Fiola Takes on Floyd : 53rd Assembly Race Not for Fainthearted

Politics in the 53rd District is not for the fainthearted.

It rarely is around Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd, a three-term Democrat who is famous in the Legislature for uninhibited verbal combat.

Roger E. Fiola, the Republican who is challenging Floyd in the Nov. 4 election, has asserted that the 55-year-old Floyd is soft on crime, supports embattled state Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, doesn’t represent the views of the district, takes down opponents’ campaign posters, bullies opponents’ contributors, interferes with opponents’ business relationships and is bankrolled by special interests.

Despite a 2-to-1 advantage in registration and a $200,000 edge in campaign contributions, Floyd does not take such talk from his opponent lightly.

Fiola, he retorted, is “a wimp . . . a liar . . . a clown . . . a carpetbagger . . . despicable.” Last week, Floyd filed a complaint with the state Fair Political Practices Commission accusing Fiola of failing to report campaign contributions.

Not surprisingly, each candidate denies the other’s charges.

Watching the fray with amused detachment is Antoinette Kramer, the candidate of the tiny Peace and Freedom Party, who conceded: “I know I don’t have a chance in hell.

“I am sitting back and laughing at my opponents. All they are doing is attacking each other.”

Working-Class Area

The setting for this bare-knuckle brouhaha is a largely working-class district in the South Bay that includes Carson, Hawthorne, Lawndale and part of north Redondo Beach.

But Kramer is not quite right about her opponents. Occasionally, they have taken time off from their attacks to answer each other.

The incumbent, citing thousands of dollars in contributions he has received from law enforcement groups, demanded to know how he can be considered soft on crime “when I am supported by every peace officer in the state.”

Asked about special-interest support, Floyd, chairman of the Assembly’s Labor and Employment Committee, acknowledged in an interview that he has received many contributions from labor, but asserted that he has occasional disagreements with labor leaders that demonstrate his independence.

‘My Goodness Gracious’

Floyd answered Fiola’s charge about taking down opponents’ campaign signs with obvious sarcasm. “My goodness gracious, they ought to hang a guy who takes down signs,” he said. “It’s funny that some of the Fiola signs are hanging where Floyd signs were last week.

“I haven’t taken down signs in years but I am going to walk out of here and take down a few signs just so (Fiola) won’t be a liar. . . . The guy’s a wimp, that’s all there is to it. This district has never been represented by a wimp.”

Fiola denied being a carpetbagger. “I have lived in the district for 1 1/2 years and at this address since last January,” he said. “I have met all the legal requirements.”

Responding to Floyd’s complaint about campaign finance reporting, Fiola press spokesman John Lawrence said the campaign had satisfied all legal requirements and that Floyd had filed the complaint “to deflect attention from his liberal record.”

Fiola’s last campaign finance statement, which by law is supposed to list all contributions and expenditures through Sept. 30, stated that he has received less than $500. Lawrence said that since Oct. 1, the campaign has received more contributions and has sent out two mailings costing about $30,000.

Floyd asserted that the contributions must have been received before Oct. 1 because of the lead time needed for printing such mailings. Lawrence denied this but declined to release details about the mailings or contributions in advance of the next campaign finance statement, which is due today, charging that “Floyd is notorious for bullying businesses for doing business with opponents . . .”

Pressed for details, Lawrence said he had none. “We just prefer to play it safe,” he said. “We would like to keep him in the dark as long as possible.”

“I don’t know what they are talking about on that,” Floyd said. “I have never been accused of bullying anybody.” In declining to discuss campaign contributions, he said, Fiola’s organization is “playing games. Apparently there is something they are hiding from the public.”

Floyd, a graduate of Leuzinger High School in Lawndale, is a classic example of a capital insider who returned to his hometown base and got elected.

Former Aide to Dills

A longtime aide to state Sen. Ralph C. Dills (D--Gardena), Floyd grew up in Lawndale and still maintains his residence there. He was first elected to the state Legislature in 1980, wresting what had been a Republican seat from Paul Bannai with the assistance of the Westside political organization of U.S. Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D--Los Angeles) and Howard L. Berman (D--Panorama City), who was then a California assemblyman. In 1984, Floyd defeated Republican Walter R. Mueller with 59% of the vote.

