Local Elections : Only 3 of 9 Legislative Races Offer Competitive Spark

As the only local state legislator who perennially faces tough opposition, Assemblywoman Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) concedes that she sometimes casts an envious glance at her colleagues in the San Diego delegation at election time.

Although Killea’s 78th District has a partisan balance that all but invites strong opposition, lopsided demographics in San Diego’s other state legislative districts effectively discourage serious challengers.

“Being pressed and challenged, and then succeeding, is personally and professionally satisfying to me,” Killea said. “But there are times, I admit, when I look around at the other districts and think how nice it would be to have things easier.”

Easier Time for Incumbents

Incumbents do, indeed, have it considerably easier in San Diego’s other state Assembly and Senate districts. In those districts, lopsided registration figures, huge disparities in incumbents’ and challengers’ campaign treasuries and other factors usually produce races that illustrate not so much democracy in action as democracy going through the motions.

The last local Assembly incumbent to lose was Republican E. Richard Barnes, who was defeated by Democrat Larry Kapiloff in 1972. With the exception of Killea, who is involved in a tough, million-dollar campaign against Republican Byron Wear, no other local state legislator seems even remotely in danger of suffering Barnes’ political fate Nov. 8.

Of the six other Assembly elections and two Senate races, only two are regarded as being even marginally competitive: Democrat Steve Peace’s reelection race in the 80th District, and the contest for the 77th District seat being vacated by Republican Larry Stirling as he attempts to move up to the state Senate.

Aggressive Campaign in 80th District

Although Peace is a clear favorite in his bid for a fourth two-year term, his opponent, Republican businessman Steve Baldwin, has waged a well-funded, aggressive campaign. As of Oct. 22, Baldwin had raised $155,253, compared with $170,427 for Peace, with the final price tag of the race expected to approach $400,000.

Libertarian Randy Myrseth also is on the ballot in the 80th District, which covers much of southern San Diego County, including Chula Vista, National City and San Ysidro, extending east through Imperial County to the Arizona border. Peace, 35, says that he and the 32-year-old Baldwin “have nothing in common except our first names,” a remark that succinctly summarizes their major philosophical differences. However, the two have shown throughout the campaign that they have at least one other thing in common: a no-holds-barred style laced with personal attacks that has generated frequent sparks.

Trying to wage the campaign on moral and ethical grounds, Baldwin has unrelentingly criticized Peace for “producing a sexist, racist, vile movie”--titled “Happy Hour”-- through his partnership in a National City-based film production company, Four Square Productions.

Similarly, Baldwin has accused Peace of having “links to the porn industry,” charging that Four Square--perhaps best known for producing the cult film classic “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”--deals with movie distribution companies that also handle “soft” pornographic films.

Not to be outdone, Peace has described Baldwin, a project manager in a family-owned commercial real estate firm, as “a political nerd” who is so conservative that “he’s off the right edge of the table.” Peace also suggested in an interview that Baldwin, who has been active in a number of ultra-conservative organizations over the past decade, has ties to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church of America, which Baldwin vehemently denies.

Deflecting Baldwin’s moralistic criticisms of Four Square, one of the largest producers of college sports highlights films in the nation, Peace has emphasized that his company’s clients also include the U.S. Olympics Committee, the Boy Scouts and United Way. Moreover, Peace notes, “Happy Hour,” which he describes as an “anti-alcohol satire,” starred Rich Little and Jamie Farr.

“You don’t do business with groups like that if you have the kind of reputation he suggests,” Peace said. “Plus, to hear him tell it, you’d think ‘Happy Hour’ was some kind of an underground movie filmed in a garage. When people hear who was in it, they just laugh.”

Although Peace himself is a conservative Democrat, Baldwin has sought to draw an ideological distinction by describing himself as “the true conservative” on issues ranging from taxes to growth to the death penalty. In the early 1980s, Baldwin was national executive director of Young Americans for Freedom and later was a consultant to Accuracy in Academia, a group that he says sought to “check the influence of Marxist professors” on college campuses. In response, Peace argues that Baldwin’s background and positions prove only that “he’s out there way beyond the fringe.”

