Takasugi Poised to Move Into Assembly : Politics: The GOP’s 37th District nominee says he does not see himself as a representative of Asian-American interests.

Fifty years after his internment at a Japanese-American detention camp, Oxnard Mayor Nao Takasugi is poised to become the first Asian-American elected to the Legislature since 1978.

But Takasugi, 70, said he does not see himself as “a representative of Asian-American interests.”

“That would not be a true portrayal of my mission up there,” Takasugi said Wednesday. “I can’t even think of any Asian-American issues before the Legislature.”

Takasugi won a seven-candidate race Tuesday for the Republican nomination in the 37th Assembly District. In November, he is favored to defeat Democrat Roz McGrath in the Ventura County district, where Republicans hold a 47% to 41% advantage in voter registration.

Takasugi is seeking to replace conservative Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), who on Tuesday won the GOP nomination in the 24th Congressional District.

If he does go to Sacramento, Takasugi will take a reputation as a conciliator skilled at working with diverse interest groups. In his 16 years on the Oxnard City Council, he has established strong ties to developers, which donated heavily to his campaigns, and to Latinos, who make up about half of the city’s 142,000 residents.

“He is very quiet, very intelligent and very methodical,” Councilman Manuel Lopez said. “He is the opposite of someone who shoots from the hip.

“I would say some perceive this as a weakness--that he is too mild,” said Lopez, who added that he did not share that judgment.

Others marvel at Takasugi’s ability to play rough in his political campaigns without alienating voters.

Takasugi said Wednesday that he has no agenda to push if he wins the Assembly seat.

“I’m a real novice,” he said. “I don’t know how things work up there.”

A former grocery store owner with a master’s degree in business administration, Takasugi said he hopes to get committee assignments that would let him use his small business experience.

He favors abortion rights and said he generally agrees with Gov. Pete Wilson, who endorsed him in the Assembly race. Takasugi said he would deal with the state’s budget crisis by cutting spending rather than raising taxes.

As for being an Asian-American leader, Takasugi said he sees himself as a possible role model for other Asian-Americans. And he decried the fact that about 1 in 10 Californians are of Asian descent, but none now serve in the Legislature.

But he emphasized that he was born in Oxnard and speaks Spanish better than Japanese, and said his primary job would be to represent the district, which stretches from Oxnard to Thousand Oaks.

His family’s detention at an internment camp during World War II made him sensitive to discrimination and other issues facing minorities, Takasugi said.

“That experience 50 years ago doesn’t bother me, but it will always remain with me,” he said. “When I go to Sacramento, if I see anything that may be discriminatory based on sex, race or religion, I’m going to be sensitive to that.”

Takasugi was a 19-year-old business major at UCLA when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. Within months, he and his parents--who had lived in Oxnard for nearly 40 years--found themselves in Gila River, Ariz., at one of several camps where Japanese-Americans were housed during the war amid doubts about their patriotism.

With help from a Quaker-operated group, Takasugi obtained a security clearance that allowed him to complete his undergraduate studies at Temple University in Philadelphia. He then obtained an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

But he was unable to convert his prestigious diplomas into a suitable job, Takasugi said. “I had a degree in accounting, but none of the Big 8 (accounting firms) would put me on,” he said. “They’d say, ‘With that Asian face, we can’t put you in the field.’ ”

So he returned to Oxnard to work at the Asahi Market, which his father founded in 1909.

Takasugi became interested in politics in 1973 after tangling with the city’s bureaucracy over a sign at the market. He was appointed to the Planning Commission the following year, then won election to the City Council in 1976, the first of eight successful campaigns. He has been mayor since 1982.

“He has been able to raise a ton of money for every one of his campaigns,” Lopez said. “Fund raising is one of his greatest strengths.”

In the Assembly campaign, Takasugi raised about $150,000, including more than $20,000 from the California Medical Assn., $15,000 from real estate interests and more than $10,000 from law enforcement groups.

Critics say the city’s $5-million budget deficit is due in large part to Takasugi-supported deals through which the city gave up property taxes to lure developments. As a result, they say, the city cannot afford the extra police officers that it needs to deal with a crime rate that is the highest in Ventura County.

Takasugi has said the city’s problems stem from the national recession, not from deals that the City Council made. He said the city will be poised for dramatic gains in employment when the recession ends.

Whatever Takasugi’s faults, critics agree that his soft-spoken manner has allowed him to maintain a nice-guy image while playing political hardball. After an especially nasty 1990 campaign, most of the losers blamed the vitriol on Takasugi’s political consultant, not the mayor.

One of the defeated candidates, Councilwoman Dorothy Maron, said Wednesday that she has not forgiven Takasugi for distributing letters accusing her of violating the state’s open meeting law--charges that the district attorney decided were unfounded.

“What he did was reprehensible,” she said of Takasugi. “He would do anything to win.”

Takasugi refused to apologize for any of his tactics in that campaign. “All I was trying to do . . . was bring out the truth about my opponents,” he said at the time.

In any case, Maron agreed with characterizations of Takasugi as the “Teflon mayor,” a Ronald Reagan-like figure to whom criticism won’t stick.

“He’s very charming,” Maron said. “He just smiles, and people accept that.”