Democrat Waging Uphill Fight Against GOP Incumbent in 71st

Walking toward a Los Alamitos town house, Democratic Assembly candidate Mark Rosen likened the upcoming evening reception to a session in the lion’s den.

“This could turn out to be very interesting,” said Rosen, who is waging what he acknowledges is an uphill fight to unseat two-term Republican Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) in the 71st Assembly District. “This is my toughest area. This is the most solidly Republican precinct in the whole district.”

Rosen’s hosts, Fran and Eugene Gabler, are registered Republicans. So are most of the 12 neighbors and relatives invited over to enjoy homemade cream puffs and listen to Rosen explain why they should vote for him instead of Allen, who has represented the area since 1982.

But by the time the reception broke up, after 10 p.m., there were several offers of volunteer help for Rosen’s campaign and attempts to reassure the 34-year-old lawyer that he should not be discouraged by the precinct’s 67% Republican registration.

“This area votes as a bloc and we can get the word out,” said Lisette Gabler, the hosts’ 31-year-old daughter. “ . . . She’s nothing. She (Allen) has done absolutely nothing for Los Alamitos. We saw (former Assemblyman) Chet Wray more often.”

For Rosen, who knows he will have to win over a substantial number of Republican voters to have any chance at all against Allen, the reception was the most encouraging stop on a long day of campaigning that had begun 13 hours earlier.

During his door-to-door precinct walks in Anaheim earlier in the day, many residents were not at home--and most of those who were did little more than crack a door to take Rosen’s brochure. “This will tell you a little about me and why we need a change in representation,” Rosen would say.

But even that was more than he got to say at a cocktail reception and dinner held by the Orange County Dental Society. Rosen and four other legislative candidates merely stood and waved. There were no speeches.

Rosen, whose campaign strategists describe as “conservative as you can get and still be a Democrat,” believes he has a chance to pull off a major upset and win the election in November if he can get his message out.

Democratic Party officials say Rosen has been “relentless,” and a recent state party newsletter suggested that the Democratic challenger, making his first run for office, “just may steal” a victory from the two-term incumbent. But Allen and Republican party officials say they’re not worried.

Rosen maintains that he has better leadership qualities than Allen and that Allen “hasn’t accomplished anything” of significance in four years in the Assembly. He accuses Allen of being “in the minority faction of the minority party.”

He attributes the Democrats’ loss of their registration edge in the 71st district to defections by voters who felt the party had moved too far to the left.

But he notes that state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, Secretary of State March Fong Eu, state Treasurer Jesse Unruh and state Controller Ken Cory--all Democrats--won handily in the area in their last elections.

“Then, you know you’ve got sufficient enough voters in there who will vote Democratic under the right circumstances,” Rosen said.

Rosen, a death penalty advocate who says he can write tough criminal laws that can withstand court challenges, has been advocating the ouster of Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird since last year, before it became a key Republican campaign issue.

Philosophically, there appears to be little separating Rosen and Allen, although they disagree on some issues:

- Allen said she decided last week to oppose Proposition 65, the initiative to limit toxic discharges into drinking water, because it appears to be politically motivated and its vagueness in some areas will lead to “a nightmare in court.” Rosen says he is “leaning toward” supporting it because “it’s better than nothing.”

- Allen says she supports Proposition 63, which would declare English the official language of California, because in our “multicultural, multilingual society” it will be an incentive for people “moving toward the goal of speaking English.” Rosen opposes it as “insulting to ethnic minorities.” But he told the group at the Los Alamitos reception that the “ultimate goal” of bilingual education programs in schools should be to help youngsters master English.

Both candidates are for Proposition 57, which would limit retirement benefits to state constitutional officers. And both oppose Proposition 61, which would limit state employees’ salaries, and Proposition 64, which would allow quarantines of AIDS victims.

Both say something should be done about an increasingly prevalent drug problem, and both express traditional conservative values regarding family, crime and high taxes.

While Allen rarely mentions Rosen by name, he continually points toward what he sees as her shortcomings as a legislator.

In a brochure mailed to Republican voters last week, Rosen accuses Allen of having a poor attendance record, saying she had missed more committee votes in the most recent session of the Legislature than all but four other Assembly members.

The brochure does not mention, however, that the voting records on which the charge was based treat abstentions the same as missed votes--or that Allen has a much stronger record on the floor of the Assembly, where she missed votes or abstained only 9% of the time.

Rosen, who became acquainted with local political figures by working in the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colorado), started laying groundwork last year for his campaign against Allen. State Sen. Paul Carpenter (D-Norwalk) helped him by offering an early endorsement that discouraged better known Democratic political figures from running for the seat.

Rosen’s campaign is being managed by Dennis DeSnoo, a veteran Santa Ana-based political consultant who is a close associate of former state Democratic Party Chairman Richard O’Neill.

Since last year, Rosen’s campaign has been regarded as one to which Richard Ross, the chief political strategist for Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, might bring some financial support from the party. But so far that has not occurred.

DeSnoo and Orange County Democratic Party Chairman John Hanna say their surveys show that Allen is not well known in the district. If they can raise enough money for a few more targeted mailers and a couple of districtwide ones before the election, they say the chances for an upset are good.