Romey Mailer in Schools Race Assailed as Misleading

Despite a pledge by candidates for the West San Fernando Valley seat on the Los Angeles Board of Education not to use each other’s names in their campaign literature, a mailer issued by the Barbara Romey camp and received by voters Saturday did just that.

The Romey mailer so angered three leading candidates mentioned in it that they said they will hold a press conference today to refute its statements.

Bunny Field, Julie Korenstein and George St. Johns will discuss a candidates’ forum held March 24, when all seven contestants vowed to run a “clean campaign” by not mentioning the names of other candidates in their material, St. Johns said.

The disputed mailer describes the backgrounds and positions of Romey and three other candidates, who are identified as “Bunny,” “Julie” and “George.” Three issues that have been debated during the campaign--year-round schools, violence on campuses and mandatory busing for desegregation--are addressed on the oversized post card.

All seven candidates have voiced similar positions on these three issues. All oppose school district proposals to increase the number of year-round schools, favor measures to reduce violence on campuses and oppose mandatory busing.

Say Positions Are Distorted

But in the Romey mailer, Field, Korenstein and St. Johns said, their positions on the issues were distorted. On the issue of year-round schools, for example, the mailer says St. Johns favors them. Field is described as having served on a committee that closed several Valley schools and Korenstein is said to have supported candidates who favor year-round schools.

“I have always been against year-round schools. I don’t know where she got that,” St. Johns said.

Field, who served on a district committee that studied low-enrollment schools, said she fought against recommendations to close 19 San Fernando Valley schools. “I was one of two Valley community people on the committee. I was always outvoted when it came to closing schools,” she said. The decision on whether to close a school was made by the school board.

Korenstein said she has never supported any candidate who favored year-round schools. “I would like to know who those people are. I don’t know who she is talking about,” Korenstein said.

Paul Clarke, Romey’s campaign consultant, said that the campaign mailer was “fair comment” and that each of the statements was accurate and well-researched. As for the clean-campaign pledge, Clarke said Romey did not make such a promise.

“Barbara did not raise her hand. She did not say anything. Members of the press should have interviewed each of the candidates individually on this. They just took everything on face value,” Clarke said.

St. Johns was particularly irked by a description in the mailer of a community leader who endorsed his candidacy as a “prominent gay-rights supporter.” St. Johns speculated that this was a reference to his former boss, state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia), a conservative who has voted for some legislation backed by gay-rights advocates.

“This is clearly a hit piece,” said St. Johns. “I’m just sorry they have to use me to try to get at Ed Davis.”

At Odds Previously

This is not the first time Davis has been at odds with Romey’s consultant Clarke.

During the 1986 Republican primary campaign for the U.S. Senate, Davis accused Clarke and Bobbi Fiedler of trying to bribe him into dropping out of the race. Fiedler also was in the race for that Republican nomination, and Clarke was her campaign manager.

In a case that drew national attention, Fiedler, then a Republican congresswoman from the Valley, and Clarke were indicted by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury on charges they violated the state Election Code by offering a $100,000 campaign contribution to Davis in an attempt to persuade him to give up his U.S. Senate race.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge later dismissed the indictments in a ruling that stated that the Los Angeles district attorney’s office misinterpreted the statute under which Fiedler and Clarke, who have since married, were charged.

Davis and Fiedler lost the primary to Ed Zschau.