Party Politics : Election Outcome May Not be Cause for Festivity--but His Campaign Has Been

Just two days before the election, state Assembly candidate Mark Lit seemed to have hit his stride.

Talking to friends and potential campaign contributors over cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at a supporter’s home in Woodland Hills, Lit, a retired economics professor, enthusiastically explained for the umpteenth time his plans to clean up local drinking water, harness skyrocketing insurance rates and put a ceiling on the “exorbitant” interest rates charged by credit-card companies.

Although Lit’s opponent, three-term incumbent Assemblywoman Marian W. La Follette (R-Northridge), has outspent him by nearly 20 to 1, and his own Democratic Party has all but ignored his requests for money, at his “pre-victory celebration party” Sunday, Lit continued to show the sort of enthusiasm that makes the impossible seem, if not probable, then at least within reach.

La Follette beat her 1984 Democratic challenger with a two-thirds majority. Since then, registered Republicans have increased their majority in her 38th Assembly District by several thousand voters.

The district begins at Calabasas on the west and stretches along the northern edge of the San Fernando Valley through communities such as Canoga Park, Granada Hills, Sylmar and La Crescenta.

“If you don’t have money, then you have to have a lot of friends,” said Lit, 66, of Northridge. He recruited about 600 volunteers through the summer to participate in the ice cream socials, spaghetti feeds, garage sales and door-to-door canvassing that have raised about $15,000.

His wife, Estelle, a California State University, Los Angeles, professor whom Lit calls his closest political adviser, confided, “We have a lot of friends, and we thought we could do it without a lot of money, but you need the money.”

The sizable odds facing Lit in Tuesday’s election did not seem to dampen the spirits of the approximately 50 supporters who turned out for Sunday’s party. The group for the most part was made up of longtime local Democrats.

To his supporters, Lit spoke of victory. And privately, he said his efforts have been worthwhile if only because “people now know what the problems are and will be demanding solutions.” Regardless of the outcome, Lit said, the campaign has been fun.

“I won’t be disappointed whatever happens,” he said. “We’ve met so many good people, volunteers that we’ve laughed and joked with.”

Estelle Lit, explaining her husband’s continuing enthusiasm as he made the rounds at Sunday’s party, said, “Mark just loves to go around and give talks and tell people what he knows.”