Tanner-Velasco Race Is the Highlight Among 7 Contests for Assembly Seats

Assembly Republican leader Patrick Nolan (R-Glendale), who says it takes $300,000 to $400,000 to run a winning campaign against an Assembly Democrat, threatened several months ago to sponsor that kind of effort against Assemblywoman Sally Tanner (D-El Monte).

But as the Nov. 4 election nears, Henry J. Velasco, the Republican nominee, says he is still waiting for the big money to flow into his campaign against Tanner. Velasco, a former El Monte councilman, has scraped together $22,000 to run a respectable campaign, but not enough to flood the district with mailers and an all-out media assault.

Velasco said he has received some help from Nolan and the Assembly Republicans, but “at this point it’s still a waiting game. They will do a certain amount of tracking or polling to see how I’m doing. . . . They want to see how viable a candidate I am, see how much money I’ve raised, see how the campaign is moving. They have a lot of races and they want to put the money where it will do the most good.”

Although Velasco still has hopes of major campaign assistance, the other challengers facing incumbent San Gabriel Valley Assembly members in the Nov. 4 election appear resigned to low-budget efforts.

Running Unopposed

One Assemblyman, Richard Mountjoy (R-Monrovia), is unopposed. Mountjoy, 54, has represented the 42nd Assembly District, which stretches across the foothills from Arcadia to Azusa, since 1978.

Six other Assembly members representing the San Gabriel Valley face varying degrees of opposition, but most interest has centered on the Velasco-Tanner contest.

Mike Pottage, director of communications for Assembly Republicans, said Nolan and other strategists are looking at 15 Assembly races where there seems to be some opportunity to upset the Democratic officeholder. Tanner is the only San Gabriel Valley legislator on the list of potential targets that Nolan announced several months ago.

Pottage said the first call on campaign funds is to protect Republican-held seats. A decision will be made soon, he said, on which other races will get a large infusion of campaign cash.

The 60th Assembly District, which takes in Baldwin Park, El Monte, the City of Industry, La Puente, Rosemead and part of West Covina, is overwhelmingly Democratic in registration, but is thought to offer some chance for a Republican, Pottage said. Voters there strongly supported President Reagan in 1980 and 1984 and backed Proposition 13, the property tax initiative, in 1978, he said. The Republicans also have the advantage of a nominee who is Latino in a district that is 54% Latino.

Velasco, who says he is spending 40 to 50 hours a week on his campaign, said he is not sure how his Latino heritage will affect the election.

Democratic Voting Record

“A lot of Hispanics feel that we should have representation,” he said. But, he noted, most Latinos also routinely vote Democratic.

“A lot of people feel at this point that if you’re Hispanic, you’ve got to be a Democract. If you are Hispanic and have a problem, you go talk to a Democratic legislator.”

Velasco is trying to convince Latino voters that it is in their interest to have a Latino in office on the Republican side. “I think it will open up the system and will be better government if you can have Hispanics on both sides of the floor,” he said.

Tanner, who has been in the Assembly since 1978 and is of Polish heritage, discounted the importance of ethnic representation, saying she serves all the voters. “I represent my district,” she said. “I don’t sort out the ethnic backgrounds of people every time I cast my vote.”

The Mexican-American Political Assn. endorsed Tanner at a regional meeting by a vote of 58% to 42%, even though Velasco was present and Tanner was represented only by aides. Velasco said the vote was encouraging since the group consistently endorses Democrats.

Tanner, 55, is chairwoman of the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials. She has led efforts to clean up ground-water contamination in the San Gabriel Valley and wrote 1983 legislation that set up a state program to identify and control toxic air contaminants.

‘Lemon Law’

In addition to her work on environmental issues, Tanner is best known as the author of the “Lemon Law,” a 1982 bill that requires new car dealers to refund the purchase price or replace a new car if they cannot fix a defect after four attempts or if the car is out of service for 30 days.

