76th Assembly District Candidates Outline Positions, Priorities

Here are brief sketches of the 76th Assembly District candidates and their campaigns:

* Dick Lyles , a 42-year-old management consultant and longtime Republican activist, entered the special 76th District race widely viewed as the candidate to beat, a tribute to nearly four years of on-and-off planning that began in 1985 when Bill Bradley discovered that he had cancer and announced his intention to retire.

Bradley’s subsequent decisions to seek reelection in 1986 and 1988 prompted Lyles to twice postpone his campaign-in-waiting. Those plans, as well as later groundwork for a possible 1990 race, were made, Lyles insists, with Bradley’s blessing.

Some of Bradley’s inner circle, however, dispute that contention, and have sought to transform what they regard as Lyles’ callous advance work into a major campaign issue.

Hoping to quell the controversy, Lyles dismisses the criticism as sniping from political opponents and attributes the issue’s emergence primarily to the flame-fanning efforts of former Bradley consultant Herb Williams, who now is working for rival Linda Brannon.

Regardless, Lyles’ early start gave him a significant organizational edge over his opponents, and his past work on other GOP candidates’ races left him valuable IOUs that helped attract endorsements and financial contributions from San Diego, Sacramento and Washington.

A seven-year Poway resident whose consulting work involves numerous international companies, Lyles has built his campaign around the slogan “An Opportunity for Excellence.” Expanding upon that theme--albeit with generalities--at a recent candidates forum, Lyles said: “I’m a problem solver. But I’m not running merely to be a problem solver. I’d like to present a vision for California and for this district.”

* Linda Brannon , who has served on the Poway City Council for the past 2 1/2 years, also has drawn her fair share of endorsements from local legislators, but attracted more attention for the endorsements that she did not receive when a majority of her council colleagues backed Lyles.

Dismissing the significance of that episode, the 42-year-old Brannon characterizes Lyles’ endorsements as little more than “political pay-backs” while arguing that her own support stems from approval of her activity in regional anti-drug abuse, youth and transportation programs.

Running under her “People Come First” slogan, Brannon uses her standard stump speech to remind voters that she is the only candidate with experience in elective public office.

“I have a proven track record,” she says. “I’m the only candidate who’s been actively working to solve the problems and concerns of the district.”

* Tricia Hunter , the director of surgical services at Chula Vista’s Community Hospital, has been working hard to combat the perception fostered by Lyles and Brannon that, as she put it, “this is only a two-candidate race.”

“They’d like to have people think of the election that way,” said Hunter, president of the state nursing board, a body to which she was appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian in 1983. “But they’re going to be surprised.”

Seeking to find a niche in the crowded field, Hunter, 37, points to her seven years of “state-level experience” and positions on several key issues as factors that distinguish her from the pack--specifically, from Brannon and Lyles. Of the three, Hunter is the only one who supports the Legislature’s recently approved ban on the sale of assault rifles and who is pro-choice on the abortion issue.

Like the other candidates, however, Hunter concedes that issue-oriented differences probably will play a relatively minor role in the election, saying that there are too many candidates and too little time for an already-passive public to focus on ideological distinctions.

* In a race in which the name of Bill Bradley is dropped often, no one does so more frequently than Dennis Koolhaas , who has tried to position himself as the candidate best able to complete not only the late assemblyman’s unfinished term, but also his legacy.

His top priority if elected, Koolhaas said, would be to “finish off what Mr. Bradley started” by pushing for adoption of his bills and other policy goals.

“I was the first to say that, but now the others are starting to pick up on it,” said Koolhaas, a former dairy farmer who for the past four years has been a field representative for state Sen. Bill Craven (R-Oceanside).

Koolhaas, who has taken a leave from Craven’s staff to campaign, has made his experience in that job the cornerstone of his race.

“I’ve been working with legislators in Sacramento every day,” Koolhaas said. “I know the people, I know the conditions. He who knows the business the best does the best. I won’t have to waste time learning the job.”

