POLITICAL NOTEBOOK : Phyllis Papen Starts Drive for Assembly

Rivalry Renewed--Diamond Bar City Councilwoman Phyllis Papen launched a campaign this week to unseat Assemblyman Paul Horcher (R-Hacienda Heights) in the Republican primary by attacking him on the issues of taxes and insurance costs.

Papen, who favors no-fault auto insurance, said that Horcher has been a roadblock to insurance reform as vice chairman of the Assembly Insurance Committee and that his vote for the state budget last year led to tax increases. She called Horcher’s voting record “abhorrent.”

Horcher, who served with Papen on the City Council before his election to the Assembly in 1990, professed to be unfazed by the challenge to his seat.

“If she wants to run, it’s a free country,” he said.

The incumbent defended his record, saying that he voted for the state budget, but not tax increases, and that he is preparing bills that would cut insurance costs by capping attorney fees and attacking fraud.

Besides, Horcher asked, “if I’m so bad, why would she use my picture in her campaign brochure?”

Horcher bought newspaper ads last year scolding Papen for running a group photo of Diamond Bar’s first City Council, including himself, in her reelection brochure without getting his permission. The city was incorporated in 1989.

Despite Horcher’s opposition, Papen was reelected.

Diamond Bar Councilmen John Forbing and Gary Miller were on hand to give their endorsements when Papen declared her candidacy Monday at a news conference on the steps of City Hall.

Despite her own clashes with Horcher, Papen said she is not running to settle any scores.

“I don’t think this has anything to do with personalities,” she said. “It has to do with his voting record.”

Biding His Time--Ontario City Councilman Gus Skropos, who said in December that he would run for the state Assembly, or Congress, has changed his mind.

A Republican, Skropos had been eyeing the 41st Congressional District and the 61st Assembly District, both extending from the San Gabriel Valley through Ontario.

Skropos, a 34-year-old San Bernardino County deputy district attorney, said he talked to other candidates who assured him that they would protect Ontario’s interests in Sacramento and Washington and that he decided there “is no need to be hasty in moving up the political ladder.”

Exit Skropos, but enter Dave Wilson, a former field representative for Rep. David Dreier (R-La Verne), as a candidate in the 61st Assembly District.

Wilson, who left Dreier’s employ in 1985 to go to law school, is an attorney living in Montclair.

Meanwhile, Pomona City Councilwoman Nell Soto, who had suggested that she might be interested in seeking the Democratic nomination in the 61st Assembly District, has ruled out that idea.

Soto, who is in her 60s, said she will not run because of her age and the fact that party registration favors Republicans. Besides, the councilwoman said, she and her husband, Phil, a former assemblyman, have bought a recreational vehicle and plan to do some traveling.

Next the Nation--Although reapportionment and term limits are certain to produce drastic changes in the makeup of the Legislature, there could be fundamental changes ahead for Congress too.

Alan Heslop of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College told Republican political leaders in the San Gabriel Valley on Tuesday that the seniority system that determines leadership positions in Congress will fall if a proposed measure to limit congressional terms is approved by California voters.

Former Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum is circulating petitions for an initiative that would limit congressmen from California to four two-year terms and senators to two six-year terms.

One of the arguments against the initiative is that no one from California would be in Congress long enough to rise to a leadership role if their terms were limited.

But Heslop, speaking at a breakfast meeting of the San Gabriel Valley chapter of the California Lincoln Clubs at the Sheraton Industry Hills, said Congress would never dare to keep the seniority system if a state as big as California had term limits.

“I see this as an opportunity to really shake up the system,” he said.

Schabarum and others are circulating petitions to put the congressional term limit initiative on the November ballot.

A prodigious fund-raiser while a supervisor, Schabarum told Lincoln Club members that the campaign is having trouble reaching its goal of $500,000. Now that he is out of office, Schabarum said, “raising funds isn’t what it used to be, if you get my drift.”