ELECTIONS / 44th ASSEMBLY DISTRICT : Incumbents’ Exit Draws In Contenders

Build a wide-open district and they will come.

And come they have to vie in the June 2 primary battle for their party’s nomination in the new Republican-leaning 44th Assembly District.

Court-administered reapportionment has yielded up an odd-shaped political contrivance--shaped like a rabbit’s profile--that is anchored by Pasadena and adjacent communities but also stretches around the north side of the Verdugo Hills to include Sunland, Tujunga, Lake View Terrace and parts of Sun Valley and Sylmar.

Two GOP assemblymen who now represent portions of the new 44th decided to seek reelection in nearby districts, loosing an outbreak of political ambition among local Republicans that had been kept in check for years by incumbents.

Ten Republicans, representing their party’s full ideological spectrum, are seeking the GOP nomination in the new district; they include three former elected officials and one current officeholder.

Chief rivals for conservative GOP votes are Lee David Prentiss, a Los Angeles Police Department detective supervisor and former South Pasadena City Council member, and Pasadena insurance broker Bill Hoge, a political novice who nonetheless leads the field in fund raising and has been endorsed by the two assemblymen who represented parts of the district.

Among Republicans from the party’s moderate wing, which is led by Gov. Pete Wilson, prime contenders are Barbara Pieper, a former La Canada Flintridge City Council member and member of the Los Angeles County Board of Education; Wilbert L. Smith, a bank executive and Pasadena school board member, and Stephen Acker, a lawyer and former Pasadena city director.

Others seeking the GOP nomination are Roy Begley, a Pasadena writer active in Republican politics; Bob Bell, a Shadow Hills commuter consultant; T. H. Choi, a Pasadena gas station owner; Robert Oltman, a Pasadena business owner, and Maurine Petteruto, a Temple City resident.

Conventional political thinking holds that because Republicans usually vote in greater numbers than Democrats, any district in which 42% of registered voters are Republicans presents a steep climb to the Democratic nominee. In the 44th, Republicans comfortably outnumber Democrats 46% to 43%.

Nonetheless, three longtime Democratic Party activists are vigorously seeking their party’s nomination.

The three, all from their party’s ideological mainstream, are Jonathan S. Fuhrman, a Pasadena food company executive; Daniel I. Hurst, a Pasadena computer consultant, and John Vollbrecht, an Eagle Rock general contractor.

Although Fuhrman has been an activist in Pasadena Democratic politics for nearly two decades, neither he nor Hurst has run for office before. Vollbrecht was the Democratic nominee for the Assembly in 1984, 1986 and 1988 in the old 41st District, losing each time to Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale).

In the early stages of the donnybrook among Republicans, much of the fire was focused on Hoge, who has been crowned front-runner by many because of a huge fund-raising lead and his endorsement by Nolan and Richard L. Mountjoy (R-Monrovia), the two incumbents who chose to run in adjacent districts even though each now represents part of the new 44th.

Prentiss especially has unleashed his fury against Hoge, saying he secured the endorsements by promising to vote with the two in expected leadership fights in Sacramento--a charge that Nolan and Mountjoy deny.

“It’s the sort of deal that represents everything that’s bad about American politics,” Prentiss said.

Pieper, who also has taken a few potshots at Hoge as the “incumbents’ candidate in a year when incumbency is out of favor,” suggested that Prentiss’ fury stems from the rivalry between the two for archconservative votes.

Indeed, at candidate forums, the two seldom differ on issues. They oppose abortion rights, government-run health insurance and taxpayer-funded political campaigns and favor relaxation of clean air rules.

Prentiss bills himself as the “conservative law enforcement candidate for family values.”

Hoge has emphasized slashing state spending and halting illegal immigration, saying that if the flow is not halted, “illegal aliens will dominate public budgets.”

On most issues, Begley, Bell and Oltman also advocate conservative positions.

By contrast, Acker, Pieper and Smith depart regularly from conservative doctrine.

Pieper, Smith and Choi are the only candidates to advocate abortion rights, a position that puts them at odds with most of their party’s national leadership, including President Bush.

Unlike most of their fellow Republican candidates, Acker and Pieper oppose any easing of clean air rules and oppose offshore oil drilling.

Pieper said her campaign is stressing that she is “pro-choice, concerned about education issues and women’s issues.”

“I guess that qualifies me as a moderate Republican in the eyes of many,” she said.

Smith and Pieper are former Democrats who say they changed their party affiliation after becoming disillusioned with relying on the government to solve social and economic problems.

“I learned over time that there was another way, a better way,” than enlarging government at all levels, Smith said.

The ideological gap among the candidates was stark at a recent forum when they were asked to rate, from 1 to 10, the first two years of state leadership by Wilson, who has alienated many conservatives in his party by supporting tax increases.

Hoge rated the governor “a 0 on the budget” and a 3 on other issues. Prentiss gave him a “1 or a 2.” Acker was more generous than his conservative rivals and Pieper topped all the others by rating Wilson a “6 to 7.”

But many suggest that campaign financing, not ideology, could be a more important factor in determining who wins the primary.

In campaign reports filed five weeks ago, Hoge reported raising $74,000 through March 17; Acker had collected $40,000, about half from his own law firm, and Pieper reported collecting $28,000.

Prentiss accused Hoge, who hopes to raise $300,000 in the primary, of “trying to buy the election.”

Pieper, who is aiming to raise $100,000 by the primary, said she is undaunted by Hoge’s spending plans.

“He has never held office before, so he starts out with that disadvantage,” she said.

By comparison with their free-spending Republican rivals, Democrats are running low-budget primary campaigns.

Fuhrman, the food company executive, said he hopes to raise $15,000 by June 2; Vollbrecht, the contractor, set his goal at $10,000, and computer consultant Hurst is aiming to collect $5,000.

The philosophical differences among the Democratic candidates are minimal, according to interviews and the answers the three provided on questionnaires filled out for The Times.

All three endorse mainstream Democratic positions and oppose offshore oil drilling and any rollback of clean air regulations; they support taxpayer-funded political campaigns and unrestricted abortion rights during the first three months of pregnancy.

But as befits Democrats running in a conservative area, all three support capital punishment.

Fuhrman and Hurst oppose Wilson’s proposed 15% cut in welfare payments, but Vollbrecht said he would support the plan “if it will spring people from the trap of the welfare treadmill.”

But even though they’re ideologically close, the three have been caught up in a dispute over the appropriate role of professional political consultants in local campaigns. One side of the dispute, favored by Fuhrman, places a high value on professional managers in campaigns; the other side, which has been led by Vollbrecht, believes that campaigns ought to rely on volunteers. Hurst said he was neutral in the dispute.

Fuhrman and Vollbrecht have also gravitated to opposite sides in the long-running struggle for leadership of Los Angeles County’s Latino Democrats.

Fuhrman is endorsed by Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, while Vollbrecht has the support of Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre.