POLITICAL NOTEBOOK : Many Would-Be Successors for Crowley’s Director Seat

Let the campaign begin: Pasadena City Director John Crowley, whose third term of office ends in May, announced Tuesday that he won’t seek reelection in March. Instead, Crowley, 71, will devote his energies to regional government issues.

“I was reaching a point where it was no longer quite as exciting to be involved in the repetitive kind of things that come up in city government,” Crowley said.

The announcement came as no surprise. In fact, would-be candidates for the District 1 seat have already started to jockey for position.

Crowley, who represents a large minority community in Northwest Pasadena, for some time has been feeling the heat from black activists unhappy about the selection earlier this year of Philip Hawkey as city manager. Hawkey had previously been city manager of Toledo, Ohio, and had been criticized for his handling of some racial issues there.

Those vying for a front-runner’s position include Stephen Mack, 70, former president of the Pasadena NAACP and a longtime community activist; Isaac Richard, 33, a real estate consultant and member of the Northwest Task Force; and Millie Lee, 55, director of Faith House, an alcohol and drug rehabilitation recovery center for men. All three are black; Crowley is white.

A fourth candidate who emerged after Crowley’s announcement Tuesday is Nick Conway, 37, a management consultant who helped put together the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center. Some Pasadena political observers say Conway, who is white, is Crowley’s handpicked successor, but Crowley denies it. “I do not handpick anything,” he said.

Scary thought: A Halloween debate may be in the offing between State Sen. Ruben S. Ayala (D-Chino) and his Republican challenger, Assemblyman Charles W. Bader of Pomona.

Ayala wants to begin a series of five debates starting Oct. 31.

But Jim Brulte, Bader’s former chief of staff, who has been negotiating debate terms with Ayala’s campaign manager, Larry Sheingold, said Ayala must be trying to limit the audience if he wants to start the series on Halloween.

Sheingold countered that Halloween shouldn’t be a problem “unless Chuck is going to go trick or treating.”

Bader wants the candidates to debate once a week until the Nov. 6 election.

Short subjects: Rep. Esteban Torres (D-La Puente) and his Republican challenger, businessman John Eastman, have agreed to appear at a forum sponsored by the American Assn. of Retired Persons at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 22 at the West Covina Senior Citizens Center, 2501 E. Cortez St., West Covina. Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-San Rafael) will speak at a rally for Democratic candidates Georgia Houston Webb in the 33rd Congressional District and Selma Calnan in the 62nd Assembly District at 5 p.m. Oct. 30, at the party’s Claremont headquarters at 981 W. Foothill Blvd.