Wu Takes Campaign Break to Pay Respects to ‘Political Mentor’

NIXON-ESQUE?: Clever, inept or sincere? Take your pick on how to describe 43rd Assembly District candidate Julia Wu’s decision Monday to suspend her personal campaigning for several days to mourn the death of former President Richard M. Nixon.

The Los Angeles Community College board trustee said she wanted to attend the Nixon funeral in Yorba Linda and pay her respects to her “political mentor” rather than campaign. Wu, an immigrant from Taiwan, said Nixon inspired her to get involved in GOP politics soon after she came to the United States and he later appointed her to a national commission of librarians.

On its face the move was peculiar because Wu is locked in a tight race with Glendale Municipal Court Judge James Rogan. Wu and Rogan are the top-ranked Republicans in the May 3 election, vying for the Assembly seat Pat Nolan held until February, when he resigned after pleading guilty to political racketeering.

With the election only a week away, Wu seemed to be needlessly handicapping herself.

Or was she?

Some observers speculated that Wu may have been mixing genuine sadness with a large dollop of politics. In effect, was Wu trying to draw attention to her deep Republican roots--and by doing so further contrast them with Rogan’s more tenuous GOP lineage?

Rogan, it will be recalled, was a member of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party Central Committee who only joined the Republican Party in 1988, albeit with some fanfare. Then-Sen. Pete Wilson even introduced the youthful Rogan as trophy convert to the GOP cause at a news conference.

Rogan’s switcheroo has been criticized by Wu, Los Angeles Police Department Officer Peter Repovich, also a Republican candidate for the 43rd District, and Democrat Adam Schiff, a former assistant U.S. attorney. All have said that Rogan’s change in party registration is a character issue. Wu has even accused Rogan of changing parties so he could win a judgeship from Republican Gov. George Deukmejian.

“Opportunist” is what Wu has called Rogan in perhaps the strongest attack yet on the judge.

Still, if it were cleverly calculated to gain some political mileage, Wu’s gesture this week must indeed be recorded as a near-perfect tribute to Richard Nixon.

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HONDA PULLS OUT: Van Nuys contractor David Honda last week announced via news release that he has decided not to run for the 20th Senate District seat, the post now held by state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys).

The Republican moderate, who ran well but out of the money in the 1992 special election for the same seat, said he has too many family, business and civic commitments on his plate to continue his political quest this year.

That’s one way of putting it.

But not mentioned in the statement is that Honda’s latest political bid has been under a cloud since March 21, when election officials ruled that he had failed to qualify for the June 7 GOP primary ballot.

The problem: Honda needed to submit a nominating petition with the names of at least 40 registered GOP voters. Election officials could only find 36 qualified names out of the 57 Honda submitted. Unless reversed, the ruling meant Honda’s name would not be on the ballot--a crippling blow.

According to people familiar with election laws, other candidates have been put on the ballot with fewer than the required signatures. But obtaining such an exception takes a lawsuit and a judge’s order.

Finally, Honda statement also failed to mention that it may have been nearly suicidal for Honda to run now, only weeks after the defeat of the highly charged Roberti recall effort. Why? Because in a GOP primary dominated by Roberti-haters, Honda undoubtedly would have been excoriated by not a few of his Republican foes for his 1992 decision to endorse Roberti over Republican Carol Rowen in that year’s runoff election.

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ENDORSEMENT DERBY: Local chapters of the California Republican Assembly, keepers of the conservative flame, held an endorsement convention last weekend and came out backing realtor Dolores White for the 20th Senate District GOP primary. White’s victory came on the third ballot. Her major challenger was retired green grocer Al Dib, who is becoming a perennial candidate. Both White and Dib ran in the recall election against Roberti.

Also endorsed by the CRA were Municipal Judge Rogan, one of half a dozen Republicans running for the 43rd Assembly District seat formerly held by Nolan; and Mark Boos Benhard, who is running in the GOP primary for the 24th Congressional District. The incumbent is U.S. Rep. Anthony Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills).

All the prominent 24th District candidates personally showed up at the CRA convention to lobby for the endorsement. But Benhard, a former aide to former Rep. William Dannemeyer, easily vanquished the opposition, including Richard Sybert, whom most pundits call the front-runner.

The Valley’s own mistress of conservatism, Sara Hardman, a state CRA vice president, said Sybert failed because he is pro-choice, because he’s a newcomer to the 24th District (having moved into the district from Pasadena a year ago) and, perhaps worst of all, he was a close adviser to Pete Wilson. “We in the CRA are not too happy with Wilson,” said Hardman, who co-owns a company that makes infant highchairs for restaurants. At its state convention, the CRA earlier this month endorsed millionaire businessman Ron Unz for governor in the GOP primary.

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FERRARO FETE: If you ever entertained the idea that City Council President John Ferraro would not seek reelection next year after nearly three decades at City Hall, you weren’t at his $250-a-plate fund-raiser Thursday.

More than 400 people showed up to pay homage to the 69-year-old Ferraro, who represents Toluca Lake and a good deal of North Hollywood, and to lay down cash to support his 1995 reelection bid.

Among those was Mayor Richard Riordan who, with a grin, told the audience that he learned at Nixon’s funeral that Ferraro had led the delegates in giving the Pledge of Allegiance at the 1960 Democratic convention in Los Angeles that nominated John F. Kennedy for President. But, Riordan, a Republican, told the crowd that he was ready to “forgive” Ferraro for his Democratic Party roots.

Of course, Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, now running for the Board of Supervisors and seeking to become the high potentate of the cash-rich Metropolitan Transportation Authority if he moves to the county, was working the tables, shaking hands and schmoozing so hard that he probably missed the mayor’s performance.

Yaroslavsky’s appetite for glad-handing was apparently not sated at his own fund-raiser (to finance his supervisorial race) among 1,000 guests at the Century Plaza the previous night. “I guess he didn’t have enough and came back for more,” said one observer.