CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : U.S. SENATE : Heat From Riots Cools in the Campaign

Speaking from behind the pulpit of the First African Methodist Church in South-Central Los Angeles, U.S. Senate candidate Barbara Boxer adjusted her cadence to the rhythm of the vamping church organ.

“When people have no hope, when people have no dreams, when people have no stake in the society in which they live, they’re not connected to it,” intoned the Democratic congresswoman from Marin County to several hundred parishioners at last Sunday’s midday service.

Yet six months after Los Angeles’ inner-city neighborhoods burst into flames, California’s dual Senate campaigns are making few direct connections to the problems of urban Los Angeles.

Conservative Republican Bruce Herschensohn, who lashed out at the rioters by calling them rotten individuals, has made no political appearances in the riot zones this fall. Not that it would be out of his way.

“He lives just four blocks from where the rioting was occurring and drives through there numerous times, almost on a daily basis,” said Sharon Tetrault, Herschensohn’s deputy press secretary.

Political observers say the minimal discussion of the city’s unrest and its repercussions in campaign debates, advertising and all but a handful of public appearances mirrors a similar trend in presidential politics this year. With both major parties scouring the suburbs for votes, experts say, little attention is being paid to the inner city.

“When you reach out to the suburbs, you have to mute your rhetoric concerning urban politics and policy,” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a Claremont Graduate School political scientist. “The suburban voter is the archetypal taxpayer who doesn’t want taxes paid to pay for programs that don’t help them.”

But in doing so, the Senate candidates have forsaken a historic chance to help forge a dialogue between city dwellers and suburbanites, Los Angeles attorney Cynthia McClain-Hill said.

“In the wake of the civil unrest you had people really concerned with how to keep the flames from burning again,” said McClain-Hill, who publishes a quarterly political newsletter aimed at young black professionals. “By failing to take advantage of that window of opportunity, I think they made an incredible mistake.”

Over the years, Democrats have made the strongest appeals to minorities and poor people living in the inner city, by visiting those areas, maintaining political alliances with community leaders and promoting programs designed to improve living conditions.

But community leaders have complained that even as Republicans often have ignored their political desires and demands, Democrats have taken their votes for granted.

At this point, said Cal State L.A. political science professor Jaime A. Regalado, inner-city residents remain cynical about Establishment politics.

“Politicians have historically taken them for granted. When there’s a devastating fire or earthquake or insurrection, all of a sudden, the inner city will be paid attention to. But not sustained attention.”

Last week, Boxer rode a Blue Line train between Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles to demonstrate her support for urban transit. But as she roamed the aisles chatting with riders--most of them minorities--and soliciting their support, one was overheard to say: “The only time they get on the train is when they want something.”

In spite of California’s massive increase in minority population--from 33% to 45% during the 1980s--the electorate remains overwhelmingly Anglo. The Field Institute, directed by veteran California pollster Mervin Field, reported this week that white non-Hispanics accounted for 81% of all votes cast in the June primary.

But minority groups remain an important constituency to Democrats. Their support is vital in any close statewide contest, such as this year’s Boxer-Herschensohn race.

Bebitch Jeffe said: “In the end, the race will come out to turnout. And turnout for the Democrats means turnout of their traditional Democratic constituencies.”

The Reagan and Bush administrations, and the lack of federal money, put an end to most of the remaining Great Society programs during the 1980s. But the spring riots in Los Angeles seemed to spark--for a time at least--a revival of interest in urban problems.

The most stark contrast in urban strategies can be seen in the race between Boxer and Herschensohn, who stand virtually tied in the polls.

After the rioting, Herschensohn, the former TV commentator, railed against “quick fix” federal aid, contending that there was no underlying cause to the riots that could be cured by government programs.

“The underlying cause for burning, looting, stealing and murder is that some people are rotten,” he said in a May news conference.

Herschensohn also said it is a mistake for the federal government to support urban transit, such as Los Angeles County’s Metro Rail system, which is being built with federal and local funds.

“I don’t want some poor guy in West Virginia, who works in a coal mine, to chip in for a subway he’ll never see,” Herschensohn has said.

The other three major party senatorial candidates for the two seats at stake in 1992 all generally have supported federal transit aid.

And Boxer has urged that funds saved through defense budget cuts be used for programs such as prenatal care, nutrition and Head Start programs for children, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation for adults.

The candidates for the two-year Senate seat, Democrat Dianne Feinstein and incumbent Republican John Seymour, have made a handful of trips to riot-torn Los Angeles neighborhoods.

One of Seymour’s visits was a drive-through tour of gang-troubled neighborhoods with Los Angeles police and sheriff’s deputies. A Seymour spokesman said he also has met with leaders of South-Central community organizations on his proposal to provide $30 million in federal grants to educational and community groups fighting gangs.

Seymour voted in favor of the $28-billion tax relief and urban aid legislation that President Bush has announced he will veto. The plan, the major urban aid initiative to emerge after the Los Angeles riots, would include the creation of 50 “tax enterprise zones” designed to encourage firms to create jobs in poor neighborhoods around the nation.

Feinstein, who often cites her experience as mayor of San Francisco, has supported enterprise zones with larger federal tax breaks for businesses that hire at least 50% of their work force from within the zones.

Feinstein has visited riot areas to call for swifter disbursement of Federal Emergency Management Agency loans to victims of the unrest and to urge parishioners at churches, including First AME, to vote Tuesday.

“God knows in this country we need a change,” she declared from the church pulpit last week. “We must rebuild our inner cities.”