ELECTIONS / 20TH SENATE DISTRICT : Roberti Says Assemblyman, Wife Guilty of Smear Tactics

Democratic state Sen. David A. Roberti on Friday accused Assemblyman Tom Bane and Bane’s wife, Marlene, of orchestrating a smear campaign against him by sending San Fernando Valley voters two harshly worded hit pieces that have been disavowed by their purported authors.

“I think they engineered the whole thing,” said Roberti, president pro tem of the Senate, who moved to Van Nuys to run in Tuesday’s special election for a state Senate seat after his Hollywood-area district was eliminated through reapportionment.

Bane (D-Tarzana) and his wife denied Roberti’s accusation. But even as they did so, a second Republican legislator on Friday apologized for a political mailer that attacked Roberti in her name.

Assemblywoman Tricia Hunter (R-Bonita) disavowed the letter sent to voters over her signature. Assemblyman William Filante (R-Greenbrae) did the same the previous day to a mailer sent in his name. Both mailers had been sent by the campaign for Republican Senate candidate Carol Rowen, directed by Marlene Bane.

The mailer signed with Hunter’s name stated that three of Roberti’s Senate colleagues have been found guilty in a continuing federal political corruption probe and claimed the Senate leader was “their ringleader” and he “may be next.”

Roberti, however, has not been mentioned as a subject of the federal investigation that led to the conviction of three senators. One of those was Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), who pleaded guilty to racketeering and tax evasion charges and resigned from office, creating the need for Tuesday’s special election.

Tab Berg, Hunter’s campaign manager, said Hunter agreed to endorse Rowen and continues to support her because both women support abortion rights. But he maintained that Hunter never approved the language in the letter and plans to issue an apology to Roberti, who opposes abortion rights. Late Friday, a Roberti aide said Hunter had apologized to the Senate leader.

Berg described the tough wording of the letter, which was to be targeted at “pro choice” Republican women, as “completely inconsistent with Tricia’s style. We don’t believe in negative campaigning.”

But Marlene Bane said both Hunter and Filante had indeed signed off on the mailers that bear their names.

Tom Bane lashed back at Roberti, saying: “If you tell the truth about Roberti, he considers he’s being smeared. He ought to look in the mirror more.”

The heated exchange over the letters came as the 10-candidate field was preparing for the final weekend of campaigning and with little time to respond to last-minute charges. It is especially extraordinary because the dispute embroils two powerful Democrats--Roberti, the Senate leader, and Bane, part of the leadership team of Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco).

The mounting conflict between Roberti and the Banes surfaced earlier this year after Marlene Bane unsuccessfully sought the job of Roberti’s campaign manager, according to sources in the Legislature.

The sources said Roberti was willing to pay her $5,000 a month, but that she wanted a considerably higher fee, possibly as much as $50,000 for the campaign--an assertion disputed by Marlene Bane.

Marlene Bane has gained a reputation as a strong fund-raiser, especially for Speaker Brown, but she has been criticized for heavy-handed tactics in seeking donations. As chairman of the powerful Rules Committee, Assemblyman Bane has been a chief lieutenant of Brown’s. Bane is not running for reelection this year and might enter the campaign consulting business with his wife, a longtime friend of Rowen’s.

Rowen said both Filante and Hunter had volunteered to send the endorsements and had approved the mailers. An angry Rowen assailed Roberti for being “vicious and vindictive.”

Said Rowen: “If he has to strong-arm people into recanting because he can get back to them” in the Legislature “then he must be pretty concerned” about the election.

Two other developments on Friday also focused on the Rowen campaign.

Another Rowen mailer--a reprint of a letter from the president of the California Republican League--prompted the state Republican Party to issue a formal statement that it was not endorsing Rowen.

And another Republican contender, Dolores White, filed a complaint with the state’s political watchdog agency, accusing Rowen of failing to report that she is receiving professional services valued at up to $15,000 a month from Marlene Bane.

In an interview, Roberti raised similar questions, saying he too is interested in “seeing how Marlene Bane is being paid. I don’t think she’s doing things for free.” In asserting that the Banes played a major role in the mailers, Roberti said the Hunter letter was sent on stationery of the Assembly Rules Committee. Hunter is not a member of the committee. Tom Bane is its chairman.

Marlene Bane acknowledged that she was involved in drafting the Filante and Hunter letters. She also conceded that using the Rules Committee stationery for Hunter’s mailer was “my error. . . . Originally, the paper came from Filante and I think I confused it when I did the paste-up.”

Bane and his wife also maintained that neither of them have been paid for their help. Rowen’s state-required campaign report, however, lists two payments to Marlene Bane totaling $278.

Republican candidate White, a real estate broker, complained to the state Fair Political Practices Commission that Rowen failed to report payments to Marlene Bane for the value of her campaign services, making the work a valuable gift.

Mark Gladstone reported from Sacramento and Jack Cheevers from Chatsworth.