Frustrated Opponents Rail Against Lack of Debates

Election opponents of two Westside lawmakers went public last week with their frustration at being unable to draw the incumbents into a debate.

Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) are both heavily favored for reelection Nov. 6. As favorites frequently do, they have generally ignored their challengers.

At separate news events Thursday, the challengers called the refusals to debate an indication that Hayden and Beilenson don’t want voters to hear them discuss the issues.

“(Tom Hayden’s) a political coward,” said Fred Beteta, the Republican candidate for Hayden’s 44th District Assembly seat, at a press conference on the steps of the Santa Monica City Hall. “If he’s so sure that he’s going to get reelected, why is he so afraid to enter into a debate with a challenger?”

Beteta said he sent Hayden’s campaign a letter by registered mail Oct. 2 inviting him to “open things up by having a debate on the issues,” but never received a reply.

But Hayden campaign chairman Tom Soto said he wrote Beteta suggesting a conversation on the matter.

“He hasn’t contacted me,” Soto said. “Quite frankly, I’d appreciate a conversation before he goes and makes any accusations like that.”

Joining Beteta at the Thursday press conference was Libertarian Rebecca Donner, 19, a Santa Monica College student. She said she also sent Hayden two letters inviting him to debate, and they were ignored. Soto said he was not aware of the campaign’s having received any letters from Donner.

“I don’t want this to become another ho-hum, rubber-stamp election,” Donner said. “And I find it deplorable that Tom Hayden thinks he’s got it in the bag.”

Jim Salomon, the Republican candidate for the 23rd Congressional District, has tried to take a more creative approach in his attempts to arrange a debate with Beilenson, who has held the Westside-San Fernando Valley seat since 1976.

Thursday, he was in Beilenson’s Tarzana office to deliver a 3-by-5 foot invitation urging the congressman to debate with him. Accompanying Salomon was a campaign volunteer dressed as Abraham Lincoln and carrying a sign saying, “I debated Douglas, why can’t Beilenson debate Salomon?”

Beilenson’s press assistant in Washington said the congressman is currently tied up on congressional business, and has had to suspend his campaign.

“I know there’s nothing more he wants than to be in Los Angeles right now,” said his press assistant, Kaye Edwards Davis. “He just hasn’t been able to make any campaign plans at all.”

Salomon said he offered to pay for a satellite hookup from Washington and buy time on three cable television stations to air the debate. So far, Beilenson’s staff members have said they haven’t been able to schedule it, he said.

“So his basic strategy is to keep his head low and to do everything in his power to make it into a non-campaign,” Salomon said, adding that this was “an anti-democratic action.