CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / 72ND ASSEMBLY DISTRICT : Battle for Title of ‘Tough Guy’ : Curt Pringle and Tom Umberg are fighting it out to become protector in a community that has been ravaged by crime.

On a hot canyon hillside near the Mexican border, Assemblyman Curt Pringle watched recently as National Guard soldiers in full combat gear scrambled through the desert brush during a drug surveillance exercise.

They were hidden so well that the troop commander challenged Pringle to scan the bushes up close to detect their location. Pringle, a Garden Grove Republican, shook his head. Moments later, a camouflaged soldier popped up just a few feet from the assemblyman and snapped to attention.

About 150 miles to the north, Pringle’s opponent in the Nov. 6 election is stationed at a desert Army base where he was deployed last week as part of the nation’s military mobilization to counter Iraq.

Democrat Tom Umberg’s campaign says it wants to downplay his temporary assignment with the Army Reserve, but it acknowledges that voters may sympathize with a candidate serving his country in a so-far popular cause.

Let’s color this campaign Army green.

The race for the 72nd Assembly District is becoming a fight for the title of tough guy. Other politicians may debate abortion, the environment or traffic jams, but the battle between Pringle and Umberg is for protector in a community ravaged by crime. No other issue comes close.

Almost everywhere in the 72nd District, there are signs of people who live each day with fear. Windows are covered with bars, doors are sealed with multiple locks, fierce dogs roam the yards and walls are splattered with gang graffiti.

More than half of the murders in Orange County last year occurred in the five cities represented in the 72nd District--Santa Ana, Anaheim, Garden Grove, Westminster and Stanton.

Umberg said he was moved one day when he was campaigning door to door and separately met two families where a child had been murdered. The next day he met another one.

Crime is part of what makes this largely blue-collar and ethnically rich district conservative in its politics. Its voters are predominantly Democratic, but they have still elected conservative Republicans such as Pringle and Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove).

With that in mind, Democratic party leaders have fallen behind a conservative member of their own ranks to run against Pringle. Umberg is a former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted drug cases in Orange County and an ex-Army captain who is now a major in the reserves.

On many issues, he lines up closer to Republicans than Democrats. Like Pringle, he has campaigned against higher taxes and for the death penalty, and he supports President Bush’s call for a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning.

Also like Pringle, Umberg has even criticized the Assembly’s liberal Democrats for killing tough crime legislation.

So when it comes to solving crime, the candidates’ positions are again similar, and for both, the rhetoric is emphasized with an iron fist.

Philosophically, Pringle and Umberg start from the premise that tougher enforcement, rather than social programs, is the priority. In addition to the death penalty, they both favor longer criminal sentences especially for drug and gang-related violations, a more streamlined court system, bigger jails and more support for local police.

Asked about Umberg’s credentials as a crime fighter, Pringle said recently: “I guess I don’t have an opinion on that.” Then he added, “On personal positions, there’s not that great of a difference.”

Umberg has been unable to campaign or talk with the media since he was stationed last Thursday at Ft. Irwin.

With similar positions, the campaigns have fought for the image of crime fighter.

Monday, Pringle traveled to the Mexican border in a National Guard helicopter to demonstrate his support for the anti-drug war. He was briefed on the guard’s expanding anti-drug role including surveillance along the border, air support for local police missions and inspections of cargo at border stops.

After the daylong tour, Pringle applauded the guard’s effort, although as an assemblyman he has little control over it. The California National Guard receives only 5% of its budget from the state government, and none of the state money is used in the drug effort, a guard officer said.

The guard also serves under the exclusive authority of the governor, not the Legislature, he said.

Umberg’s campaign people, meanwhile, say that the candidate’s military deployment is not politically motivated and that they are actually concerned that his absence from the race could hurt. He is scheduled to remain at the base just north of Barstow for two weeks, returning to the campaign later this month.

Campaign manager George Urch said Umberg told his superiors that he was available for duty when U.S. troops were first sent to Saudi Arabia last month. Urch said Umberg received orders for his assignment last week.

Umberg’s wife, Robin, is also a major in the Army Reserve and served two weeks of active duty recently in San Francisco.

“Tom and I discussed this the moment the Mideast crisis developed,” she said. “We had one of those soul-searching discussions. The family is important and the campaign is important, but both of us have a sense of responsibility about serving if we’re called.”

Politically, former county Democratic chairman John Hanna added, Umberg’s deployment “is a plus. Here you’ve got the real thing . . . and there’s a lot of sense of patriotism in that district.”

On the front lines of the crime war, it is city police and local politicians who decide to raid the crack houses and who patrol the neighborhoods--not state assemblymen.

But it is the legislator in Sacramento who writes the laws that local police enforce. And both campaigns have offered some record of the specific tools they would provide to local crime fighters.

Pringle complains that almost all of his crime legislation was killed by Democratic leaders who control the majority in the Legislature. Still, he authored two crime bills that failed and supported another that passed.

One would allow the death penalty for selling drugs to a minor who dies as a result. Another bill would have doubled the sentence for first-degree murder and eliminated the possibility for parole. Both were killed in the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

Pringle said he also supported a bill by Sen. David Roberti (D-Los Angeles) to establish a drug task force in the state attorney general’s office. The Roberti plan passed, but money for the program was cut when the state recently suffered budget problems, so it has never been implemented.

Umberg, on the other hand, has proposed seven crime-related measures he hopes to pursue in the Legislature. They include the elimination of probation, forcing criminals to serve complete sentences, boot-camp-style incarceration for juvenile offenders, aggressive asset seizures for white-collar crimes and a more effective death penalty process.

Ironically, both campaigns claim experience with such crime issues and charge that the other is the neophyte. Pringle says he has written crime laws in the Legislature while Umberg has never served in elected office. But Umberg says that as a former prosecutor, he’s the only candidate with firsthand experience on the problems facing law enforcement.

“I’m proud of the bills I’ve voted for,” Pringle said. “I’m running on my record and let the people decide.”

Urch responded for Umberg: “What we’re saying is talk is cheap; Pringle gives nothing but excuses. Tom Umberg will be much more effective at working inside on the Public Safety Committee to free up legislation that a lot of liberals have tied up there.”

CRIME IN THE 72ND ASSEMBLY DISTRICT

The five cities in the 72nd Assembly District--Anaheim, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Stanton and Westminster--are responsible for more than half of the county’s crime, statistics show. The race for the Assembly seat between incumbent Curt Pringle and challenger Tom Umberg is becoming a fight for the title of crime fighter. Below are these five cities’ shares of the countywide total of selected crimes reported to the police. MURDER/NON-NEGLIGENT MANSLAUGHTER: 64 % RAPE/ATTEMPTED RAPE: 44 % ROBBERY: 62 % AGGRAVATED ASSAULT: 41 %