Tucker Confident He’ll Win His Father’s Assembly Seat

Tuesday’s special election for the vacant 50th District Assembly seat will be the ultimate test of a political legacy.

In an abbreviated two-month campaign, legislative aide Curtis R. Tucker Jr. has wrapped himself in the mantle of his father, Assemblyman Curtis R. Tucker (D-Inglewood), who died in October after dominating the district’s political landscape for 14 years.

Three candidates are taking on the younger Tucker and the political force that backs the legacy: Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco.)

The two Democrats are Inglewood school board member Lois Hill-Hale, 52, who for eight years was a deputy to State Sen. Diane Watson, and Los Angeles Police Officer Carl McGill, 29, a political newcomer who is active in community work against street gangs. The Republican is business consultant Mike Davis, 34, who is making his third try for the seat. He lost to the elder Tucker in November.

Reelection a First

Tucker’s posthumous reelection, the first in state history, forced the special election. It was originally set for April, but Gov. George Deukmejian changed the election to February at the request of Brown. All four candidates will run on a single ballot. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, the top Democrat will face the top Republican in an April 11 runoff.

Another Democratic candidate, Inglewood political consultant Roderick Wright, will be on the ballot, but he withdrew last month, saying Tucker was unbeatable.

Tucker, a legislative aide to Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles), has the advantages that gave his father repeated victories: an enormous war chest and endorsements from Democratic leaders including Brown, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn and state Atty. Gen. John Van De Kamp.

As of last week, the younger Tucker had raised $143,000, more than six times the combined funds of his three opponents.

The opponents have focused on what they say Tucker doesn’t have: experience and credentials. They accuse him of nepotism, using words like monarchy and puppet, and say their grass-roots campaigns will spur voters to rebuff Tucker and his Sacramento backers.

Before Tucker began working for Moore this year, he worked for five years as a legislative aide to Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles). His work won praise, although some Roos staffers have said lack of motivation and absenteeism were occasional problems.

Tucker has missed four of the candidates’ six joint appearances, feeding his opponents’ charges that he is hiding from the voters and letting his money and name do the talking.

Maintains Visibility

Tucker says the flu kept him from several forums. And he maintains that he has been visible in the district, attending meetings and walking precincts.

“It’s looking good,” Tucker said of the campaign last week. “We’ve had great response from our phoning and walking.”

The issues in the ethnically and racially diverse, predominantly Democratic district range from crime and economic development on the east to airport noise and ecology on the west, with health care, transportation and education of general concern.

The district’s registration is 77% Democratic; its population is 55% black and 20% Latino, with the balance mostly Anglo.

On issues such as the continuing shutdown of trauma centers and the need for increased education funding, Tucker says that he will be a key 41st vote in the Assembly for Brown and that his connections to the leadership will benefit the district.

He said solutions for some of the district’s problems already exist but need to be pushed through the Legislature. For example, he said additional money for schools is available if Democrats exert pressure on the governor.

In addition, Tucker talks tough on crime and the death penalty, saying there are killers who should be executed rather than being kept on Death Row at taxpayers’ expense.

Davis appears to have the best shot at an upset.

With turnout among the district’s 145,000 registered voters expected to be as low as 26,000, Tucker’s strategists say their main worry is that Republicans in El Segundo and Westchester, who traditionally are most likely to vote, will form a disproportionate part of the electorate.

“What Mike Davis should hope for is heavy rain and extreme cold,” said Inglewood Councilman Daniel Tabor, who considered running for Assembly but bowed out.

“It appears this election will be decided in Inglewood and points west,” Davis said recently.

The growing significance of the western part of the district is ironic, according to leaders in El Segundo and Westchester, who say their communities have felt neglected in the past.

“It’s not an office that this community has given much thought to,” said longtime Westchester businessman and activist John Ruhlen. “Tucker (Sr.) was somewhat aloof.”

