ELECTIONS ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 35 : No Letup Seen in O’Connell’s Dogged Push for 5th Term

Despite his popularity and a lopsided advantage because of Democratic voters in his district, Democratic Assemblyman Jack O’Connell has mounted an energetic campaign against his Republican challenger in the Nov. 6 election.

Seven days a week, O’Connell of Carpinteria takes his campaign door-to-door, canvassing precincts in the 35th Assembly District, which straddles Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

This week, he began broadcasting television ads to increase his visibility and to reinforce his campaign theme of constituent service. Soon, O’Connell will mail campaign brochures to the 6,000 residences that neither he nor his campaign staff have reached by foot.

“Anytime someone tries to take your job, you take it seriously,” O’Connell said.

The four-term assemblyman plans to pursue his intensive strategy even though his Republican opponent, Connie O’Shaughnessy, has been distracted from campaigning since the Santa Barbara fire devastated the grounds of her 4 1/2-acre Santa Barbara estate.

“I lost a good, solid 2 1/2 months,” said O’Shaughnessy, a businesswoman and philanthropist who is making her first run for public office. “After you’ve been reviewing charred remains all day, you are not left with a lot of vim and vinegar to get up and go campaign.”

O’Shaughnessy has stepped up her efforts in recent weeks, running on a platform of ousting incumbents and cutting government waste. With the help of a professional fund-raiser, she collected nearly $30,000 in contributions through Sept. 30 and loaned her campaign about $17,000 of her own money.

But her professional fund-raiser and other campaign expenses have left the campaign with less than $500.

Meanwhile, O’Connell has spent $283,000 in this election cycle and has a cash reserve of about $70,000. His campaign is prepared to unleash much of the remaining money for last-minute mailers and other ads to get his supporters to the polls. All this is being spent in an Assembly district with 20,000 more Democratic voters than Republican.

“He is the toughest incumbent to beat right now,” said John Davies, a Santa Barbara political consultant who helped O’Connell run his first Assembly campaign in 1982. “He works like a dog. . . .”

O’Connell said he never has been able to shake the habit of active campaigning that he developed in his first two Assembly races. In 1982, O’Connell narrowly defeated Brooks Firestone, a Santa Ynez vintner and heir to the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. Two years later, he faced another tough challenge from Santa Barbara County’s former sheriff John Carpenter.

His friends also mention that he likes to keep a high political profile, just in case state Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) wins a seat in Congress or other higher office, leaving a vacancy for O’Connell to fill.

O’Connell’s campaign strategy turns on meeting voters on their doorsteps. During the legislative session, he said he walks precincts a couple of times a month. Three months before the election, he began walking every day. By Election Day, he figures his long legs attached to a 6-foot-3 1/2-inch frame will have covered about one-fourth of the “walkable” precincts in his district.

O’Shaughnessy, an effusive businesswoman known for her lavish lawn parties to raise money for charity, is also walking precincts. She said she tries to squeeze grass-roots campaigning in between appearances before various Republican groups.

O’Shaughnessy laments that she wastes precious time haggling with insurance companies over claims for the $700,000 in fire damage to her landscaping and garden sheds.

Her house was spared from the fire, she said, because she spent $1,000 a month to bring in 10 truckloads of water to keep her property green. Before the fire, Santa Barbara banned sprinkling lawns with city water as a conservation measure during the drought.

In her campaign, O’Shaughnessy attacks O’Connell for introducing “junk” legislation that, she says, wastes taxpayer money--such as a law that requires dogs riding in the beds of pickup trucks to be tethered from two directions. “I would not spend taxpayers’ money to tether dogs,” she said.

She also calls him a “rubber stamp” for Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) because he voted yes on 95% of all bills considered.

O’Connell defends his record, saying his double-tethering bill was needed to prevent needless dog deaths and related traffic hazards. He said his percentage of “yes” votes was higher because he has one of the best attendance records in the Assembly.

Candidates QuESTIONNAIRE: B6