Race for Seat in 1st District Grows Tough

A Los Angeles City Council race that has bordered on genteel turned tough Tuesday as school board member Larry Gonzalez sent campaign mailers to voters attacking the legislative attendance record of his main rival, Assemblywoman Gloria Molina.

The mailer was the first indication that the race for the seat in the 1st Council District, which covers the northeast and Eastside portions of the city, is heating up in the final week before the special election next Tuesday.

The mailer, designed to resemble a yellow and white mailer that Molina has been sending to voters, criticized Molina for “having one of the worst attendance records in the Assembly” during the 1985-86 session. The record was attributed to information from state records and a legislative computer service.

“Out of 80 state Assembly members, only 11 were absent more than Gloria Molina,” the mailer said. “Do you think you could keep your job if you were absent this often?”

The mailer also attacked Molina for missing more than 1,100 votes, bills and resolutions while “giving speeches around the country.” It also criticized her for supporting former California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, who was ousted from the bench by voters in November.

Attempting to counter Molina’s assertion that she is independent, the mailer claimed that she usually voted in agreement with Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco). There was some irony in this statement, because Brown and Molina have not been close in recent years, especially since Molina opposed an Assembly candidate Brown was supporting last year.

Alma Martinez, Molina’s campaign manager, called the mailer part of a “definite smear campaign” that “distorted” Molina’s record.

For example, Martinez said, one of the out-of-town speeches Molina was criticized for was an address in Washington to the National Education Assn. about California school-dropout legislation. “They make it sound like she was in the Bahamas drinking mai tais,” Martinez said.

“We’re not surprised,” Martinez said. “It’s the kind of style of (Gonzalez’s) chief political backers,” whom she identified as Councilman Richard Alatorre, former Councilman Arthur K. Snyder and Assemblyman Richard Polanco. “They feel it’s the only way they can win races.”

Gonzalez said last week that he did not plan to “personalize” the campaign, “just talk about the record. I don’t consider that an attack.”