LOCAL ELECTION ROUNDUP : Despite ‘Liberal’ Tag, Reed Easily Wins GOP Race for Assembly

Former Santa Monica Councilwoman and Mayor Christine Reed, outdistancing a field of men who had challenged her as too liberal, won the Republican nomination for the 41st Assembly District.

In another hotly contested Republican Assembly primary down the coast, conservative Brad Parton, the mayor of Redondo Beach, was the surprisingly easy winner in a district that stretches from Venice to the South Bay. Parton, one of 13 Republican candidates handpicked for office by a statewide coalition of Christian fundamentalists, defeated five opponents in a battle for the conservative high ground in the 53rd Assembly District.

In the one contested Democratic Westside Assembly primary, Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles) easily won nomination in the 42nd District against a attorney and gay-rights activist John J. Duran. Margolin will face Republican businessman Robert K. Davis and minor party candidates in November is a district with strong Democratic demographics.

Reed’s victory in the 41st Republican primary puts her in a November contest with Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles), who is running in partly new territory for him. Friedman was unopposed in the Democratic primary in a district that extends from Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades across the mountains to Agoura Hills and Westlake Village.

The 41st is regarded as winnable by both parties, so Reed and Friedman are expected to have money and support in the general election.

Reed said she attributed her victory to name recognition as a longtime Santa Monica officeholder and to her environmental record in what is partly a coastal district. Her absentee voter strategy paid off. “My mail piece arrived when all absentee voters were making a decision,” she said.

Her opponents noted their gender disadvantage and a split of the conservative Republican vote. Four men running against a woman this year was going against the political tides, they said.

Reed won with slightly more than 32% of the vote. In second place with nearly 19% of the vote was political newcomer Stefan (Stu) Stitch, a recent USC graduate who was endorsed on at least two conservative Republican slate mailers.

“The woman thing that’s going on right now definitely was an advantage for Chris,” said Fred Beteta, who finished third.

Santa Monica attorney Scott Meehan, who had two districtwide mailers, won 17.1% of the vote, as did accounting professor Paul Foote. Meehan said he did well in precincts in the area near where he grew up in Agoura Hills and Westlake Village but was trounced by Reed in Santa Monica.

The 53rd Assembly District is widely viewed as a Republican-leaning district, and with no incumbent running it attracted a large field.

When the votes were counted, Parton, the most conservative of the Republicans, was the clear choice. Parton got nearly 34% of the votes, easily defeating former Torrance City Councilman Dan Walker, who finished second at 22%. Redondo Beach Councilwoman Barbara Doerr and Marina del Rey political consultant George R. Young came in third and fourth, with 17.2% and 16%, respectively.

Debra Bowen, a 36-year-old environmental lawyer, ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination and will face Parton in November.

Parton said he believes that Walker’s last-minute mailers, which attacked Parton for allegedly mixing his religious and political views, might have backfired. And he said the centrist positions taken by the other candidates allowed voters to see a clear distinction between him and the other candidates.

“I think (Walker’s) hit pieces against me came across as criticizing religion rather than attacking me,” a happy Parton said Wednesday. “Everybody ran aggressive campaigns, but I think some of the strategy misfired.”

Parton said it helped that Walker, Doerr and Young split so many votes between them, which he said could be attributed to the fact that they were all seen as political insiders at a time when anti-incumbency fever was sweeping the state.

“There is this anti-incumbency attitude out there, and even though I’ve been on the council for three years, I don’t think people viewed me as part of the system,” the 31-year-old Parton said.

As he waited with supporters at his campaign headquarters Tuesday night, Walker defended his use of negative mailers against Parton.

In the 47th Assembly District race, Assemblywoman Gwen Moore, who was unchallenged in the primary, will face Republican businessman Jonathan Leonard in November in an overwhelmingly Democratic district. Leonard beat Michael Quinn for the Republican nomination. Minor party candidates will also be on the ballot.

Staff writers Kenneth J. Garcia and Greg Krikorian contributed to this story.