ELECTIONS : REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK : Garbled Name, Campaign Loss Send Dieting Braly to Bar

A candidate’s ego isn’t the only thing on the line in a losing political campaign. A loss can also be murder on his diet.

For most of Tuesday night’s election-returns vigil, Republican Assembly candidate Hunt Braly--who had maintained a strict diet during his campaign--sipped Diet Coke and resisted quesadillas and other goodies laid out for his staff at a Newhall restaurant.

But by midnight, Braly was wincing as a TV news commentator announced Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) as the likely winner and mispronounced Braly’s name in the process.

Braly walked to the bar and ordered a drink. No more diet soda. It was about time for Jack Daniels on the rocks, thank you very much.

In Simi Valley, meanwhile, Wright was ensconced in a hotel suite with a coterie of friends and aides, also watching returns.

A little after 8 p.m., the group was joined by Wright’s daughter, Victoria, whose collection of speeding tickets led her mother to try to persuade local law enforcement officials to go easy on her--giving Braly one of his central campaign issues.

At one point, the 16-year-old son of a campaign worker casually mentioned that he was about to get his driver’s license and Victoria, apparently joking, said: “I’ll teach him how to drive.”

The upbeat hubbub in the room suddenly died until the boy’s mother broke the silence. “His FATHER will teach him to drive,” she insisted.

A favorite election-night sport among local campaign connoisseurs is cruising darkened streets for eye-catching campaign posters to add to burgeoning collections of political memorabilia.

This year’s hands-down favorite, according to GOP political consultant Paul Clarke, was a poster promoting the candidacy of one Joseph G. Senteno for sheriff of Los Angeles County.

The poster reads: “Senteno for Sheriff,” followed by “Can’t Do Any Worse”--an infelicitous phrasing that may not have put the best spin on the candidate’s talents.

Quipped Clarke: “Here’s a guy running for sheriff whose verbal gun really misfired.”

The day after Election Day is a time to throw away cold pizza, disconnect the campaign phones, thank the volunteers--and send a final fax to the media.

GOP Assembly candidate Bob Scott, an attorney whose faxed press releases were often written with wit and insight, was in his usual form Wednesday despite coming in third in the five-way primary race to succeed retiring Assemblywoman Marian W. La Follette (R-Northridge).

Scott’s last fax--a letter of congratulation to GOP nominee Paula Boland--arrived in local newsrooms with a cover letter that carried a final commentary: “Ouch!”

Times staff writers Betsy Bates and Santiago O’Donnell contributed to this report.