Before her election to the Assembly, Tanner worked as an aide to an assemblyman and a congressman.

Velasco, 53, served for 10 years on the El Monte City Council. He was defeated in April in a campaign in which one of the issues was the fact that he was running for the state Assembly and the council at the same time. Velasco worked as an engineer in broadcasting for 30 years, many with radio station KFI, where he became known as the engineer for the radio team of Lohman and Barkley. He left the radio station earlier this year and has been working as a real estate agent.

Both Tanner and Velasco are opposed to abortion and identify themselves as “pro-life” candidates.

Velasco and Tanner differ on the confirmation of California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird. Velasco thinks Bird should be removed, but supports the retention of Associate Justice Cruz Reynoso. Tanner said she supports retention of all the Supreme Court justices and deplores efforts to politicize the court.

The candidates also disagree on Proposition 63, the measure to declare English the state’s official language.

Velasco said he grew up in a home in which Spanish was spoken and did not speak English until he entered school. However, he sees no harm in declaring English the official language. Perhaps, he said, some tax money could be saved by printing public documents only in English. Tanner, however, regards the official English effort as divisive. “The beautiful thing about this country is that so many cultures and languages are involved,” she said.

Velasco said he was a Democrat until the 1960s when President Lyndon Johnson undertook many social programs that Velasco considered unwise. “They were throwing money at everything,” he said.

Common Concerns

Velasco said he believes that many Latinos are like him and “think Republican” even if they register Democratic. He said Latinos and Republicans share concern for family life and traditional values. His task, Velasco said, is to convince voters that Tanner is too liberal for the district, which he describes as a “conservative, working man’s community.” His problem, he said, is that many people think that “Sally is nice” and “she hasn’t done anything wrong.”

Tanner can rattle off a long list of legislative accomplishments, topped by her “Lemon Law” and her bills on toxic waste and environmental pollution. But Velasco said the environment hasn’t been cleaned up and the “Lemon Law” hasn’t helped consumers much. “So much of what she has done has not been effective,” Velasco said.

Tanner’s response to Velasco’s comment: “I’m amazed.”

Voters in the 60th Assembly District have a third option. David Argall, 41, who formerly published a chess magazine and now writes articles on the game and runs chess tournaments, is running for the third time as the Libertarian candidate.

Argall, who lives in La Puente, said he is on the ballot for voters who share his belief that government does too much. He said he regards Tanner and Velasco as “a typical Democrat and a typical Republican,” both wanting to spend too much money, though for different purposes. Argall said he is not campaigning but expects to get his usual 1% or 2% of the vote.

Here is a rundown on other Assembly contests:

41st District

In a repeat performance, this year’s race in the 41st District pits an ultraconservative Republican incumbent against a Democratic contractor from Eagle Rock. Also running is a schoolteacher representing the Peace and Freedom Party.

Opponents of Assemblyman Patrick Nolan admit that they have a only a slim chance of unseating the four-term incumbent, but say they hope to sway the district’s more liberal Republicans.

Democrat John Vollbrecht and Peace and Freedom Party candidate Patricia Bennett are running grass-roots campaigns, speaking to small gatherings and walking door-to-door through the district, which includes Altadena and about half of Pasadena.

Vollbrecht and Bennett face an entrenched opponent in an overwhelmingly affluent, white district where Republicans outnumber Democrats 80,349 to 62,882. The Peace and Freedom Party has about 400 registered voters.

Nolan, the Assembly minority leader, has amassed a campaign war chest of more than $500,000. By contrast, Vollbrecht and Bennett have raised less than $3,600 between them.

Vollbrecht, who garnered 28% of the vote to Nolan’s 70% in 1984, is appealing to senior citizens, minorities, women and environmentalists--groups that he says are poorly represented in the Assembly.

Vollbrecht said the Democrats asked him to run to ensure that Nolan had an opponent. “I don’t think even our strongest efforts are going to unseat the incumbent,” he said.

