Bradley announced plans to retire at the end of his current term. However, buoyed by encouraging subsequent medical checkups and by reports that others have lived as long as eight years under the treatment that he has received, he later changed his mind and opted to seek a third term.

“It’s an issue, because a lot of people still ask, ‘How’s your health?’ ” Bradley said. Tests last summer showed that the cancer is in remission, Bradley explained, adding that he is “back to normal as much as possible.”

Bradley characterizes his record over the past four years as “nothing earthshaking, but some important things got done.” During the past term, he helped create a statewide pilot program in elementary schools aimed at detecting students’ learning disabilities at a younger age, carried legislation that resulted in a proposed sales-tax increase (Proposition A) to be used to build new jail and court facilities being placed on the November ballot, and carried a migrant-housing bill.

While White accuses Bradley of having “not much to show” for his four years in Sacramento, his own campaign has largely been limited to a general promise to be an “aggressive, active representative” for the district.

As the 76th District race enters its final three weeks, its low-key nature is perhaps best typified by the fact that the two major candidates have never even met yet.

“Once, we were both at a career day in Poway, and when (Bradley) saw me, his eyes got big and he hit the front door real quick,” White said. “I think he’s trying not to give me a forum. In his position, though, I might do the same thing.”