CAMPAIGN DATELINE / PAUL FELDMAN : If Feinstein Wins, She’ll Be at Head of Freshman Class

If Dianne Feinstein defeats incumbent John Seymour on Tuesday, she’ll start with one leg up on the rest of the incoming U.S. Senate class.

Feinstein would be sworn into office several weeks earlier than other freshmen senators because she is running in a special election to serve the final two years of the term that Pete Wilson won in 1988. Wilson, elected governor in 1990, appointed Seymour to hold the seat until Tuesday’s election.

Feinstein could take office shortly after the results of the voting are certified by the secretary of state’s office in mid-December, Senate legal authorities say. Other new senators will not begin their terms until the first week of January.

Feinstein’s seniority would give her an advantage in committee assignments and “give her a chance to get her programs moving and start pushing forward her proposals which, with her short term, are critical to begin,” says Feinstein spokesman Bill Chandler.

Voter Registration by Party

Since the 1988 presidential election, the percentages of Democratic and Republican voters in California have decreased somewhat, even though both major parties now have more registered voters. The largest increase in registration has come among voters who are independent or have declared as members of small parties.

1992 1990 1988 Total Registration 15,103,051 13,478,027 14,004,873 Democrats 7,441,528 6,671,747 7,052,368 % of Total 49.08 49.50 50.36 Republicans 5,593,847 5,290,202 5,406,127 % of Total 37.04 39.25 38.60 Others* 2,097,447 1,516,078 1,546,378 % of Total 13.88 11.25 11.04

* Includes American Independents, Greens (for 1992 only), Libertarians, Peace and Freedom members, those declining to state a party and those registering with unqualified parties.

Source: Statement of Vote Reports, 1988, 1990, secretary of state’s office, Sacramento.

Compiled by Times researcher Tracy Thomas

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No notes or no notes: It was the type of political publicity that most candidates would die for--the Democratic U.S. Senate hopefuls feted by many of the most popular stars of screen and music at a Hollywood fund-raiser nine days before the vote.

Instead, the garden party turned into a non-story because the media was ejected on orders of featured entertainers Bonnie Raitt and Don Henley after brief speeches by the candidates.

Henley, according to his longtime manager and adviser, Irving Azoff, did not want audio of his performance to appear on TV because he was concerned that the acoustics might not do justice to his voice. “He didn’t do a sound check or anything,” the former MCA music entertainment group chairman said of the ex-Eagle. “He didn’t want to turn on the nightly news and have his fans hear him not sing well.”

Raitt, whose longtime manager, Danny Goldberg, is a leading 1st Amendment advocate as chairman of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, said her concerns included the fact that unfamiliar news reporters would be in the 600-person audience. “I mean, I don’t even know who is covering this thing,” Raitt, a frequent participant in benefits for socially conscious causes, told a Times reporter. “What if there are people who write untrue stories about friends of mine?”

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Measuring up: Few celebrities have been trotted out this fall in ads for state candidates and ballot measures.

But that hasn’t prevented opponents of Propositions 166 and 167, the state health care and taxing initiatives, from seeking support in locales where voters are most likely to view celebrities--on the screens of California movie theaters.

In recent weeks, ads against the two ballot measures have been run amid the previews of coming attractions. In some theaters they have prompted hissing and have been pulled, according to National Assn. of Theatre Owners state chapter President Tim Warner. “But they’re not being terminated every place,” Warner said.

The group has urged its members to screen the ads, Warner said, because “166 and 167 would have a tremendous impact on any business, and of course, a theatrical exhibition is a business.”

It’s not the first time that California theater owners have entered the political realm. Nearly 60 years ago, when muckraking novelist Upton Sinclair ran for governor, theaters barraged their patrons with Hollywood studio-prepared pseudo-newsreels linking Sinclair with radicals and hobos (who were actually played by actors).

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More measures: Proponents of Proposition 163, calling for repeal of the snack tax, have also found an innovative advertising forum--the sides of grocery bags distributed in major supermarkets.

It makes you wonder what’s next. Proposition 161 “physician-assisted death” ads in funeral parlors?

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Polling places: Absentee voting is soaring in popularity in California. But Los Angeles County voters who have tossed their completed ballots in the mailbox will miss out on a slew of quirky voting locales Tuesday.

The county’s 6,098 polling places include new car dealerships in Culver City and an auto repair center in Inglewood, a pool supply shop in Burbank and a swim club in Malibu, a steakhouse in Marina del Rey and a beauty salon on Melrose Avenue.

Also on the list are the Metaphysical and Self-Awareness Foundation in North Hollywood and the La-Z-Boy Showcase Shoppe in Glendale.

La-Z-Boy manager Don Stockdale, no relation to the admiral, promises voters in his precinct that if there is a long line to vote: “You get to sit on the recliners.”

“You have to be comfortable with something,,” he explained, “even if you’re not sure who you’re comfortable voting for.”

The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Sample ballots mailed by county registrars list the proper polling place for each voter.

EXIT LINE

“What’s the use of being elected or reelected unless you stand for something?”

--President Grover Cleveland, in 1887.