CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / STATE ASSEMBLY RACES : 10 Candidates Sharply Define Differences in 2 TV Debates

Candidates for five Orange County seats in the state Assembly met Thursday in two debates that offered voters some clear distinctions between opponents but little time to explore their views in any depth.

The half-hour debates were taped in the studios of KOCE-TV Channel 50 at Golden West College and were moderated by Jim Cooper.

The first debate, which will air Oct. 29 at 6:30 p.m., featured 58th Assembly District candidates Luanne Pryor, a Long Beach public relations executive and Huntington Beach Mayor Thomas J. Mays, and 71st District hopefuls Peter Mathews, a Cypress College professor, and incumbent Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress).

Mays, a Republican, and Pryor, a Democrat, are vying for the seat vacated by outgoing Assemblyman Dennis Brown. They traded charges that each is susceptible to influence from developers who have contributed to their campaigns.

Pryor said Mays was in the pocket of the Huntington Beach Co., the largest landowner in that city, while Mays pointed out that Pryor took contributions from David Malmuth, a major Long Beach developer.

Mathews, meanwhile, said that legislators are influenced by private special interests and that voters should reject incumbents and “return responsibility to the Legislature.”

Allen agreed that the Legislature is not functioning properly but blamed it on a Democrat-dominated power structure that is forcing citizens to legislate by initiative.

When asked about two initiatives on the ballot that would limit legislator’s terms, Mays, Allen and Mathews all said they would support some form of term limits, with Mathews also supporting public financing of campaigns. Pryor said she sees limiting terms as being detrimental to women candidates, who are already underrepresented in the Legislature.

In the second debate, which will air Oct. 30 at 6:30 p.m., candidates in the 67th, 69th and 70th districts squared off.

All three are heavily Republican districts, and the Democrat challengers are decided underdogs.

In the 67th District, Chapman College Prof. Fred Smoller got into a short but heated argument with incumbent John R. Lewis (R-Orange) when Smoller blasted Lewis for his since-dismissed indictment on political forgery charges.

“That alone is enough for him to forgo reelection,” Smoller said.

Lewis countered by saying that the charges were trumped up by Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp and other powerful Democrats and were “laughed out of court.” He characterized Smoller as being “on the most extreme left-wing fringes of the Democratic Party.”

When Smoller said “that’s ridiculous,” Lewis asked him why, then, was he arrested for trespassing on government property to protest nuclear testing?

Smoller said that Lewis was wrong, that he was “detained” and not arrested.

Meanwhile, the Democratic candidate in the 69th District, business attorney James Toledano, attacked his opponent, Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Huntington Beach) for refusing to debate him one-on-one during the campaign. “He’s trying to conceal his record,” said Toledano.

Frizzelle did not directly answer the charge. Instead, he used his time to remind voters that he is a fiscal conservative who is concerned about keeping taxes low and restricting government growth. He said he opposes Measure M, the county’s proposed sales tax increase for transportation improvements but supports construction of additional toll roads.

Toledano said he, too, opposes Measure M, but because it is “a Band-Aid and Scotch tape” approach to problems that need a more comprehensive solution.

In the 70th District, Democrat Howard Adler said the Republican incumbents “can’t get the job done” and have failed to provide the county with any political leadership.

“The voters believe all you guys are crooks,” Adler said.

Gil Ferguson answered that the Democrats in power in Sacramento for the past 37 years are the crooks who have been “sucking this state blind.”

“I’m glad to leave there myself if I can take all those crooks down with me,” said Ferguson (R-Newport Beach), proclaiming his support for Prop. 140, the strictest of the term-limitation initiatives.