Carpenter, Grisham Clash at Special Election Forum

At a forum for candidates in the 33rd State Senate District Thursday, former state Sen. Paul B. Carpenter (D-Cypress) accused Assemblyman Wayne Grisham (R-Norwalk) of firing a secretary for rebuffing his advances.

Grisham, one of eight candidates running in the special election to fill the seat vacated by Carpenter, vehemently denied any wrongdoing and replied: “That’s a despicable thing to say in front of my wife.”

Grisham said the secretary, Laura Wilamowski, was fired by his administrative assistant for “incompetency.” And Grisham told Carpenter: “I thought you were a bigger man than that, Paul Carpenter. I’m embarrassed for you.”

Only Joint Appearance

Carpenter’s surprise accusations came near the end of the only joint appearance by the eight candidates in the district at the La Palma Community Center. The forum was sponsored by the La Palma Homeowners Assn.

Carpenter abandoned his 33rd Senate District seat to successfully run for the State Board of Equalization last November. He and state Senate Democrats have endorsed Norwalk City Councilman and former Mayor Cecil Green to succeed Carpenter.

The May 12 special election will be preceded by a primary March 17.

Candidates for Carpenter’s seat could spend as much as $1 million, according to some political observers, and the race has attracted statewide interest. The contest is extremely important to Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), who is the target of Senate Democrats unhappy with his leadership and who have been rounding up support for a possible attempt to oust him.

Sworn Last Month

Carpenter was sworn in last month as a member of the State Board of Equalization. He was the last Democratic state legislator from Orange County. Carpenter had held the seat since 1976.

The district covers the cities of Buena Park, Cypress, Los Alamitos and La Palma in northwest Orange County and parts of southeast Los Angeles County. More than half the district’s voters live in the Los Angeles County portion, and it is that county’s political activists who are dominating the election process.

In the primary, all candidates will be listed on a single ballot, and voters of any party can vote for any candidate. If no one wins more than 50% of the vote, then the top vote-getters from each party will compete in the May general election.

Carpenter was a surprise participant at Thursday night’s forum and was not even noticed in the audience until the question-and-answer period.

He later told reporters that he had referred Grisham’s former secretary to the state Fair Employment Practices Commission and added that she called the agency while in his office on Feb. 4.

She could not be reached for comment Thursday.

There were other heated exchanges between candidates Thursday night. For example, David Hayes, a member of the South Whittier School District Board of Trustees and a retired Los Angeles County deputy sheriff, accused Green of abusing his City Council expense account. Hayes said Green had improperly charged a $950 “tea party” attended by nine guests to the city and that his expense spending was far above the average for council members from cities of similar size.

Green attributed the accusation to “jealousy” and asked the audience to “forgive” such people.

Later, an unidentified member of the audience accused Hayes of drawing “a type of welfare.” Hayes replied that he is receiving medical benefits for a knee injury he suffered while working as a sheriff’s deputy.

Buena Park businessman R.O. Davis, a Democrat, told the forum that he favors tougher penalties for child molesters and drug pushers, while Cypress surgeon Verner Waite, a Republican, proposed no-fault workers compensation insurance and other insurance reform.

Cypress College political science student David Shapiro said he supports legislation that would create mandatory AIDS education classes for high school students and said he would tighten welfare eligibility rules.

Ed Evans, the Peace and Freedom candidate, complained that too many legislators follow policies that “crush the earth.” He said more money should be spent on solar energy projects and light rail transit.