Antonovich Faces Power of 6 Foes in County Race : Politics: Candidates for 5th District seat attack incumbent as pro-development and anti-environment. Pooled strength could force supervisor into a runoff.

One of Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s opponents professes outrage at his quip about a “hot flash”--directed at the only woman on the board. Two other challengers rail against board perks such as bulletproof cars and catered lunches.

Another pair of opponents blasts the incumbent as pro-development and anti-environment. And the sixth says Antonovich hasn’t done enough to fix the crowded conditions and lengthy waits at county hospitals.

Yet the real threat to the three-term incumbent comes not from the content of such attacks, but from the sheer size of the field arrayed against him. A few political strategists believe the challengers’ combined strength in the June 2 primary could force Antonovich into a November runoff.

“If there’s enough negative reaction to the board, they could easily force him into a runoff,” Democratic consultant Marc Litchman said. “But then what have you got? He’s still going to be very hard to beat in November.”

Antonovich--who was forced into a runoff under similar circumstances in 1988--acknowledges that the nationwide backlash against incumbents and disclosures about the board’s spending practices could hurt him this time around.

But he noted: “The failure of my opponents to ignite a spark of interest among the voters has been very encouraging. They haven’t been able to mount a broad-based campaign.”

Indeed, only one of the six 5th District challengers enjoys any significant name recognition--Pasadena City Councilman William Paparian. Paparian, 43, received widespread media attention in December when he asked that some county sheriff’s deputies be barred from working at the Rose Parade because they were being investigated for alleged participation in a neo-Nazi group.

But political scientists and consultants suggest that the incident--which ended with Pasadena’s mayor apologizing to Sheriff Sherman Block--may not play well in the predominantly conservative 5th District. And at last count, in March, Antonovich had outstripped Paparian in fund raising 15-to-1 in the two preceding months alone. That, combined with leftover contributions from previous years, gave Antonovich nearly $1 million to spend on his campaign.

Candidate Lynne Plambeck--a Santa Clarita environmentalist who originally planned to stay on the sidelines to help other challengers whittle away at the incumbent’s support--said she jumped into the race because no better-known opponents could be persuaded to confront Antonovich’s financial prowess.

“We were looking for a big candidate that would really pull the votes in,” said Plambeck, 41, who owns a small business in Burbank. “But they weren’t interested due to the enormity of his campaign funds.”

In addition, only Antonovich and Paparian have candidate statements printed in the sample ballot because none of the others could afford--or were willing to pay--the $15,500 fee charged by the county registrar-recorder for printing and mailing.

Candidate Craig Freis, a tax-reduction advocate who lives in the back of his Glendale bookstore, has made his inability to afford the 200-word statement a campaign issue, even pursuing an unsuccessful lawsuit aimed at making statements free for all candidates.

“The filing fee is akin to a poll tax,” said Freis, 47. “It’s a tax on the candidate and it also hurts the voters.”

To win outright in June, Antonovich needs a simple majority. Even if he falls short in June, however, few political observers believe he could be unseated in November.

All of the opponents concede that winning the race is a long shot, particularly for those who are Democrats--Plambeck, Freis, feminist attorney Margalo Ashley-Farrand, 47, and waste management specialist Shereef Aref, 27. Even Los Angeles City paramedic Jim Mihalka, 33, and Paparian--both registered Republicans--may be too liberal for the district, political observers say.

New district boundaries drawn in 1990 as part of a court ruling regarding Latino voting rights are expected to give Antonovich, a conservative and registered Republican, an even greater edge in the nonpartisan race.

The new 5th District is 49% Republican and 40% Democratic, taking on more of the conservative eastern San Gabriel Valley and shedding areas of the southwest San Fernando Valley, where some of the greatest opposition to Antonovich’s development philosophy lay. It still includes all of the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys and the northern rim of the San Fernando Valley.

Opponents expressed frustration that Antonovich, 52, so far has forsaken candidate forums and challenges, such as Plambeck’s invitation to join her in a five-mile run followed by a discussion of environmental issues.