Bennett, an eighth-grade teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District who lives in Glendale, said she favors strict environmental controls, upgrading the school system and socialization of public utilities and oil companies.

Nolan, who is from Glendale, won election as Assembly minority leader in 1984 in a unanimous vote. In the past two years, he has sought to broaden his power base by backing Republican candidates throughout the state.

52nd District

Assemblyman Frank Hill (R-Whittier), 32, has captured his seat handily since first winning election in 1982. Each election year, he has raised more money than his Democratic opponent and won by more than 30,000 votes.

This year Hill still looks like he’s in the driver’s seat.

Hill, who was elected to the Assembly after Republican Dave Stirling vacated the seat to run unsuccessfully for state attorney general, had raised more than $166,000 in contributions as of Sept. 30, the most recent filing deadline for campaign disclosure statements.

By contrast, Democrat Judith Prather reported raising a little more than $5,000.

However, Prather, a psychologist and lecturer in psychology at Whittier College, said she is not dismayed. “That’s the way it is with incumbents and challengers.”

Hill said he is not worried because he won by 45,000 votes two years ago.

He said he is especially proud of his efforts in the statewide drive to have English declared the official language of California.

The 52nd is a conservative, hilly domain stretching northeast from La Mirada along the county border to Walnut and Diamond Bar. There are 71,498 Republicans voters and 65,929 Democrats.

55th District

When Richard Alatorre gave up his Assembly seat last year to become a Los Angeles city councilman, he endorsed his aide, Richard Polanco, as his successor. But Polanco, who moved into the district from Duarte, was forced into a runoff in a special election in April, and won the seat in June only after a tough battle with fellow Democrat, Mike Hernandez, a Los Angeles businessman.

Almost immediately, Polanco got into trouble with East Los Angeles residents when he cast a decisive committee vote on a bill for a prison near 12th Street and Santa Fe Avenue in the neighboring 56th Assembly District of Gloria Molina (D-Los Angeles).

Polanco’s vote brought the bill out of committee onto the floor of the Assembly, where it was approved. Polanco later said that even though he opposed the prison site, he thought the measure should come to the full Assembly for discussion and mistakenly thought it would be voted down. But some critics saw Polanco’s vote as political retaliation against Molina. Polanco and Molina ran against each other for the Assembly in 1982 and Molina supported Hernandez against Polanco this year.

Polanco, 35, said he opposes the proposed prison site, but it is not a burning issue in his own district and he has received only four complaints from constituents about his committee vote. Polanco said residents in his district are more concerned about other issues, such as drug use. He noted that he has been working for legislation to increase drug penalties and expand drug treatment and education.

But other candidates in the 55th Assembly District said Polanco is underestimating anger over the prison issue and they hope to exploit that issue in their campaigns. Running against Polanco are Loren Lutz, 66, a dentist, the Republican nominee; Sarah E. Foster, a writer, the Libertarian nominee, and Michael Zinzun, 37, the Peace and Freedom Party candidate.

Lutz, who has practiced dentistry in Alhambra since 1945, said, “The primary issue is the prison. The gentleman (Polanco) said he was against the site and he voted for it.”

Lutz, a former chairman of the state Park and Recreation Commission, said the state already runs halfway houses and other facilities for prisoners in East Los Angeles and it is unfair to put a new prison there, too.

Zinzun said many East Los Angeles residents are upset with Polanco over his prison vote. He characterized Polanco as an outsider to the community who has been adept at advancing his own interest, but not at protecting the community.

He said the district needs an assemblyman who can stir the community. “We need a loud-mouth representative who will take information to the streets. Someone who will stand in the streets and holler,” he said.

Zinzun said he worked at a cooperative print shop before an incident with Pasadena police in which Zinzun has charged that he was beaten by police and lost the sight in one eye. Zinzun said he has been unable to work since the incident, but has been putting full effort into his campaign. He lists himself on the ballot as an “anti-apartheid community activist” and has a platform that calls for rent control, an end to police brutality, and protection of worker’s rights.