‘Gang of Five’ Feud

Peace’s well-publicized feud with Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, with whom he formerly was closely aligned, also has emerged as a major issue in the campaign. Baldwin argues that Peace’s involvement in the so-called “Gang of Five,” a group of dissident Democratic Assembly members who have challenged Brown’s leadership, has irrevocably undermined his effectiveness, a charge he bolsters by noting that Peace did not carry a single bill this year through the Legislature.

“He’s sacrificed the needs of his district over a political fight with his party’s leadership,” Baldwin said. “Even as a member of the Republican minority, I could get more done than he has.”

Peace, however, argues that the Gang of Five “dominated the policy agenda” in the Legislature this year, adding that several major bills that he wrote--among them, a major prison bill--were passed under other members’ names.

“It’s true that Steve Peace carried no bills this year, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t get anything done,” Peace said. “I got quite a bit done simply by handing off bills to others. I probably could have pulled it off if I had tried to keep my name on them. But why give Willie Brown that leverage? I’d rather get something done than worry about who gets credit for it. If you allow others to satiate their egos with the surface, you can win on substance.”

Although Democrats hold a 49%-38% registration edge in the district, statewide GOP leaders believe that Baldwin’s strong conservatism gives him what Chris Jones, executive director of the Assembly Republican Political Action Committee, described as “crossover appeal” to conservative Democrats.

Dismissing that theory, Peace said simply: “They’ve tried to out-conservative me in the past, and it just doesn’t work.”

77th District

In the heavily Republican 77th District, GOP nominee Carol Bentley is an odds-on favorite to succeed Stirling after having upset San Diego City Councilwoman Gloria McColl in last spring’s hard-fought primary. Republicans have a 50%-37% registration advantage in the district, and Bentley has out-raised Democrat Sam Hornreich by nearly 5 to 1, $306,691 to $65,960.

Nevertheless, Bentley’s strategists, believing that McColl paid the price for overconfidence last June, have assiduously guarded against “pulling a McColl”--to use Bentley consultant David Lewis’ colorful phrase--in her race against Hornreich.

“My primary opponent took some things for granted, but I’m not,” said Bentley, the top aide to retiring state Sen. Jim Ellis (R-San Diego), whose 39th District seat is being sought by Stirling.

Before joining Ellis’ staff in 1976, Bentley, 43, worked four years for former state Sen. Jack Schrade (R-San Diego). Those 16 years of state legislative experience, Bentley says in her standard stump speech, would enable her to “hit the ground running” if she is elected.

“There’s not a state issue I haven’t worked on or bring some historical perspective to, be it water or transportation or education or whatever,” Bentley says, noting that Ellis’ district overlaps the 77th District, which stretches from Miramar Naval Air Station to San Diego State University, including El Cajon, La Mesa, Santee and the northeastern part of the City of San Diego.

Playing on ‘Real’

Hornreich, a 40-year-old El Cajon lawyer, has built his campaign around the differences between Bentley’s “professional bureaucrat” experience and his own “real world” background. Emphasizing that theme, his campaign slogan is: “A real person , not just another politician.” That theme also plays off Bentley’s primary slogan, “The real Republican,” which she used to contrast her partisan political background with McColl’s nominally nonpartisan local government experience.

“Registration differences mean less this time, because it’s an open seat, and that changes everything,” Hornreich said. Most political observers, however, regard that as more an expression of hope than a statement of fact about the race, which also includes Libertarian Reena Deutsch, a mathematician.

Other District Races

Following a historical pattern, the four other local Assembly races are shaping up as one-sided contests in which heavily favored incumbents face little more than token opposition.

“About all I have to do to win is let people know I’m still alive,” said 76th District Assemblyman Bill Bradley (R-Escondido). That analysis is equally apt for the reelection campaigns of Robert Frazee (R-Carlsbad) in the 74th District, Sunny Mojonnier (R-Encinitas) in the 75th District and Pete Chacon (D-San Diego) in the 79th District.

