Roberti Race Seen as Test of Voters’ Anger at Incumbents

With predictions of a voter turnout as low as 10%, San Fernando Valley voters went to the polls Tuesday to determine the political fate of one of California’s most powerful Democrats, state Senate Majority Leader David A. Roberti.

Roberti was the best known of 10 candidates in a special election to serve out the term of Alan Robbins in the 20th Senate District, which covers the central Valley. Robbins resigned last year after agreeing to plead guilty to federal corruption charges.

Despite heavily outspending his opponents, Roberti acknowledged that the large field of candidates makes it unlikely that he will get the 50%-plus-one majority needed to win Tuesday’s election outright. He said he probably will be forced into a June 2 runoff, which most analysts believe he will win easily in the heavily Democratic 20th District.

Roberti’s main opponent in the runoff was expected to be one of three Republicans: Van Nuys construction company owner David Honda, Tarzana abortion rights activist Carol Rowen, or Reseda real estate agent Dolores White.

A staunch liberal, Roberti was forced to run for the more conservative Valley seat after his longtime Hollywood-based district was erased by reapportionment. He decided to run in the Valley after polling in two adjacent districts where he would have had to face well-known incumbents--Sens. Newton Russell (R-Glendale) or Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles).

In a year of unusual political turmoil, the race was being closely watched as the first test in 1992 of the level of voter anger at incumbents and the Legislature, which polls have shown is widely viewed as ineffective.

One of the Legislature’s most prodigious fund-raisers, Roberti was expected to spend about $300,000 by Tuesday to win the Valley seat. In recent campaign finance statements, he said he spent $262,000 between Feb. 23 and March 21.

The election also attracted attention because of allegations from the Roberti camp that Rowen was recruited to run against him by political consultant Marlene Bane, wife of retiring Democratic Assemblyman Tom Bane of Van Nuys, after Roberti rejected Marlene Bane’s offer to manage his campaign for a $50,000 fee.

Rowen and the Banes denied that charge. Rowen said she decided to run in large part because of Roberti’s strong opposition to abortion rights. Rowen, a Tarzana pension consultant, is a veteran abortion rights activist.

Whether he wins or loses, Roberti must leave the upper house in 1994--the first victim of Proposition 140, which limits terms of state lawmakers. Elected to the Assembly in 1966, Roberti moved to the Senate in 1971 and has served there since.

Despite his large fund-raising lead and high political profile, Roberti’s campaign feared that he might be vulnerable on two issues: his opposition to legalized abortion and his newness to the 20th District.

“If David Roberti was pro-choice, there wouldn’t be a campaign,” one strategist said.

Among other things, his campaign aired a $50,000 series of cable TV commercials that featured a smiling, shirt-sleeved Roberti talking about his support for funding to aid “latchkey children” and for equal pay for women. Aides denied the spots were intended to offset his abortion views among women voters.

Roberti was repeatedly attacked by Rowen and other candidates who favor abortion rights, who insisted that the vast majority of 20th District voters feel the same way.

A Roman Catholic, Roberti objects to abortion for personal reasons. But he insisted he never used his position as Senate leader to undermine legislation sought by abortion advocates.

But Rowen challenged that, pointing out that Roberti in 1986 led a Senate floor fight to block state funding for family planning clinics. She also noted that during that battle Roberti made a speech likening Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan.

Opponents also charged Roberti with carpetbagging after he rented part of a small bungalow in Van Nuys in February in an effort to establish residency in the 20th District. Before that, he had lived for years in a large, Tudor-style home in the upscale Los Feliz area.

Four opponents filed a lawsuit in an effort to keep Roberti’s name off the ballot, but a Los Angeles Superior Court judge dismissed the suit. Opponents appealed, and the state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles is set to hear the case.

Roberti was also the target of gun owners who strongly opposed a landmark 1989 ban on military-style assault guns that Roberti co-authored.

A group composed mostly of gun owners, Californians Against Corruption, sent 200,000 letters to 20th District voters, urging them to defeat Roberti. The National Rifle Assn. also sent anti-Roberti letters to local voters.

Roberti countered over the weekend with well-organized precinct-walking drives that were aided by many union members.

At a rally Saturday, he was joined by eight other Democratic senators from around the state--including several he appointed to powerful committee chairmanships--in a symbolic demonstration of his Senate power. His campaign has hit repeatedly on the theme that Roberti can “get things done” in Sacramento for Valley constituents.

Roberti’s campaign also got a boost after two GOP Assembly members tried to distance themselves from last-minute attack mailers aimed at him. Both legislators said they signed the hit letters at the behest of Marlene Bane, Rowen’s campaign manager.

One of the letters, signed by Assemblywoman Tricia Hunter (R-Bonita) criticized Roberti as the “ringleader” of three former senators convicted of federal corruption charges and implied he might be indicted soon.

Roberti has never been mentioned as a target of the ongoing FBI corruption probe in the state Capitol that led to the conviction of former Sens. Robbins, Joseph Montoya and Paul Carpenter. Roberti, as Senate leader, did appoint all three to various committee chairmanships.

Hunter’s campaign manager said later that she had never approved of the harsh language in the letter.

But Marlene Bane said Hunter and Assemblyman William Filante (R-Greenbrae), who apologized for another hit letter sent out over his signature to Jewish voters in the Valley, had both approved the mailers.