* Bill Hoover , a 21-year San Diego policeman, is one of three candidates in the race who has sought elective public office before (Brannon and Richardson being the others), having lost a 1986 race to state Sen. Wadie Deddeh (D-Chula Vista).

Although Hoover was defeated more than 2 to 1 in the vote count, he regards the race as a plus in his current campaign, noting that the 76th District overlaps with Deddeh’s state senatorial district--leaving him, he hopes, with some residual name identification. Hoover also was county co-chairman of TV evangelist Pat Robertson’s 1988 presidential campaign and heads a local group that last year sponsored a fund-raising tribute to Lt. Col. Oliver North.

Currently the Police Department’s special events coordinator, Hoover, 45, cites his police background as the singular feature of his campaign.

“Having personally dealt with the problems on the streets, I have ideas about what needs to be done that come from experience,” said Hoover, who advocates less judicial discretion in sentencing criminals. “How many of the other people running really would be any different from what you already have up in Sacramento?”

* Narrowly defeated in a 1980 race for the Palm Desert City Council,Glenn Richardson admits that his last-minute entry in the 76th District campaign left him with “ground to make up” in catching the front runners.

“Some people have been dancing on Bill Bradley’s grave for years,” said Richardson, 41. “In terms of cranking things up, those of us who were loyal to Bill started out a little behind the eight ball.” His position as the only Riverside County candidate, Richardson hopes, could help offset that disadvantage.

A former Coachella Valley stockbroker and for eight years a financial analyst on desert-area television stations, Richardson also served on a 1987-88 gubernatorial commission that studied the possible economic impact of a proposed regional government in San Bernardino County.

* As a Democrat running in a heavily Republican district,Jeannine Correia acknowledges that she entered the race with low expectations, seeking only to ensure that there was “a qualified Democrat on the ballot.”

Although the splintered GOP field gives her at least a glimmer of hope, a victory either by Correia or fellow Democrat Stephen Thorne would be an upset of major proportions. Both estimate that they probably will spend about $10,000 in their respective campaigns.

Undeterred by her slim prospects, Correia, a 46-year-old instructor with the Assn. for Retarded Citizens, has been crisscrossing the district and last week spent several days in Sacramento trying to line up support. The organizational groundwork laid by her campaign, she said, could enhance the party’s future efforts, “even if it doesn’t produce a win this time.”

* Facing the same obstacles as Correia,Stephen Thorne , 34, said he views the campaign as a platform for his policy positions--in particular, for his strong pro-choice stance on abortion.

“What I want to do is say, ‘Here’s what I have to say,’ and hope that people pay attention to it,” said Thorne, who regularly escorts women “through the gauntlet of protesters” at abortion clinics.

The director of the San Diego chapter of American Atheists--a group that unsuccessfully sought to force local officials to remove the massive cross atop Mt. Soledad in La Jolla--Thorne recognizes that his atheism may make even some fellow Democrats reluctant to embrace his campaign.

“But I’m not running as an atheist,” said Thorne, a county mental health worker since 1985. “I’m running as a Democrat.”

* With San Diego County ranking 57th out of the state’s 58 counties in terms of per-capita state funding, all of the candidates consistently pledge to try to find ways to reverse that longstanding trend. Spring Valley retiree Ray Foster , however, argues that he is the only one with a guaranteed method of drawing attention to that problem.

“If you elect me, I’ll be on top of that desk yelling, and I won’t stop,” the 69-year-old Foster said. “Put me up there and I’ll be photographed on top of that desk, I promise you!”

A longtime political activist, Foster heads a citizens group that fought to prevent the San Diego Convention Center from being named after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and also is president of HOSTAGE, a mobile-home lobbying organization.

“There’s one thing you know you’re getting with me, and that’s a flamboyant guy,” Foster said. “If I’m up there, it won’t be business as usual.”