Getting to Know Him : Familiarity With Curtis R. Tucker Jr. May Be in Name Only

Who is Curtis R. Tucker Jr.?

Six months ago, he was a little-known legislative aide whose father--Curtis R. Tucker, the feisty political patriarch of Inglewood--was on his way to an eighth term as assemblyman from the 50th District.

Today, the younger Tucker is considered the heavy favorite in a special election to replace his father, who died of cancer in October. One of the state’s most powerful politicians, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), has made it clear that he intends to use his financial and political muscle to get Tucker elected. Brown even persuaded Gov. George Deukmejian to move up the election from April 11 to Feb. 7, shortening the time that other candidates have to raise money and campaign.

Brown’s heavy support for Tucker appears to have discouraged several other potentially strong candidates from entering the race. The four candidates who decided to run against Tucker are considered unlikely to raise enough money to compete with Brown’s resources.

Little-Known Candidate

In interviews, many elected officials and others in Inglewood--the political heart of the district--say they know little about Tucker. The other candidates in the race plan to exploit the voters’ lack of familiarity with Tucker.

“Why hasn’t he made himself known?” asks candidate Rod Wright, a veteran political consultant. “You don’t say, ‘My father did this and this, so vote for me.’ That’s not the way it works in America.”

Tucker acknowledges that he has kept a low profile in the district. While his brother-in-law, John Gibbs, served as the assemblyman’s legislative aide in the 50th District, Tucker worked five years as an aide to mid-Wilshire Assemblyman Mike Roos, the Assembly speaker pro tem, before going to work for Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles) in the neighboring 49th District eight months ago.

“I haven’t spent as much time in the (50th) district as I would have liked,” Tucker said. “But I am known in the district. I know the players.”

The heir apparent is 34, a tall, husky, bearded man with glasses. In an interview last week, he seemed comfortable with his new role in the limelight. He talked freely about the issue that may dominate the abbreviated campaign: himself.

“If they spend all their time making me an issue, fine,” he said. “I’ll be talking about the real issues: health, crime, airport noise.”

Called Brown’s Puppet

Of his critics and rival candidates--who dismiss him as a puppet of Brown whose only credential is his name--Tucker said:

“They’re discounting what I’ve done for the past six years, who I know, and how the real world works. It’s sour grapes.”

Asserting that most people in politics have a mentor, he added: “They have to realize the nature of politics and remember how they got where they are.”

Rival candidate Lois Hill-Hale, an Inglewood school board member and former aide to state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), said voters will resent Brown’s “big boss” tactics. She said she has never encountered Tucker during 10 years of political work in Sacramento and in the 50th District. She said many voters do not know that the elder Tucker has died, and she predicted that her opponent would exploit that confusion.

“I think he’s going to keep as low a profile as possible and hope that as many as people as possible will not find out that his father has passed,” she said.

Tucker responded: “A lot of people have told me, don’t use ‘junior’ on your name, don’t change the color of your father’s campaign signs, don’t use your picture on literature. But I’m not trying to fool anybody. I’ll always be junior.”

Follow Father’s Agenda

Tucker promises to carry on his father’s policies, particularly the careful attention to constituents that was the foundation of the assemblyman’s strength, along with big war chests financed by the health industry and labor. Tucker says his legislative office will provide “one-stop” service for constituents who need help. He says his differences with his father are largely a matter of style, though he considers himself slightly more conservative on issues such as crime.

“He favored capital punishment, but I’d be more likely to use it,” he said. “I believe it’s a deterrent, and I believe it’s cheaper to throw the switch than to pay to keep someone in jail.”

Tucker’s upbringing was steeped in politics. His family was known as “the Tucker army” because of their involvement in the career of their father, who was appointed Inglewood’s first black councilman in 1972, was elected to the Assembly two years later and eventually became Health Committee chairman.

As the third of five children and the only son of a “very strong” father, Tucker says he was restless and resisted his father’s pressure to follow a rapid career path. Instead, he attended several colleges, finally earning a bachelor’s degree in history from Cal State Dominguez Hills in 1980. He also worked in construction for Pacific Telephone.

“I wanted to see what was out there,” Tucker said. “I liked climbing poles and filling manholes. It gave me a different perspective on life. My father didn’t like it, but he knew I’d eventually get tired of getting wet and dirty.”

Tucker, who is married and has two children, entered politics in 1983 as a legislative assistant based in Roos’ 46th District field office. He acted as a liaison with community groups on several projects, according to people who worked with him, including a 1986 bill (AB 2700) to toughen penalties on apartment owners who did not cooperate with police against drug-dealing tenants. He also worked on preparing a 1987 bill (AB 1700) that provided incentives to the Los Angeles Unified School District to build multistory school buildings rather than tear down neighboring homes.