Ruhlen and El Segundo Mayor Carl Jacobson said Davis appears to have solid support in their areas.

Davis, a business consultant with a degree in international law, has targeted Republicans and wants black voters to cross party lines. He is a moderate Republican who favors universal health insurance and describes himself as an environmentalist. After losing in November, he said he would not run again but changed his mind after what he calls “gentle persuasion” from GOP leaders.

“The voters should reach out beyond their party to look at the individual who has paid the dues for this seat,” Davis said.

Hill-Hale also talks about paying dues.

Stresses Experience

“There’s no time for on-the-job training in Sacramento,” she says frequently, then cites her legislative experience as an aide to Watson and her status as the only elected official in the race.

But Watson is backing Tucker and says Hill-Hale, who was elected to the school board in 1987, should have served her full four-year board term before seeking higher office.

Hill-Hale says Watson and other Democrats have caved in to Brown. She has attacked the Speaker vociferously as a “Sacramento fat cat” trying to impose a puppet on the district. Although Brown is decidedly more popular in the predominantly Democratic and black communities of Inglewood and south Los Angeles than he is in Westchester and El Segundo, Hill-Hale says black voters will be angered by his choice of Tucker.

As “immediate past president” of the Inglewood school board, Hill-Hale takes credit for successfully pushing minority set-aside legislation for school districts and for the district’s anti-drug programs.

But Hill-Hale could also be tainted by her tenure on a school board known for brazen political interference by its trustees.

In 1987, she initiated a legal fight with newspapers when she defied state public records laws and withheld information on 20 applicants for a vacant board seat. County lawyers later determined that the board held an illegal secret meeting to fill the vacancy, and angry residents mounted a petition drive that annulled the appointment and forced an election.

Support Claimed

Hill-Hale sticks by her decisions.

“The only thing I can tell you is that people in the community tell me they are supportive of what I do on the board,” she said.

In addition, although she twice avoided voting on the matter, Hill-Hale supports last month’s decision by three other board members to reverse an earlier decision to fire a school principal accused of embezzling $10,000 from the district. Community members and parents were outraged, saying the principal was being protected because he worked on the campaigns of Hill-Hale and other board members.

She said that politics played no part in Supt. George McKenna’s decision to demote rather than fire the principal.

McGill does not claim the expertise of Hill-Hale and Davis. Saying he does not want to “fake it,” he has declined to give specific answers when asked at community forums what he would do to improve transportation and the environment.

McGill’s area of expertise is the gang violence that plagues much of the 50th District. His earnest, if unsophisticated, campaign has been a continuing assault on Tucker, Tucker’s father, Speaker Brown and other leaders whom McGill accuses of neglecting vital problems in the community while pursuing their political self-interests.

“My emphasis is on law enforcement and saving children,” McGill said. “It’s time to put the Tucker legacy to rest. Drugs, poor education and poor leadership have brought the community to its knees.”

McGill was named “Person of the Week” by ABC News in May, 1988, for his volunteer anti-gang education program, the Southern California Gang Awareness Program. He lives in Inglewood and works in the LAPD’s anti-gang unit in South-Central Los Angeles.

McGill supports increased funding for day care and for youth programs that provide an alternative to gangs. He also calls for a ban on assault rifles and tougher overall laws on gun-related crimes.

“It’s a felony to own nunchuks (karate sticks), but it’s a misdemeanor to carry a loaded gun in your car,” McGill said at a recent forum. “Somebody up in Sacramento is asleep.”

THE CANDIDATES Curtis Tucker Jr.

Has advantages that gave his father victories: an enormous war chest and major endorsements.

Mike Davis

In his third try for the seat, Davis says the election will be decided ‘in Inglewood and points west.’

Lois Hill-Hale

Cites her experience as a legislative aide and her status as the only elected official in the race.

Carl McGill

A police officer with expertise in gangs, McGill emphasizes ‘law enforcement and saving children.’