Candidates & Issues

Assemblyman Burt Margolin, 38, a Los Angeles Democrat, was first elected in 1982. He is vice chairman of the Criminal Law and Public Safety Committee, and has one of the most liberal voting records in the Assembly. A longtime Democratic activist, he served as chief of staff to Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) before his election. The UCLA graduate is married to Laurie Post. They are expecting their first child early next year.

David Frankel, a Los Angeles Republican, is a certified public accountant. Additional information was unavailable; Frankel failed to return numerous phone calls.

Julie Fausto, a Los Angeles Peace and Freedom candidate, is also in the race.

SUMMARY: Frankel is not running an active campaign and Margolin is responding in kind.

VIEWS

Questionnaires were distributed to candidates in September and returned in October. Answers have been edited to fit the available space. Frankel and Fausto did not respond.

Q. Do you favor additional limits on campaign contributions to make officeholders less beholden to special-interest groups? Margolin: Yes.

Q. Would you support a ban on speaking fees for legislators from special-interest groups?

Margolin: Yes, as part of a broader conflict-of-interest reform dealing with the legislators’ outside income.

Q. Who is your first choice for Assembly Speaker? Margolin: Willie Brown.

Q. Briefly, what, if anything, should the state do to ease traffic congestion? Margolin: Invest in mass transit systems. Adopt state policies that discourage overdevelopment.

Q. Do you favor an increase in the gasoline tax to pay for road improvements and construction? Margolin: Yes.

Q. Should the state offer tax incentives to encourage private industry to institute staggered hours, car-pooling and other measures to reduce traffic? Margolin: Yes.

Q. Do you believe that the state should try to contain the cost of automobile insurance? If so, how? Margolin: Yes. End redlining (territorial rating), mandate lower rates for good drivers and require insurance companies to justify overall rate increases to an insurance commissioner with the power to deny the increase if the facts warrant.

Q. Do you support a “no-fault” automobile insurance system, under which a driver would be compensated for damages by his or her own insurance company regardless of who caused an accident? Margolin: No.

Q. Do you favor a mandatory reduction of insurance rates for all drivers and homeowners unless an insurance company can show that this would threaten its solvency? Margolin: Yes.

Q. Do you support imposing a limit on the percentage of an insurance settlement that a lawyer may accept as a fee? Margolin: No.

Q. Should the state raise the spending limits imposed by the Gann Initiative on state and local governments to make more money available for health, education, transportation and other programs?

Margolin: Yes.

Q. Do you believe that the Legislature should take urgent action to improve the performance of public schools? If so, what? (Money for lower class size? Higher pay for teachers? Testing to ensure teachers’ competency? More demanding graduation requirements?)

Margolin: Yes. Increase funding to decrease class sizes, pay teachers higher salaries and strengthen graduation requirements.

Q. If it can be done legally, should the state help parents pay to send their children to private schools?

Margolin: No.

Q. Do you support significantly greater state funding for AIDS research, counseling, testing and treatment?

Margolin: Yes.

Q. Should public health officials trace the sexual contacts of anyone with AIDS or the AIDS virus?

Margolin: No.

Q. Do you support more state funding to aid the homeless?

Margolin: Yes.

Q. Do you support the death penalty for any crimes? If so, which?

Margolin: No. Favors life imprisonment without parole as an alternative.

Q. With the state’s prisons at capacity, should the state build more prisons, shorten sentences or punish nonviolent criminals in other ways?

Margolin: Build more prisons.

Q. Do you think that a woman should have the unrestricted right to an abortion during the first three months of pregnancy?

Margolin: Yes.

Q. Do you believe that the state should impose additional restrictions on the right to own a handgun? If so, what?

Margolin: Yes. Registration with waiting periods before purchase and background checks should be required.

Q. Should motorcyclists be required to wear helmets?

Margolin: Yes.

Q. Should the state re-establish Cal/OSHA, the state’s worker safety agency that Gov. George Deukmejian eliminated?

Margolin: Yes.

Q. Would you support a bill to automatically extend developers’ building permits for 6 months when cities pass slow-growth measures?

Margolin: No.