“It gives the school board money to build more creatively on less land,” Tucker said. “It suppresses the need of cutting further into housing stock.”

Praised Effort

A legislative staffer who knows Tucker’s work praised his efforts on that bill. “The school district was happy and the homeowners were happy,” the staffer said. “I’d give Curtis an ‘A’ on that one.”

The staffer described Tucker as intelligent and capable. But Tucker’s work sometimes suffered because of absenteeism and a seeming lack of motivation, the staffer said: “There was some concern about the quality of his work. . . . I think he has the chance to be an above-average assembly member. He has the intellect. The question is, does he have the drive, the fire in the belly?”

Tucker responded: “I would say that’s one person’s opinion. Everyone is not going to thrilled with your performance. That goes without saying.”

On the other hand, George Allen, executive director of the Wilshire Chamber of Commerce on which Tucker served as Roos’ representative, had nothing but praise.

“He’s an outstanding young man and a hard worker,” Allen said. “I highly recommend him.”

Positioning for Future

Whatever Tucker’s early doubts about a future in politics, he said his move this year to Assemblywoman Moore’s office was calculated to bring him closer to the 50th District and position him for the future.

Asked why his father did not hire him as an aide, Tucker said they both believed it was better they did not work in the same office for both political and personal reasons.

“The press would have had a field day with it,” he said. “One family member shouldn’t work directly for another.”

But the family had a synchronized political agenda, Tucker said. Having turned 70, Assemblyman Tucker intended his 1988-90 term to be his last; in 1990, the plan was for Curtis Jr. to take center stage.

“My father always wanted to be mayor of Inglewood,” Tucker said. “He would have run for mayor, and I would have run for Assembly in 1990.”

But the elder Tucker’s death has “speeded up the process tremendously,” he said.

Tucker’s sudden emergence appears to have frustrated the ambitions of potential rivals, such as Inglewood Mayor Edward Vincent and Councilman Daniel Tabor, both of whom have carefully built their careers toward a run for the Assembly. Both have said Tucker is not entitled to the seat simply because of his name.

‘Has He Paid His Dues?’

“The opportunity to select among a qualified field of candidates has been eliminated,” Tabor said. Alluding to the predominantly black voter base in the district, he added: “The real question is, how well does the African-American community manage the process of preparing leaders for the future? You tell people to go out and pay dues. Has he paid his dues?”

Tucker says he has.

“There is no prerequisite course for being a member of the Assembly,” he said. “There should be a need to serve and a desire to do a good job.”

Tucker hopes to win election Feb. 7 by capturing more than 50% of the vote, thus avoiding an April 11 runoff against Mike Davis, the only Republican running. Tucker says his campaign plans to spend between $100,000 and $150,000 on the race and will use an adviser from Brown’s Sacramento operation, as well as political consultant Parke Skelton, who ran the elder Tucker’s last campaign.

If elected, Tucker said he will follow his father’s lead in giving special attention to health matters; he hopes to work on a comprehensive package of health-care legislation being prepared by Brown that will be named after the elder Tucker. He also said that although his father had a mild aversion to publicity, especially television, he plans to have a higher profile and use the media to report on what he is doing in Sacramento.

Tucker’s opponents look forward to confronting him on equal footing at debates scheduled for next month. They say Tucker’s advantage will crumble when voters compare the candidates in person.

But Frank Lewis, an Inglewood dentist and longtime Tucker ally, said Tucker will live up to his father’s legacy.

“He’s quiet,” Lewis said. “But he knows politics. He’s well-versed. People are going to be surprised.”

Tucker said: “So many people who go into politics have a puffed up sense of self-worth. My father never took himself seriously. . . . And I’m still the same person who hung off telephone poles. I have no illusions about who I am.”

TUCKER ON RECORD “I haven’t spent as much time in the (50th) district as I would have liked, but I am known in the district. I know the players.”

“(My critics) are discounting what I’ve done for the past six years, who I know, and how the real world works. It’s sour grapes.”

“A lot of people have told me, don’t use ‘junior’ on your name, don’t change the color of your father’s campaign signs, don’t use your picture on literature. But I’m not trying to fool anybody. I’ll always be junior.”

“(My father) favored capital punishment, but I’d be more likely to use it. I believe it’s a deterrent, and I believe it’s cheaper to throw the switch than to pay to keep someone in jail.”

“My father always wanted to be mayor of Inglewood. He would have run for mayor, and I would have run for Assembly in 1990. (But the elder Tucker’s death has “speeded up the process tremendously.”