11 ‘Others’ in Contest Fight Uphill Battle

One is a real estate developer who campaigns throughout the district in a Rolls-Royce. Another is a struggling actor who has had non-speaking roles as a juror on “Equal Justice” and as an alien on “Star Trek, the Next Generation.”

Their comrades-in-campaigning include an engineer, a teacher and a Socialist Worker’s Party candidate.

They are the “other” candidates--11 contenders hoping somehow to grab voter attention from Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Diane Watson, front-runners in the 2nd Supervisorial District campaign.

They know they are underdogs but insist they are not tilting at windmills.

Conventional political wisdom holds that a candidate needs lots of money and name recognition to win in the 1.9 million resident district, bigger than the population of San Francisco.

Undeterred, the long shots are pinning their hopes on the belief that voters are tired of big-name politicians. This year, said candidate Dean Wetmore, “it’s better to be an unknown in the minds of the voters.”

Besides feeling neglected, the underdogs share a common belief that the political system is stacked against the little guy. They complain about having to pay $12,000 to include a 200-word statement in the sample ballot pamphlet sent to voters.

Teacher Louis Chitty, who dug into his pocket to pay $24,150 to have his statement printed in the English and Spanish pamphlets, said: “I am a big enough fool to believe that the honest, decent people out there are worth it.”

The Board of Supervisors could do away with the fee. But officials said it would cost taxpayers $2 1/2-million to publish the statements of all candidates in nonpartisan races in June.

Nonetheless, candidate Gil Smith said: “Elections should be conducted so a voter can evaluate all candidates. If only the wealthy can get in the ballot pamphlet, we no longer have a democracy.”

Smith is one of the few “other” candidates who is not a political novice. A former mayor of Carson and director of government and public affairs for the Southern California Assn. of Governments, he ran against Supervisor Kenneth Hahn in 1988 and finished second out of nine candidates with 4% of the vote.

Other candidates are Richard Atkins, the real estate developer with the Rolls who is also a three-time supervisorial candidate; actor Howard Sands, who boasts that, as a former welfare recipient he best understands the problems of the poor; Roye Love, a county welfare administrator; Clint Simmons, an engineer; Eli Green, Socialist Worker’s Party candidate; Rudolph Thompson, a manufacturer; Wetmore, a business consultant, and Chitty. David Sanchez, a college professor also on the ballot, has endorsed Burke.

As much as they are starved for attention, these candidates are not as bad off as Miriam Chudnovsky. As a write-in candidate, her name does not even appear on the ballot.