Legislator’s Use of Slur Raises Storm

A Republican Assemblywoman from Hesperia invoked the anti-Semitic phrase “Jew down” in a televised legislative hearing to explain how a negotiator might gain financial advantage over another, stirring lawmakers Thursday to demand that she be censured.

Assemblywoman Kathleen Honeycutt, a first-term Republican, made her comment Wednesday while debating an arcane bill about the construction industry and discussing how some general contractors who make costly changes attempt to financially squeeze their subcontractors.

“The area of most dispute . . . is the area of change orders,” Honeycutt told the Consumer Protection Committee, of which she is a member. “It gives the contractor great leverage to kind of Jew down the subcontractor if he is going to have to wait for the money.”

Honeycutt paused briefly, then finished her remarks. Once she completed her comments, Assemblyman Byron D. Sher (D-Palo Alto), another committee member, told her in a measured tone he found the term offensive. She apologized, but that did not end the matter.

On Thursday, the hearing was beamed for a second time into the homes of 2.6 million cable television subscribers across the state, prompting a smattering of protest calls.

The comment also angered lawmakers who worry about ethnic divisions that have become increasingly apparent in the Capitol. The incident comes two months after another first-term Assembly Republican, Pete Knight of Palmdale, circulated a racist poem aimed at Mexican immigrants.

Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-Burlingame), the Consumer Protection Committee chairwoman, wrote Thursday to Assembly Speaker Willie Brown asking that Honeycutt be censured.

“Everybody knows that term goes beyond what is or is not politically correct. That is truly an offensive statement,” said Speier, who was visibly surprised when Honeycutt used the phrase.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), after viewing a tape of the hearing, said: “That phrase came out of Honeycutt as easily as, ‘The sky is blue,’ ‘The air is warm,’ ‘Jew down prices.’ ”

Katz and Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) issued a sharply worded letter, signed by at least 11 other lawmakers, urging that Honeycutt “reflect upon (her) comment and attitude.”

Noting that state legislators are supposed to set a good example, the letter asked: “How can we expect the people of our state to act to end the evil of racism and hate crimes when leaders are guilty of promoting racism?”

Honeycutt apologized again in a brief interview outside her office, saying: “I had used the term in the past and never thought of the offense it would cause someone who is Jewish. It just had not occurred to me. I needed correcting on it, and I stand corrected.”

“I grew up in Manhattan Beach,” she said, “and have some very dear family friends, like family” who are Jewish. She proceeded to name a man who gave Honeycutt her first job, a doctor who delivered two of her children, and a dentist for whom her mother worked. “They are all wonderful Jewish people.”

Honeycutt, 52, is a political newcomer and owner of a roofing manufacturing company. She won election in November on a Christian fundamentalist, anti-abortion platform in a sprawling Republican district that includes San Bernardino, Kern and Inyo counties.

She said she felt especially bad that she made the comment in a hearing broadcast over the Legislature’s television system.

Among the viewers was a lawyer in the Carmel Valley, Jerry Cohen. Cohen stumbled upon the hearing late Wednesday as he scanned channels looking for a baseball game.

“My first reaction was amazement. Then it was a source of anger,” said Cohen, who phoned The Times to protest what he saw. “There is a certain depressing reality to it. We should be far beyond that.”

Phil Perry, spokesman for Assembly Minority Leader Jim Brulte, defended Honeycutt, saying: “Obviously, it was an extemporaneous comment that she immediately regretted and immediately apologized for. People make slips of the tongue.”