In the Legislature, he has established a liberal voting record. Two business groups--the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Manufacturers Assn.--rank him in opposition to them on most issues, although he has moderated his anti-business stance somewhat in the last term. Two liberal groups--the California Federation of Labor, and Americans for Democratic Action--consistently give him high ratings.

The liberalism of Floyd, a full-time assemblyman, is tempered, says Walter Zelman, executive director of California Common Cause, with the disdain of the professional politician for reformers considered “naive do-gooders. . . . He is not afraid to tell you that.”

The assemblyman says increasing the minimum wage beyond the federal level is his first priority. Next is attempting to do something about exploitation of illegal aliens and other low-income workers.

He said he is proudest of 1982 legislation that established a foundation to collect money for a California monument to Vietnam veterans. For this and other veterans’ measures he shepherded while chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, he was named California Legislator of the Year by the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1982 and by the American Legion in 1985.

In 1985, his name surfaced in a federal investigation into the activities of fireworks magnate W. Patrick Moriarty, who was later convicted on corruption charges. Moriarty aide Richard Keith asserted in a document provided to prosecutors as part of his guilty plea to income tax evasion that Floyd--in exchange for $7,500 in political contributions--had promised during a lunch meeting in 1981 to vote for a fireworks bill favored by Moriarty, and to lobby Dills to vote for it.

Floyd said he remembered the meeting but said that no deal involving political contributions was struck. He has not been named in any indictment,

Floyd is something of a maverick in politics, coupling his political stance with a uniquely personal approach that one Sacramento ally, who asked not to be named, likened to “a bull in a china shop.”

In his first years as a legislator, Floyd held a $10-a-person fund-raiser in a junkyard and a $25-a-plate rally at an auto-wrecking yard. In the after hours, Floyd frequently can be found smoking a cigar and holding court with colleagues, lobbyists and the help at Frank Fat’s, a well-known Sacramento watering hole. In a recent interview, he interspersed responses with gag lines--many of them unprintable--directed at his opponent.

At the Capitol, he has been known to shout at witnesses in hearings--he once called one of them “crazy”--and has described one of his colleagues as “slime.”

Stole the Show

“He is known as a combination of a funny guy and a tough guy,” said Common Cause’s Zelman, who added that Floyd stole the show during a recent “roast” benefiting the public-affairs lobbying organization.

“I don’t know if he is the most effective legislator,” Zelman said.

During the last session, Floyd achieved the second highest number of vetoes. Of the 115 bills he introduced, 20 became law and Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed 14.

The assemblyman is proud of the vetoes and said he was disappointed that he came in second this term, behind Johan Klehs (D--San Leandro), who had 17. The term before that, Floyd said, he set the record by sponsoring 25 bills that were vetoed.

“I think that is a badge of honor,” he said, “when you look at the record of this administration.”

He said the bills, which dealt with such issues as public employees’ retirement benefits, unemployment compensation and occupational health hazards, were “measures of protection for the working people. That is why the Chamber of Commerce likes George Deukmejian and doesn’t like Floyd.”

On current issues, Floyd advocates liberal positions, backing retention of the entire California Supreme Court, including Bird and Deukmejian appointees, and favoring bilingual education in limited doses. He also backs Proposition 65, the toxics initiative.

From Jan. 1, 1985, through Sept. 30, Floyd reported receiving $218,000 in campaign contributions. By his estimate, he has given away almost half to Democrats in other areas.

Campaign finance reports show that Kent Spieller, a Bellflower attorney who lost in the 54th Assembly District primary this year, received $20,000. Jack Dugan, director of the crime prevention unit in the attorney general’s office, received $11,500 as a candidate in the 5th Assembly District near Sacramento. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley’s gubernatorial campaign got $8,500. San Mateo County Supervisor Jackie Speier and Daly City Councilman Mike Nevin--two opponents in the Bay Area 19th Assembly District Democratic primary--each received $5,000. Assemblyman Louis J. Papan received $7,000 for his race in the 8th Senate District, which includes San Mateo County.

Active in Local Races

Floyd has also been active in local races, handing out $300 contributions to Gardena Councilman Mas Fukai, Lawndale Mayor Sarann Kruse and Carson Mayor Sylvia Muise.

In the campaign against Fiola, Floyd said he expects to spend about $160,000.

