ELECTIONS / 41st ASSEMBLY DISTRICT : GOP Candidates Focus on Partisan Issues, Say Little About Civil Unrest

When 41st Assembly candidate Stu Stitch said crime was a key issue in the district, he wasn’t talking about the riot-torn streets of Los Angeles, but about what happened a few days ago at his family’s Malibu home.

Stitch told an audience of Santa Monica Republicans this week about a burglar who confronted his mother at the bedroom table where she keeps her jewelry.

Luckily, her jewels were not lying out, Stitch said. “This stranger was trying to violate our privacy by taking our stuff.”

Less than two weeks after the worst riots in modern American history, the five candidates running in the Republican primary for the newly drawn Westside Assembly seat are remarkably silent on the subject of the upheaval and its aftermath--at least when talking to each other.

Except for Stitch, who said one of the lessons of the riots is that everyone should have easy access to a gun for self-protection, the destruction drew only passing references in Assembly candidates’ presentations at a forum last week sponsored by the Santa Monica Republican Club.

The name of Ronald Reagan was mentioned with reverence. Rodney G. King’s name didn’t come up.

The new 41st District stretches from Santa Monica to Agoura. Voter registration is close enough so that either party could prevail in November.

The winner of the Republican primary June 2 will face Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles), who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. Friedman is the sponsor of the gay rights bill vetoed last year by Gov. Pete Wilson. Libertarian Roy A. Sykes Jr. is also on the ballot.

The Republican candidates are retired engineer and community college trustee Fred Beteta, accounting professor Paul Foote, attorney Scott Meehan, former Santa Monica Councilwoman Christine Reed and Stitch, a businessman and recent USC graduate.

Reed has the edge in fund raising, which has allowed her to hire political consultants to map strategy and send out mail. Though she describes herself as a law-and-order Republican, Reed’s opponents complain she is too liberal to pass the “real” Republican litmus test.

Beteta in particular has hammered away at Reed, criticizing her for not supporting Reagan in 1980 and accusing her of being compromised by the money she is raising from Santa Monica residents, a community well-known for its liberal politics.

“Mrs. Reed is very comfortable with the left fringe and they are very comfortable with her,” Beteta said.

He also criticized Reed’s position on social issues, such as her support for a statewide measure to protect gay and lesbian rights. “I’m not about to give homosexuals or bisexuals a special protection as legitimate minorities based on their sexual preference,” Beteta said.

In their presentations Monday night, the candidates stuck to bread-and-butter Republican issues and partisanship prevailed. “I’m running because I’m so darned tired of Willie Brown and the Democrats,” Reed said.

Candidates emphasized jump-starting the economy by easing regulations on business and reform--of the welfare system, the education system and the state’s worker’s compensation system.

“The challenge of society is met when children are given their moral compass,” said Beteta, who lost a bid to unseat Assemblyman Tom Hayden in 1990.

Meehan drew scattered applause from the crowd when he said, “Unlike Christine Reed, I don’t believe illegal aliens are entitled to a free education in grade school or high school.”

Prisons were on Stitch’s mind. In particular, he questioned some of the amenities enjoyed by inmates serving sentences for violent crimes.

“Why do they get to watch TV on nice big color sets?” he said. “They get to work out on their free time after committing violent crimes against us. They shouldn’t have that either.”

The lack of mention of the riots, and what should be done about them, follows a prediction from the candidates last week. They said the riots would not significantly affect their race, just as the district was barely touched by the violence.

Foote, for example, said he was inclined to let Democratic politicians, analysts and social scientists grapple with understanding the underlying cause of the riots. The people who live in his part of the district--Agoura, Calabasas and Westlake Village--are looking at the matter differently, he said in an interview. They are not discussing the justice of the verdict in the King police-beating trial, but the lawlessness that followed, Foote said.

“You want to talk about excessive force. Let’s talk about the 58 killed,” Foote said. “We’re looking at the victims. I’m not looking to rationalize the behavior of thugs.”

Reed said that when she was campaigning in Agoura on the Sunday after the riots broke out, she received more comments about law and order and the availability of guns than usual, but “it was not overwhelming. Education is still the No. 1 issue. Crime moved up to second.”

Reed recently received a formal endorsement from former Los Angeles Police Chief Ed Davis, now a Republican state senator from Santa Clarita, but she said she has avoided linking the endorsement with the riots. She said she thought it would look “phony” to try to capitalize on a deep tragedy for political gain.

Meehan said he thought the riots would highlight crime as an issue but not greatly affect the primary. At the forum, he recommended giving tax breaks to businesses to lure jobs to the inner cities and deporting illegal immigrants convicted of felonies so they can serve their prison sentence in their country of origin.

Assembly District 41

Overview: For the next decade, upscale communities in western Los Angeles County from Westlake Village to Santa Monica will share a legislator in the newly drawn district. The 41st appears to be a swing district, with Democrats outnumbering Republicans. Democratic Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman is running in what is mostly a new district for him. Five Republicans are competing for the right to face him in November.

Where: The district includes Agoura, Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Malibu, Topanga and Westlake Village, and portions of Canoga Park, Chatsworth, Santa Monica, Tarzana and West Hills. to find out if you live in the district, call the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder’s office at (213) 721-1100.

Demographics Anglo: 82% Latino: 10% Black: 2% Asian: 6%

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

Candidates: Democrat Terry B. Friedman, assemblyman Libertarian Roy A. Sykes Jr., business owner Republican Fred Beteta, retired engineer Paul Foote, professor, business consultant Scott Meehan, attorney, lecturer Christine Reed, board member, Metropolitan Water District Stefan (Stu) Stitch, businessman