Frazee, who said that he has grown accustomed to “not having to do much campaigning” by virtue of an all-but-insurmountable 54%-32% GOP registration edge, has followed that pattern in his bid for a sixth term in the 74th District, which extends from North County into southern Orange County.

Confident of his own reelection, the 60-year-old Frazee has spent most of his time and campaign money trying to help other Republican candidates this fall. His opponents are James Melville, a San Clemente teacher recruited by Orange County Democratic leaders so that Frazee would not be unopposed by a Democrat as he was in 1986, and Libertarian John Flanagan, a Carlsbad businessman.

In the heavily Republican 75th District, Mojonnier’s Democratic opponent is Mary Christian, who has run unsuccessfully for so many offices that even many of her fellow Democrats regard her as San Diego’s answer to Harold Stassen.

“If I win, a lot of people are going to wake up on Nov. 9 very surprised,” said Christian, 58. “And I guess I’d be one of them.” Libertarian John Murphy and Peace and Freedom candidate Arnie Schoenberg also are on the ballot in the 75th District, which stretches along the coastline from Imperial Beach through Encinitas, extending inland to Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Penasquitos, Mira Mesa and Miramar.

Like many other underdogs, Mike Harman, a 44-year-old Escondido pipe fitter, union vice president and antique shop owner who is Bradley’s Democratic opponent, professes to be undaunted by the 54%-32% Republican registration edge in the 76th District.

“If you can be successful in union politics, this is a piece of cake,” Harman said. Libertarian Bill Holmes, a 40-year-old Poway engineer, also is running in the 76th District, which reaches from northeastern San Diego County to the South Bay, and also covers parts of Riverside County.

But the 69-year-old Bradley, who says that he feels fine after a three-year battle with liver and colon cancer, predicted that “my name with an ‘R’ by it” should ensure reelection to a fourth term.

The same can be said, though the “R” must be replaced with a “D,” in the 79th District, where Chacon is expected to easily dispatch Republican Gary Gahn and Libertarian Joe Shea in his bid for a 10th term in the most heavily Democratic district in San Diego County. The district, where Democrats hold a 2-1 registration edge, 58% to 29%, extends from Lindbergh Field through downtown to North Park, east to Lemon Grove and Spring Valley and south to Bonita. It also includes Southeast San Diego, Logan Heights, Paradise Valley and Encanto.

Last spring, Gahn said: “I can beat him, but only if the money comes in. Otherwise, Chacon will have no problem.” As of Oct. 22, Gahn had raised $408, contrasted with $125,633 for Chacon. Translation: Chacon will have no problem Nov. 8.

“Mr. Chacon’s acting like he’s already won this race, and I guess he probably has,” said Gahn, a 46-year-old Encanto businessman.

Stirling, who in the past has campaigned actively even when unopposed in his 77th Assembly District, is again taking nothing for granted in his heavily favored bid to move up to the 39th State Senate District seat.

The most recent campaign finance reports show that Stirling has outspent his Democratic opponent, real estate agent Benita Berkson, by more than 12 to 1, $299,127 to $23,231, with half of Berkson’s total representing personal loans that she made to her campaign. Libertarian George Hall, a San Diego teacher, also is a candidate in the 39th District, where the GOP leads registration 49% to 38%.

In the 37th State Senate District, where the GOP has a better than 2-1 registration advantage, incumbent Republican Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) has raised more than $250,000 but plans to spend less than $100,000 this year, with most of that going to other GOP candidates.

Her Democratic opponent, Huntington Beach accountant Pat McCabe, plans to spend only about $10,000 in her long-shot campaign in the 37th District, which includes Camp Pendleton and parts of northeastern San Diego County, Imperial County and parts of Orange and Riverside counties. J. Mark Sugars, an Irvine teaching assistant, is the Libertarian candidate.