“I have other commitments,” he said, explaining that, for instance, on Monday, when a Pasadena candidates forum is scheduled, he will be honoring a group of Eagle Scouts.

Antonovich is campaigning as only incumbents can, giving speeches at civic events and holding news conferences around the county. A veritable avalanche of news releases documenting virtually every action by the supervisor has poured out of his office in recent weeks.

“He is campaigning hard, but he’s doing that by running on his record, which is understandable,” said Alma Fitch, a city and county lobbyist. “The other candidates have to have forums because they need to get people to know what they are all about.”

A mailer entitled “Mike Antonovich Report to the People,” mailed to all district households in April, detailed a traffic signal synchronization program that he initiated in the county four years ago and scholarships for student nurses, which he suggested last year. Nowhere did it mention his reelection bid.

Antonovich has received endorsements from numerous law enforcement groups, including the Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs Assn., and from the Los Angeles County Young Republicans.

Meanwhile, only a few of his opponents have managed to tally up significant lists of endorsements. The others have been left to meet potential voters where they can: in shopping malls, at public meetings, in private homes.

Paparian has received endorsements from the Sierra Club and from Pasadena Mayor Rick Cole. Plambeck also has a Sierra Club endorsement and one from the Audubon Society. Ashley-Farrand is supported by the National Organization for Women.

Freis and Mihalka said most of their backing comes from individuals they have met at various functions.

Aref is the only candidate who has not really begun campaigning. Initially, both he and his brother took out papers for the race, but only Aref filed. He said he has not yet finalized his positions on issues.

Although they come from various points along the political spectrum, from liberal to conservative, the candidates challenging Antonovich agree more than they differ.

All six said development should be slowed in the district and allege that Antonovich’s environmental awareness only surfaces in election years.

In the past year, Antonovich has voted against expansion of Sunshine Canyon Landfill and he asked the board to reconsider approval of a water supply system for the proposed 7,200-house Ritter Ranch development near Palmdale after he learned that no environmental impact report had been done.

But environmentalists have repeatedly criticized him in the past for voting in favor of such large developments as the 550-house Baldwin Co. project in the Santa Monica Mountains, which will be built on part of a county-designated significant ecological area.

Antonovich responded that he has “always been a conservationist, but you have to balance conservation with property rights.”

The six challengers all say that the local economy, devastated by the departure of the aerospace industry, should be improved through such measures as tax breaks for small businesses.

Antonovich said aerospace and other businesses would stay if workers’ compensation rules are reformed and air quality regulations are scaled back.

“There are ways of cleaning up our air without affecting our jobs,” he said, mentioning in particular his dream of establishing a monorail transportation system along freeways.

The opponents also support campaign finance and board ethics reforms and expansion of the Board of Supervisors from five members to either seven or nine.

Antonovich says expansion will add bureaucracy, confusion and costs and that campaign contribution limits only help incumbents.

Five of the challengers say that County Administrative Officer Richard Dixon should be fired for decisions such as including fringe benefits in county pensions, which already have cost the county an estimated $265 million. Only Aref said he was not “ready to release” his position on Dixon yet.

Antonovich has repeatedly defended Dixon in board meetings during discussion of pension hikes and other issues and said he thought that much of the criticism was unfair and inaccurate.

Although the six challengers share many stands, each also has some unique ideas about how to heal the county’s ills:

* Ashley-Farrand, 47, is a native New Yorker who returned to school after raising her children. She received a law degree when she was 36. She came to Glendale in 1984 and practices family, bankruptcy and consumer law.

Involved in other people’s campaigns for years, Ashley-Farrand decided to launch her own campaign after Antonovich responded to one of Supervisor Gloria Molina’s suggestions concerning budget adjustments with the statement: “What are you going to tell people? ‘You’re going to have your budget raided sometime in the year, when someone has a hot flash.’ ”

She said development, particularly in the far-flung areas of the county such as the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys, should be clustered in livable, small-town-like configurations and developers required to create a traditional Main Street, schools, businesses and child care.

