GOP Challenger to Katz Emerges in 39th District

Although one potentially bruising Republican primary fight failed to materialize, lists of potential candidates released Thursday suggested that the GOP will make another major effort this year to capture the 39th District Assembly seat held since 1980 by Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda).

Republican candidate Jim Randleman of Granada Hills, 31, the chairman of Los Angeles County Young Republicans, said he has informal commitments from state party leaders to financially aid his candidacy. He said the northeast San Fernando Valley district is “becoming more conservative, and this could be the year it goes Republican.”

Katz, 47, who has beaten back well-financed Republican challengers in the last three elections, said he views Randleman as “much less of a challenge than past Republican candidates.”

He noted that Randleman has not run for office before and moved into the district only last month, “which doesn’t usually go over well with the voters.”

Wednesday evening was the filing deadline for notices of intent to run for state legislative office.

To secure a place on the June 7 primary ballot, formal statements of candidacy must be filed by March 11 with the registrar of a candidate’s home county.

Missing from the lists of potential candidates was Ventura County Supervisor Madge Schaefer, who last month said she was considering a Republican primary challenge to Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Camarillo). McClintock has represented the solidly Republican 36th Assembly District since 1982.

Schaefer, a former Thousand Oaks councilwoman, could not be reached for comment.

However, Democrat George Webb II of Moorpark and Libertarian H. Bruce Driscoll of Thousand Oaks filed notices of intent to become candidates in the Ventura County district.

In recent years, both Republican and Democratic state leaders have viewed the 39th Assembly District as one of a handful of state legislative seats in California--and the only one in the Valley--in which both parties have a chance for victory. Consequently, both parties have pumped in a lot of money to help their candidates.

Among those predicting that Randleman will mount a strong challenge to Katz is Robert F. Thoreson, a Los Angeles police detective who was the Republican candidate in the district in 1982 and 1984.

Thoreson, who drew a lot of financial aid from state Republican leaders, won 46% of the vote in his first race but dropped to 40% two years ago.

He said that, in recent months, several other would-be candidates have sought pledges of support from local party activists. But the others dropped out when “Jim emerged as the consensus candidate. We have all kind of gathered around his candidacy.”

Randleman said he hopes to raise $150,000 for the primary and general-election campaigns.

Katz said he is unsure whether he can repeat his prodigious fund-raising effort of 1984, when he collected $600,000, twice what Thoreson raised.

Noting that Democrats have increased their registration edge slightly in the district, Katz said he is “not sure such a fund-raising effort is needed. The voters seem to have spoken rather conclusively in 1982 and 1984.”

Also filing a notice of intent for the district seat was Libertarian Alexander M. Newton of Sylmar.

Here are those who filed intent notices in other districts:

37th Assembly District: Assemblywoman Cathy Wright (R-Simi Valley), Democrat Jeffrey H. Marcus of Chatsworth and Libertarian Michael Bachwansky of Leona Valley.

38th Assembly District: Assemblywoman Marian W. La Follette (R-Northridge) and Democrat Mark Lit of Northridge.

40th Assembly District: Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Van Nuys), Republican Bruce Dahl of Van Nuys and Libertarian Michael Prah of North Hollywood.

43rd Assembly District: Assemblyman Terry Friedman (D-Tarzana); Republicans Edward Brown of Sherman Oaks and Tom Franklin of Los Angeles; Libertarian Robert Townsend Leet of Tarzana and Peace and Freedom Party candidate Margery Hinds of Los Angeles.

19th State Senate District: Sen. Ed Davis (R-Northridge), Democrat Andrew Martin of Newhall and Libertarian Aaron Starr of Simi Valley.