GOP Activist to Seek Friedman’s Assembly Seat

Tom Franklin, a conservative Republican activist, said Thursday he will seek the GOP nomination to mount an uphill challenge to Democratic state Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman in the 43rd District next year.

Franklin, a Beverly Hills attorney, is the first prospective candidate to emerge against Friedman, who is midway through his first two-year term. The affluent and heavily Democratic district includes Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Encino and Woodland Hills in the San Fernando Valley as well as Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Westwood.

“It’s an uphill race but I think it’s winnable,” Franklin said. Friedman, meanwhile, expressed confidence that he would not face a difficult contest.

Franklin, 29, has never sought public office. He is president of the Beverly Hills Republican Assembly, a 150-member volunteer organization that registers voters and supports candidates. He has been active in GOP politics since he was University of Southern California recruitment chairman for Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential bid.

Shirley Whitney, chairman of the 43rd District Republican Committee, termed Franklin bright, knowledgeable, articulate and eager. “Tom would be an excellent candidate,” she said.

A self-described conservative, Franklin said he would make ideology the battleground.

“Terry Friedman is much more liberal than the district,” Franklin said. “If the people living there knew his positions on major issues, they’d be outraged.”

As examples, he cited a bill Friedman sponsored on student searches and the incumbent’s opposition to vacancy decontrol, which would permit landlords to raise the rent for empty apartments to market rates.

Franklin said Friedman’s student search bill “would make it impossible for a school official to search a student locker without a search warrant. If you had a problem in the school, you couldn’t do anything about it without a search warrant. That’s outrageous.”

Friedman said the bill does not mention student lockers. The measure, which is before the Senate Judiciary Committee, would clarify a recent California Supreme Court decision to ensure that schools do not conduct strip searches or search a student’s body cavities.

“That is a protection that the vast majority of people . . . would support,” Friedman said.

However, Friedman’s bill did at first include a prohibition against searches of lockers or desks assigned to individual students. This provision was removed by an amendment.

Friedman said he opposes vacancy decontrol because he found during his career as a legal aid attorney that landlords sometimes seek to drive elderly tenants out of their apartments so they can raise the rent for new tenants. The issue should be left to municipal governments, he added.

Friedman, 38, pointed to his overwhelming 1986 victory as evidence that his political philosophy is compatible with the district’s. He plans to make environmental protection, preservation of the Santa Monica Mountains and upgrading education his major 1988 campaign themes, he said.

The district is considered a safe Democratic seat. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 54% to 36%. The remaining 10% of the district’s 179,486 voters are not affiliated with either major party.

Moreover, Friedman is allied with the powerful Westside political organization headed by Reps. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) and Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles).

In 1986, Friedman won with 60% of the vote. He spent $264,901, and his Republican opponent, law school student Marc P. Schuyler, spent $7,622.

Friedman said he has raised $60,000 to $80,000 and expects to collect $200,000 for the 1988 race, though he could raise more if he were seriously challenged. Franklin said he hopes to raise at least $200,000.

To support his claim that a Republican can carry the district, Franklin said President Reagan won it in 1980 and 1984 and Gov. George Deukmejian also captured a majority last year. Republicans have also made registration gains in recent years.

Franklin, who is single, is a graduate of the University of San Diego Law School. His legal practice concentrates on business law and litigation.