* Aref, 27, was graduated from Fairfax High School and received a medical degree in Egypt. When he returned to Los Angeles in 1990, he said he was shocked by how the county had changed for the worse.

He now works for the year-old California Environmental Protection Agency and said the county Regional Planning Department should be combined with the environmental health division of the county Department of Health Services, to ensure that planning decisions include a complete review of impacts on the environment. Aref, a Burbank resident, also said he wants to address inequities in the health care system, although he was vague on what those inequities might be.

* Freis, 47, has moved at least eight times since 1985, according to voter registration records, and now lives in the back of his Glendale bookstore, where he said he moved last year to protect the store after it was vandalized.

That transiency improves his ability to relate to all the people of the county, he said.

Freis has a real estate license, but said most of his income comes from the bookstore and from his 900 number that provides tax reduction information.

Of all the Antonovich challengers, Freis goes the furthest in supporting ethics reforms. He said supervisors should not only be barred from receiving campaign contributions, but should receive no pay, because “public office is something people ought to do just because it’s the right thing to do.”

* Mihalka, 33, of Glendora has made two previous unsuccessful bids for a supervisorial seat.

Mihalka said the county should force the federal government to foot the bill for health care. As a city paramedic, he is stationed in South Los Angeles and said he is appalled when patients he takes to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center have to “wait on gurneys in hallways for an hour or more.”

He also says medical charges for patients injured in crimes should be billed to criminals when they are arrested.

* Paparian, 43, went to Van Nuys High School and received a theater arts degree from Cal State Northridge. He later went to law school and in 1980 began practicing personal-injury law in Pasadena.

Paparian beat a three-term incumbent for a seat on the Pasadena City Council in 1987 and has been outspoken in that post, even suing his own city when he believed it had violated public meeting laws. He says he would not be afraid to take the same approach as a county supervisor.

Paparian said he would like to see the county hire an environmental coordinator who would help all departments improve their environmental programs, promoting more aggressive recycling, water conservation and reforestation.

* Plambeck, 41, grew up in the San Fernando Valley and moved to Santa Clarita in 1976 in search of cleaner air and better schools for her stepson.

“It’s changed,” she said. “There’s no more clean air and the schools are overcrowded.”

She owns a film business started by her grandfather in Burbank, and she has been deeply involved in the region’s slow-growth movement and in environmental groups, including the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment.

Instead of expanding existing trash dumps and building a new one, as proposed, in Elsmere Canyon near Santa Clarita, Plambeck believes the county should turn its attention toward an aggressive recycling and waste reduction program.

Supervisorial District 5

Overview: Incumbent Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich is facing six opponents in the district, which was redrawn last year to exclude most of his traditional support base in the San Fernando Valley. Issues raised so far by Antonovich’s opponents have included the need for better protection of the environment and for campaign and ethics reforms for the County Board of Supervisors.

Where: The newly drawn district includes the communities of Acton, Agua Dulce, Burbank, Castaic, Glendale, Gorman, Green Valley, La Canada Flintridge, Lake Hughes, Lancaster, Littlerock, Leona Valley, Mission Hills, Palmdale, Pearblossom, Quartz Hill, Saugus, Santa Clarita and Val Verde, and portions of Canoga Park, Chatsworth and Northridge. It also includes the San Gabriel Valley cities of Arcadia, Alhambra, Bradbury, Duarte, Monrovia, San Gabriel, San Marino and Sierra Madre. To find out if you live in the district, call the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder’s office at (213) 721-1100.

Demographics Anglo: 62% Latino: 21% Black: 5% Asian: 12%

Party Registration Demo: 40% GOP: 49% Others: 11%

Candidates: Michael D. Antonovich, supervisor Shereef K. Aref, hazardous materials specialist Margalo Ashley-Farrand, attorney-mediator Craig Freis, tax reduction organizer Jim Mihalka, paramedic, businessman William M. Paparian, Pasadena city councilman Lynne A. Plambeck, business owner