Wright and Braly Debate Focuses on GOP Loyalty : Campaign: Personal ethics is only alluded to despite the challenger’s pledge to closely question the assemblywoman’s efforts on behalf of her daughter.

The subject of party loyalty overshadowed personal ethics Sunday in the first and possibly only debate between state Assemblywoman Cathie Wright and Hunt Braly, her challenger in the June 5 Republican primary election.

Although he launched his campaign by promising to closely question Wright’s efforts to keep her daughter out of jail for repeated traffic violations, Braly alluded to the matter only briefly during the hourlong debate before a small crowd of activist Republicans in Thousand Oaks. Even that mention came only when he was asked by a guest to justify his reason for running against a GOP incumbent.

Calling it the catalyst in his decision to seek election, Braly referred to the well-publicized episode as “the ethical violations of last year, which raised lots of doubts about Cathie and her relationship with Willie Brown.”

Braly has criticized Wright in the past, not only for her attempts to intercede with local police and judges on behalf of her daughter, but also because she turned to Assembly Speaker Brown, a Democrat, for help. Brown recommended a lawyer and telephoned a Ventura County judge to ask for leniency for Victoria Wright, who faced jail or losing her driver’s license after accumulating 28 traffic tickets over several years.

Assemblywoman Wright smiled tightly and blinked as Braly spoke. When her own turn came at the podium, however, the former Simi Valley councilwoman made no mention of the traffic-ticket scandal, emphasizing instead that she would rather use campaign funds to help fellow GOP members defeat Democrats than fight another Republican.

But Braly challenged Wright’s own party loyalty by bringing up her abstention from a 1988 Republican-backed vote to replace Brown as speaker with Assemblyman Charles M. Calderon (D-Whittier). He said her neutrality was tacit support for Brown and enabled him to retain his position.

Wright, however, asserted that she was sticking to a promise never to vote for a Democrat--especially Calderon, who was an associate of farm worker activist Cesar Chavez.

In general, the debate was as muted and genteel as the peach-colored walls of the North Ranch Country Club’s Garden Room. About 40 people attended the brunch sponsored by the Conejo Republican Action Committee, most of them candidates’ aides and supporters.

Ethics was discussed, however, in another context. Braly criticized Wright’s support of an ethics reform measure approved earlier this month in which the major elements will take effect only if voters approve a June 5 initiative granting pay raises for legislators. Wright said, however, that even though she objects to the pay raises, they are but a small part of legislation that she said she considers beneficial overall.

Wright said that she deserved a sixth term in the Assembly because of her legislation making it easier for divorced mothers to collect child support and because she has promoted psychological evaluation for juveniles in the criminal justice system.

Braly, chief aide to state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita), is the most serious challenger Wright has faced since she was elected a decade ago to represent the 37th Assembly District, which sprawls over three counties from Agoura Hills to Lompoc.

Braly, whom Wright referred to as “that, uh, young man,” said he would like to debate Wright again before the June primary. But Wright said the decision depended on her schedule and made no commitment.

After the debate, Braly said he did not address the traffic-ticket episode more thoroughly because “that is something the voters in this district know too well.” Instead, he said, he wanted to use the forum to raise issues such as development and conservation.