35th Senate Vote Could Be Contest of More-Conservative-Than-Thou : Politics: With a big GOP majority in the district, four Republican front-runners vie for what promises to be a scant turnout of voters.

The question to the panel of nine state Senate candidates was whether environmental regulatory agencies have exceeded their authority and burdened the economy. The response was strong and unanimous.

The Air Quality Management District “was put there for a reason, and the reason was to put business out of business,” declared Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Fountain Valley). “It is intended to control growth.”

In other campaigns, that question might have split the field of candidates, with some calling for strict regulations to save an endangered environment. But in the race for a prosperous central Orange County state Senate district seat barely two weeks away, almost all of the candidates shared the sentiment of support for business and limits for government.

John R. Lewis, a Republican assemblyman from Orange, called members of the state’s environmental agency a “bureaucratic band of despots. . . . They want to make criminals out of back-yard barbecuers.”

And Dana W. Reed, a moderate among the Republican hopefuls, told the audience in Garden Grove’s community center that members of the AQMD have “run amok. They are completely unresponsive, and they have to be restructured.”

In all, there are 10 candidates seeking to replace former Anaheim state Sen. John Seymour in the 35th District special election to be held March 19. With just more than two weeks to go, the candidates remain bunched in a pack, and the race remains almost invisible to voters.

There are more than 320,000 registered voters in the district, but strategists say turnout could be so low that the winner gets fewer than 15,000 votes.

If none of the candidates receives more than 50% of the vote, a runoff will be held May 14 between the top vote-getters from each party. But Republicans have such a strong edge among voters that the GOP nominee will be a heavy favorite to win the seat.

At least four Republican candidates are considered front-runners because of their demonstrated support or access to campaign money. They include three Assembly members--Lewis, Frizzelle and Doris Allen (R-Cypress)--and Reed, an Orange County Transportation Commission member.

The other Republican candidates are Westminster Mayor Charles V. Smith; William A. Dougherty, a lawyer from Villa Park; Jim Wronski, a businessman from Orange, and John Salvatore Parise, a lawyer from Santa Ana. The Democratic candidate is Frank Hoffman, a trustee on the Orange County Board of Education; the Libertarian candidate is Eric Sprik, a dry-cleaner in Costa Mesa.

This week, the candidates attended a series of public forums as they tried to distinguish themselves in the crowded field. But on many issues, the candidates underscored their similarities, so no one candidate has broken out as a clear front-runner.

“In all Republican primaries, we split hairs to differentiate each other,” said Dave Ellis, a county Republican consultant not involved in the race. “I don’t think anybody has been able to find an issue and break out.”

The candidates debated more than a dozen issues at the recent forums, and all of the leading Republican candidates agreed on several of the major ones: Each supported the death penalty, opposed affirmative action quotas, rejected higher taxes to balance the state budget and favored term limits on legislators.

Frizzelle said he opposes quotas because “they drive up the cost of everything.”

He added, “People employed under such a system have no self-respect.”

Lewis said, “Quotas are demeaning and insulting.”

Frizzelle and Lewis have campaigned as the most conservative candidates, while Reed and Allen are running as different kinds of moderates.

Reed has appealed to Democratic voters, mainly because of his support for abortion rights.

Allen said she also expects to receive Democratic votes because of her record on environmental and education issues.

Allen wrote an initiative passed last year that prohibits gill-net fishing because of its harm to dolphins and other marine mammals.

Abortion is one issue that divides the candidates, with Reed the only one of the four leading Republicans to support a woman’s right to choose abortion.

The candidates also split on a school voucher proposal that would allow students to attend the school of their choice. Proponents said vouchers would improve education by forcing schools to compete for students. Critics said they would cripple the schools in poor neighborhoods and enhance the better ones.

Allen, Reed and Smith all said they oppose a voucher system, while Reed and Frizzelle support it.

“I think we have to work from the classroom up,” Allen said, “not the administration down. Until we have a level playing field, I don’t think we can have a voucher system.”

Lewis countered: “By far, the most important education reform would be to give parents and students more choice. Paying taxes for bad schools is a terrible inequity.”