ELECTIONS / 36TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT : War of the Faxes Is Dividing 8 GOP Candidates Along Economic Lines

The campaign for the Republican nomination to represent the newly drawn 36th Assembly District is becoming the war of the faxes, with messages from the leading candidates furiously zipping over telephone lines to newspapers, campaign organizers and civic and political groups.

Zip: an endorsement. Zap: a candidate forum. Zip: a fund-raising banquet.

The faxes reflect a key division between the eight Republican candidates, the ones who really count in this conservative district in the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys. The fax storms are generated by the four with the financial base needed to mount a high-tech campaign, leaving behind the four poorer candidates.

Not that the main fax producers really lack exposure. Even without such a publicity blitz, the best-financed four already are well-known in large swaths of the district.

There is no incumbent because the district was quilted together from fragments of several other districts based on population growth in the region, making it one of the most competitive--and expensive--state Assembly races. Based on the candidates’ own estimates, at least $700,000 will be spent before the June primary. The most expensive Assembly contest in northern Los Angeles County in 1990, between Hunt Braly and Assemblywoman Cathie Wright, cost about $672,000.

In the 36th District race this year, Braly, district chief of staff to state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita), took an early lead in fund raising, including a $10,000 donation from Davis. In his 1990 bid for the seat representing the 37th Assembly District, which then included part of Santa Clarita, Braly gained 41% of the vote against incumbent Wright.

The other prominent candidates are William (Pete) Knight, an eight-year member of the Palmdale City Council and mayor until recently; Forrest McElroy, superintendent of Palmdale elementary schools for the past decade, and John Drew, College of the Canyons instructor and chairman of the Santa Clarita slow-growth movement.

Political consultants say one of the Republicans is certain to win the conservative district in November, when the GOP choice will face Democrat Arnie Rodio, a Lancaster city councilman, and Libertarian Ronald Tisbert, a Palmdale businessman. The district is 54% Republican and 34% Democrat, according to the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder.

But the June primary, experts say, is a relatively wide-open race, largely because of the geographic split in the district--between Santa Clarita, where Braly is expected to be the front-runner trailed by Drew, and the Antelope Valley, where Knight and McElroy are expected to run neck and neck.

Key issues emerging in the campaign vary slightly from those that dominate politics in the Los Angeles Basin, both because the district includes the last major expanses of undeveloped land in the county and because the recession slowed the boom-town growth that dominated the 1980s in the area.

All eight Republicans talk about ways to combat the exodus of aerospace firms from the Antelope Valley and how to fill the void left behind. Most are pro-growth, in varying degrees.

Earlier in the campaign, the less well-known candidates bragged of their lack of funds, which they said proved they were not indebted to anyone. Now, as the difficulty of trying to reach such a vast district without the aid of fax machines or prolific press release writers becomes apparent, frustration dominates their conversations.

“Money is the mother’s milk of politics and you need a whole herd of cattle,” said candidate Keith Davis, a retired county probation officer and private investigator from Palmdale. “It’s kind of a farce, really . . . Hunt Braly is having a $125-a-plate dinner; my idea of campaigning is ‘come over to the local pub and buy your own drinks.’ ”

Braly, who expects to raise $500,000 for the campaign, is able to afford numerous professional mailers, including a fortuitous appeal from a law enforcement organization. That appeal, sent to absentee voters weeks before the L.A. riots, stated: “If you’re tired of being afraid. If you’re angry about crime. If you want to fight back. Join me in support of Republican Hunt Braly for State Assembly.”

At the other end of the financial spectrum, Rockwell aircraft mechanic Richard Irmer is limited to hand-stenciling his own signs. He is angry that none of his ideas--including establishing a voluntary state social security program--have made the local papers.

“It seems like everytime you do something or speak somewhere, the front-runners always get printed up,” he said. “Even . . . those of us who don’t have a chance might have an idea that the top candidates can use, so we should have a chance to express ourselves.”

Commercial airplane mechanic Sandra F. Tulley, a member of the newly formed Antelope Acres Town Council, and the race’s most conservative candidate, Hughes Aircraft Co. buyer Kurt Boese of Canyon Country, are similarly underfunded.

Even Drew, the political science professor, says he has reconsidered his past staunch opposition to campaign finance limits, based largely on what he has learned from running in the Assembly race. He has raised just $15,000, he said, while Knight and McElroy expect to raise $100,000 and $75,000, respectively.

“I think I was kind of naive. I’m ashamed to say it, because I’ve been teaching this stuff for a long time,” Drew said. “With $15,000, the question is whether I can even get my message out.”

In most cases the candidates agree more than they disagree. The candidates all say that statewide reform of workers’ compensation and lower taxes would help retain and attract businesses. They also blame strict air quality regulations for chasing industry out of state, and most say that the Antelope Valley should be controlled by its own air quality management district because its air is far cleaner than that of Los Angeles.

“To tie the Antelope Valley in with the Los Angeles Basin is wrong,” Davis said. “We’re a different region, with prevailing winds. The only smog problem we have is what blows over the hill from L.A.”

Knight went the furthest of all the candidates in calling for loosening of air quality and other environmental regulations.

“If you’re going to spend $1,000 per butterfly to save them, people should know that,” he said. “Species have been disappearing from the earth for milleniums.”

On future development, most of the candidates consider themselves pro-growth, with a few, including McElroy and Braly, preaching growth with caution. Davis says development should be slowed some and Drew says it should be slowed significantly, even though Santa Clarita voters rejected that message last month when they voted down the slow-growth initiative that he helped write.

Drew blames the initiative’s failure largely on the well-financed opposition, funded mostly by developers, not on a lack of support for the concept of slow growth. But he has apologized for his participation in the measure through calls to supporters and opponents and in a letter to the newspaper, the Newhall Signal.

The only recurring spat during candidate forums has been Drew’s attack on Braly for accepting campaign contributions from developers. Although Braly acknowledges that he has received money from developers--including some from Santa Clarita mega-developer Newhall Land & Farming--he bristles at the allegation that the money has affected his views.

“When you get over 400 people to give you money, you’re not tied to anybody,” Braly said, adding that Drew received most of his support from the savings and loan industry.

Braly, in turn, criticizes Drew for being the only candidate running a negative campaign, saying candidates should run on the issues. Yet, critics point out that Braly himself adopted a similarly critical stance when he ran against Wright, frequently mentioning her attempts to intercede with police and judges on behalf of her daughter, who had lost her driver’s license after accumulating at least 27 traffic tickets.

* Q&A;: B6