The assemblyman, who is divorced and has two grown daughters, was critical of a Fiola leaflet showing his opponent, who is unmarried and childless, with his arms around two children.

“He tries to say those are his when he has no children . . .,” Floyd said.

The assemblyman was also critical of an endorsement Fiola received from the Police and Sheriffs Organization of California, which he labeled a “phony front.” The organization, formed two weeks ago, consists of 19 members. Its attacks on Democratic candidates have prompted charges from other law enforcement officials that it is a “sham.” A spokesman acknowledged that the group was formed to influence the Nov. 4 elections.

Fiola could not be reached for comment on those criticisms. After two initial interviews, he did not respond to more than a dozen requests for follow-up questions.

Fiola, 33, was born in Lynwood and grew up in Downey. He has a 1977 bachelor of arts degree in finance from Cal State Fullerton in 1977.

After college he became a real estate appraiser. He said he and his brother run E & F Forklift Inc. of Southgate, which sells and services forklifts.

Fiola, who lives in Hawthorne, has moved several times in the past few years, living at various times in Downey, Pasadena, Riverside and on the Westside. He said he kept moving because of work.

Fiola started out as a Democrat and then switched to the Republican Party.

In 1984, while living in Downey, he campaigned against U.S. Rep. Glenn M. Anderson, whom the Republican Party had targeted as vulnerable. Despite an assist of $50,000 in cash and coordinated mailings from the national party, Fiola lost to Anderson by a margin of 61% to 37%.

But the vote in Assembly District 53 that year caught his eye.

“If you look at the last race, we had a Republican who ran on pretty slim funding and got 41.1%, which is considered very good for a campaign that wasn’t a full media campaign,” Fiola said in a recent interview.

“That is what made me sit and take notice. It was held by a Republican for a number of years when the registration was more Democratic. There is an opportunity for a Republican here who believes in the right things. It is a working-class district with basic American political beliefs.”

Contending that Floyd is out of step with such a district, Fiola cited the incumbent’s support for Bird, his opposition to the death penalty and what he termed Floyd’s attempts to weaken Proposition 13, which limits local property taxes. For example, he cited several Floyd-supported bills aimed at speeding up reassessments.

Proposition 13, Fiola said, “is a good law. I am against legislators like Floyd who have repeatedly voted to weaken that.”

Floyd said he supported those bills because the state needed the revenue.

Attitude on Crime

He said he brought up Floyd’s support for the retention of Bird because “it shows a different attitude on crime. . . . He isn’t as tough on crime as those who feel otherwise.”

In response, Floyd said, “Rose Bird isn’t that important to people here,” and said he is opposed to politicizing the Supreme Court.

Fiola criticized Floyd as “obviously funded by special interests and people outside the district. That is how he got into office.”

Fiola acknowledged that Floyd is a formidable opponent. “I have no illusions that it will be easy,” he said.

Housewife Antoinette Kramer, 37, the Peace and Freedom Party candidate who openly concedes that she will not win, is enjoying the race nevertheless.

“This is a trip,” she said. “I love it. When is my picture going to be in the paper?”

She described herself as “a former ‘60s hippie.”

After living for a while in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, she came to Los Angeles, where at one time she sold the L.A. Free Press at the corner of Sunset and Vine.

Married 10 1/2 years ago in Redondo Beach, she and her husband settled into a suburban life in Carson, complete with two daughters, three cats, a rabbit, a dog and a hamster.

Eight years ago, she said, she joined the Peace and Freedom Party out of disgust with the Democrats and Republicans.

“As far as I am concerned, they are a bunch of liars. They make campaign promises that they never fulfill. I have never seen one of them make a difference since John Kennedy,” she said.

She decided to run for office because someone at party headquarters “called me up and asked me if I wanted to run.”

THE RACE AT A GLANCE Party Registration:

Total: 122,736

Democrats: 73,030

Republicans: 35,996

Am. Independent: 1,595

Peace and Freedom: 448

Libertarian: 597

Decline to state: 101

Election Results:

Richard E. Floyd, Democrat, 35, won Nov. 6, 1984 election, getting 48,061 votes for 58.99% of votes cast, defeating Walter R. Mueller, a Republican, who got 33,410 votes, or 41%.

Challengers:

Roger E. Viola, businessman, Republican.

Antoinette Kramer, housewife, Peace and Freedom.