Foster, the Libertarian candidate, could not be reached for comment.

59th District

In the 59th Assembly District, incumbent Charles Calderon (D-Alhambra) said he is campaigning for reelection even though his Republican opponent, Ronald Martinez, has mounted no visible campaign. Efforts to reach Martinez, who lists himself on the ballot as a photographer living in South El Monte, were unsuccessful. Several local Republican leaders said they, too, have been unable to contact Martinez.

Calderon, a 36-year-old attorney, is completing his second term. His major accomplishment this year, he said, was winning legislative passage of a bill that will open California to interstate banking by 1991. Calderon said California banks have long been “pampered” with laws that protect them from competition, but the new interstate banking bill will force them to compete and should result in lower interest rates on consumer loans and higher returns on deposits.

62nd District

First elected in 1972, Assemblyman William Lancaster (R-Covina) is now the senior Republican in the Assembly. He is opposed for reelection in the 62nd District by Democrat Wayne N. Wendt, 31, a computer operator and programmer who recently moved to Upland from West Covina.

Wendt said he has raised only $3,000, but that is not stopping him from running a full campaign. “I’m out there every day, knocking on doors,” he said.

It is important for Democrats to get their message to voters, he said, even in districts where registration figures are against them. “We can go out and give our views and maybe we’ll change some minds,” he said.

In the 62nd, where Republicans have a registration edge of more than 12,000 votes, Wendt said, “I’m David taking on Goliath.”

Although Lancaster emphasizes his experience, Wendt hopes to turn that issue against him, telling voters that Lancaster has not accomplished much.

Wendt said Lancaster “avoids controversy. Anything controversial comes up and he runs and hides in the corner.

“It’s like getting a paycheck and not doing any work. He’s the most senior Republican, but he doesn’t have any power.”

Lancaster said anyone who demeans his accomplishments is ignoring the record.

He said he authored 40 bills that were enacted into law in the last legislative session. The bills provided private funding sources for student loans, expanded medical treatment for firefighters, solved an insurance liability problem for the United Way and set standards for property appraisals.

In his campaign literature, Lancaster is described as “an astute legislative technician who knows how to write and pass sensible legislation.”

Lancaster, 55, was elected to the Duarte City Council when he was 27 years old and served as a congressional aide before winning election to the Assembly.

65th District

Assemblyman Charles Bader (R-Pomona) is running against Democrat Hal Jackson, a chaplain with the state youth authority in Chino, for the second time in the 65th Assembly District. Bader won easily in 1984, gaining more than two-thirds of the votes.

Jackson, 55, said he is running a low-budget campaign, spending a lot of time walking door-to-door. He said he is focusing on Bader’s record in environment and education.

Jackson noted that the California Teachers Assn. endorsed Bader, vice chairman of the Assembly Education Committee, two years ago but is staying neutral this time. Although Bader has worked for school construction funds, Jackson said, he has not done anything that would improve education programs, such as working to reduce class sizes.

Bader’s record on toxic waste was assailed by Jackson. He said Bader reacted to the threat to the underground water supply posed by the Stringfellow acid pits by sponsoring legislation to evaluate the contaminants.

“We all know it (the contamination) is there,” Jackson said. “We need to do something positive to clean it up.”

But Bader said he was the first legislator to point out that the Stringfellow acid pits posed a threat to the water supply in Ontario and Chino and has been working to solve the problem.

As to his role in education, Bader said he has established himself as a leader on school issues in the Assembly. He noted that his work for school construction funds is vital to his district, which stretches from Pomona through western San Bernardino County and is one of the fastest growing areas of the state.

Bader, 46, grew up in Pomona and was mayor of the city from 1977 to 1979. He was elected to the Assembly in 1982.

Times staff writers Lee Harris and Denise Hamilton contributed to this story.