Challengers Gang Up on Antonovich at Debate

They had been waiting for this moment for months and it finally came Sunday in Antelope Valley, when seven angry challengers confronted Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich in a stormy debate.

Until Sunday, the candidates had been forced to shadowbox with the two-term 5th District incumbent, who had turned down countless debate invitations.

But Antonovich, 48, arrived on schedule with his campaign staff at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster.

And the debate with seven of Antonovich’s nine challengers quickly turned into a hostile roast, witnessed by about 90 interested citizens. From the outset of the campaign, six of his nine opponents adopted a united-front strategy against the supervisor.

On Sunday, seven of his rivals took turns blaming Antonovich for the erosion of the county’s trauma care network, increased gang violence and drug use, and for being insensitive to his constituents. Repeatedly, they chastised the supervisor for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from the building industry which, they contend, has been given carte blanche to overdevelop the county.

“His campaign contributions are the reason that we have the chaos that we have in traffic, in crime, in pollution,” contended candidate Don Wallace, 47, a Los Angeles city fire captain from Calabasas. “County government is crumbling from lack of attention, except to one narrow interest group and that interest group is development interests.”

Antonovich, bristling from the two-hour assault, told the audience near the end of the session:

“I do resent the demagoguery and the cheap character assassination that’s taken place, but that’s part of the system. That’s part of free speech. You can’t advocate free election in the Soviet Union and not have it here.”

The Republican, facing his toughest reelection bid for the nonpartisan office, outlined the highlights of his accomplishments during the last eight years. He took credit for the recent opening of Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar, the establishment of field offices in various parts of the sprawling district, an increased number of courtrooms and judgeships, and boasted of a 95% attendance record at board meetings.

“We’ve done very well in the eight years I’ve been supervisor,” Antonovich concluded.

Through much of the debate, Antonovich virtually ignored his critics as they spoke. He smiled at his supporters in the audience, gazed at the table top or rifled through a stack of papers he had brought.

When former Supervisor Baxter Ward criticized him for accepting more than $1 million in campaign contributions, Antonovich stared at the ceiling. Unlike his challengers, the supervisor remained calm and never raised his voice.

Members of the anti-Antonovich coalition say the major unifying factor is opposition to his land-use policies, which they maintain are overly pro-development. Their goal is to whittle Antonovich’s share of the vote to below 50% in the June 7 primary to force him into a November runoff.

“Individually, we would not be able to gang up on anybody. With the coalition we’ve been able to do that,” candidate Jose Galvan, 45, chairman of the San Fernando Valley chapter of the Mexican-American Political Assn., explained to the audience.

Another of the coalition members is Don Wallace, a commissioner with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and a past homeowner-group president, who has won most of the endorsements up for grabs for the challengers.

But Wallace, backed by environmental, labor and Democratic officials, has been unable to raise the sizable amounts of money needed to spread his message.

The wild card in the race is Ward, 68, the longtime television broadcaster who served as supervisor for eight years before Antonovich beat him in 1980. During the debate, Ward contended that the county has suffered under Antonovich’s tenure.

“My successor created ridicule upon the land. He has abused it tremendously,” Ward contended.

Ward’s concerns were echoed by other candidates, who alleged that the pro-growth majority on the board has approved the destruction of more oak trees than at any other time in the county’s history.

Shrugging off criticism, Antonovich defended the county’s growth policies as necessary to provide housing for the Southland’s burgeoning population.

“You have to have planned, managed growth and that’s been the philosophy we’ve had,” he said.

Antonovich, who calls his opponents the “Gang of Nine,” insisted that developers do not influence his votes.

But in doing so, he inadvertently got the biggest reaction of the day from his detractors in the audience. Of the small group present, the supervisor’s critics were the most vocal.

“In this business, if you can’t be in public office and vote for what is right when it comes time to vote on the issues, then you don’t belong in public office,” Antonovich said.

The statement was followed by derisive laughter from many in the audience.

The other candidates present included Glenn Bailey, 32, of Encino, an environmentalist who coordinates a reading program at Cal State Northridge; Sally Chase Clark, 48, a secretary and community activist from Canyon Country; Robert Benjamin, 41, a Glendale attorney, and Peter O’Neil, 25, a Pasadena businessman.