Races Show Peculiar Side of Politics

As Tuesday’s municipal elections approach, just about every city has its big campaign issues. You have your crime, your gangs, your local landfill, your decimated municipal services.

But in Temple City, you have your bridal shops.

In this city of 31,000, the nine bridal shops have taken center stage in the City Council election, with one candidate calling for an investigation of the “plague of bridal shops.” Some Asian Americans see that charge as thinly disguised racism because all the shops are owned by Asian Americans.

That is only one of the election oddities that have surfaced recently in the San Gabriel Valley.

A Monrovia mayoral candidate admits that she illegally spent $5,295 of her campaign money on four tailored suits.

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The president of the El Monte Police Officers Assn. is under investigation for allegedly paying a transient to steal the campaign signs of candidates the union opposes. In Arcadia, the son of a councilman was investigated for allegedly removing the sign of one of his father’s opponents. A volunteer for one Monterey Park City Council incumbent spent a night in jail on suspicion of defacing the campaign signs of another incumbent with swastikas. But he was released for lack of evidence.

And the consultant for a proposal to build a card club in Monterey Park--a proposal that died largely because of the efforts of a Chinese American councilman--is alleged to have sent out a flyer that the secretary of state’s office says might illegally discourage Asian Americans from voting.

“This campaign is a mess,” said Carolyn Besnyl, president of the League of Women Voters in the east San Gabriel Valley. “Some of the things that have been going on are really strange.”

Politicos say elections in smaller cities provide fertile breeding ground for such capers because they receive less scrutiny than elections in cities the size of Los Angeles, where campaigns are more closely monitored.

“Most of the horror stories come from local elections, in large part because a few voters can make a big difference so there’s an incentive not to play by the rules,” said Tony Miller, acting secretary of state who oversees the Fair Political Practices Commission. “A lot of things can go on that probably wouldn’t withstand the light of day if it happened in bigger places.”

Miller has referred the Monterey Park flyer case to the Los Angeles County district attorney for investigation into possible violations of the state election code. About 13,000 residents received an official-looking but anonymous flyer printed in English and Chinese that warned of $10,000 fines and imprisonment for those who disobey voting laws.

Miller said the flyers were traced to Steven G. Mott, a consultant for BCTC Development Corp., whose proposal to build a card club was thwarted last year, in large part because of opposition from Councilman Sam Kiang. Kiang believes the flyers were aimed at keeping his supporters from the polls.

Telephone calls to Mott were not returned.

In El Monte, George Hopkins, president of the police officers association and a training officer with the Police Department, denies that he paid a transient 50 cents for each sign the man removed that bore the name of candidates opposed by the association. The group seeks to oust Mayor Patricia A. Wallach for her opposition to increasing the number of police patrols. The El Monte Police Department is investigating the claims against Hopkins.

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In Monterey Park, Councilman Fred Balderrama hired a private investigator after more than 40 large campaign signs disappeared or were defaced with swastikas. At 2:30 a.m. Thursday, the investigator allegedly spotted a volunteer for City Councilwoman Marie Purvis crouching with a hammer and gloves in front of a Balderrama sign and made a citizen’s arrest.

The suspect, Alexander Dunetz Jr. of Monterey Park, spent a night in jail but was released after police decided they did not have enough evidence to charge him. Dunetz, who says he is innocent, maintains that he was jogging. Purvis said she barely knew Dunetz and has denied knowledge of the incident.

In Arcadia, Robert Fasching, son of Councilman George Fasching, was one of three young men investigated for removing a campaign sign belonging to challenger Sheng Chang, who has lost more than 300 signs and calls the incident “outrageous.”

Robert Fasching admits he was driving the car when he says another boy uprooted a sign. Chang decided not to pursue the matter in court but says he will file charges if any more signs disappear. The police have closed their investigation without any arrests.

The spotlight is also on Monrovia mayoral hopeful Valerie C. Johnson-Morton, who spent $5,295 in campaign funds on “wardrobe expenses” last month at a swank Pasadena designer clothing store.

Johnson-Morton had listed campaign contributions of $16,868 as of March 31, all but $300 of it in loans from herself and her husband. She said she was unaware she had broken the law.

“I am an intelligent woman. I should have read the rules,” she said.

And then there is Temple City, a sleepy, mainly white residential town with a Midwestern feel that has seen its Asian American population jump 313% in the last decade to make up 20% of the population.

Council hopeful Joe Walker, a crime analyst with the Sheriff’s Department who has been endorsed by the school board and the teachers association, asserts that bridal shops may be fronts for illegal activities, despite police reports to the contrary.

He also says they bring in little tax revenue because most of their business is rentals--a charge that many shops deny. Walker says businesses avoid moving to Temple City because they think the city has become a hub for bridal shops.

But Joon Fong, a spokesman for the Los Angeles-based Asian Pacific American Legal Center, does not buy that reasoning.

“The justification he gives against bridal shops makes little sense,” Fong said. “We think this person is taking a position that is racially irresponsible.”

Walker denies that his reasoning is racially motivated and says his campaign includes Asian American supporters.

Raphael Sonenshein, a professor of political science at Cal State Fullerton who wrote a book on Los Angeles politics, says it is not surprising to find such incidents in elections in small- to medium-sized cities.

“These are not U.S. senators, these are not the most dynamic and thoughtful campaign organizations . . . a real political thug would probably look down on a lot of this, think it was really tacky.”

Times special correspondents Richard Winton and Mike Carlson contributed to this report.