Challengers Get Small Share of Total Vote

The electoral advantage of incumbents in the area’s congressional and state Assembly districts loomed large again this week as challengers in three races battled each other for only a small share of the total vote.

In conservative Glendale, Republican Carlos J. Moorhead coasted to the nomination unopposed in the 22nd Congressional District as did Pat Nolan, Moorhead’s longtime ally, in the 41st Assembly District.

Both captured better than a third more votes than the Democratic contenders combined in the heavily Republican districts.

Just to the south in Los Feliz and Silver Lake, part of the 46th Assembly stronghold of Democrat Mike Roos, two-time challenger Sal Genovese got barely 12% of the Democratic vote. Two Republican contenders for their party’s nomination combined received less than half the votes cast for Roos, who has been elected seven times from the heavily Democratic district.

Meanwhile, in Highland Park, two-term Democrat Richard Polanco ran unopposed for nomination in the 55th Assembly District and will have no Republican challenger in November.

41st Assembly District

Even though a federal corruption investigation has cast the shadow of possible indictment over incumbent Nolan, a low turnout of Democratic voters Tuesday foretold a difficult campaign for the November election for Democratic victor Jeanette Mann.

Her plan is to inspire Democrats to vote in response to Nolan’s tarnished record, and in the general election win Republican crossovers. But with 14,000 more registered Republicans that Democrats, she faces an uphill battle.

During the primary campaign, Mann, a Pasadena City College trustee and affirmative action director at Cal State Northridge, received the endorsement of virtually every Democratic organization. Yet her opponent, USC professor Rod C. McKenzie, who characterized himself as a more conservative Democrat, took 39% of the party’s vote.

Though Mann easily defeated McKenzie for the party’s nomination, the contest drew only 29% of registered Democrats to the polls, compared with 32% of Republicans.

Mann downplayed the difference, suggesting that Nolan invested heavily in precinct work during the primary while she focused on party organization.

Nolan, long identified as a target of an FBI investigation into corruption in the state Legislature, campaigned hard during the primary, visiting groups and organizations almost daily in the district, which includes Glendale, Eagle Rock, Altadena and a large part of Pasadena.

Mann said she plans to draw out more voters by focusing her campaign on the FBI’s investigation of Nolan and five other legislators, and the two candidates’ differing views on abortion.

“We intend to run a campaign on two basic issues, ethics and choice,” Mann said. “I think Mr. Nolan is wrong on those issues. I think he’s out of touch with the community. I would hope that we could attract Democrats who are pro-choice. I think that’s where a lot of the votes will come from.”

22nd Congressional District

A Burbank school principal endorsed by his party easily beat out his opponent for the Democratic nomination Tuesday and the right to challenge veteran Moorhead.

David Bayer, 46, of Burbank captured 82% of the Democratic vote over opponent Thomas G. Vournas, 66, of Altadena, also an educator, who had campaigned on a liberal platform. Vournas received only 18% of the vote.

Bayer had set out on a serious general election campaign well before this week’s primary and has assembled a team of strategists and an organization of more than 100 volunteer workers.

Bayer said Wednesday that the results “show that I’m a strong, viable candidate and that there is a good chance a lot of Republicans will be voting for me in November.”

The principal of Burbank Adult School, Bayer hopes to raise at least $100,000 in his campaign to unseat the entrenched 18-year veteran of the predominantly Republican district. The district has repeatedly returned Moorhead to office with at least 70% of the votes cast.

Only 33% of the registered Democrats voted in the district’s primary, giving Bayer 28,017 votes to Vournas’ 6,142.

Bayer said he will work to encourage more participation by Democrats in the November election. His campaign strategy also is to try to capture at least 20% of the Republican vote, with a platform endorsing a national health-care program, increased funding for child care, equal access to higher education and stronger environmental protection and clean air legislation.

46th Assembly District

Republican Geoffrey Church, a 27-year-old Los Angeles stockbroker and first-time political candidate, edged Howard O. Watts, a 57-year-old disabled Korean War veteran with 55% of the vote.

Roos, meanwhile, soundly beat Genovese, who also ran against Roos in the 1988 primary, taking 88% of Tuesday’s Democratic vote.

Roos’ total of more than 11,000 votes more than doubled the combined Republican vote of about 4,500.

Church, an anti-abortion activist and opponent of Roos’ ban on assault rifles, conceded the difficulty of the task ahead.

“It’s uphill,” he said. “If I won, it would be a definite upset. By the same token, I think voters should be offered a choice, and I’m offering myself as an alternative to Roos. I think he’s been in there too long and I think he has lost touch with a lot of the concerns of the people in the community.”

Church said he hoped to appeal to the district’s Latino Catholics on the abortion issue and to Democrats and crime victims who believe Roos has not met their needs.