THE JUNE 7 ELECTIONS : Legislative Hopefuls’ Primary Wish Is to Get Noticed

Walk into the church. Go past a wedding rehearsal, around the corner, across a dark patio and up the stairs. Enter a room that has many chairs but few occupants, except on the stage, where seven candidates sit shoulder to shoulder making speeches, mostly to each other.

This is Primary Campaign ‘94, an election season that will end on June 7 without, in all likelihood, ever capturing the public’s imagination.

Of the four primary races for California Assembly seats from the Westside, all but one are up for grabs, largely because term limits have pushed veteran legislators to seek employment elsewhere.

Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Brentwood) of the 41st District, Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles) of the 42nd District and Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles) of the 47th District are all running for other offices.

Yet, despite the change of the guard in Sacramento, candidates and campaign workers say the sparsely attended 42nd Assembly District candidates’ forum earlier this month is typical of their experiences of trying to reach voters this spring.

“I’m going to have to study up,” admitted actor Steve Franken, a voter in the 42nd Assembly District, which includes Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Westwood and the Fairfax area. Franken is walking precincts for a candidate in another district, but he has no idea who will get his vote to be his own legislator.

That lack of voter attention places even more emphasis than usual on the campaign mail that will be filling voters’ mailboxes this week. Expect a lot of it, because candidates have raised or lent their campaigns significant sums of money.

With a glut of viable candidates, none of them widely known, political prognosticators are loath to handicap these races. Too many savvy candidates with similar messages are trying to reach “their” voters, the pundits say, and the voters may or may not be moved to go to the polls.

In the 42nd, Los Angeles Community College Trustee Wally Knox is making a hard-edged law-and-order pitch that is unusual for this liberal district.

One of his mailers featured a uniformed, masked police officer pointing a large weapon and compares Los Angeles to a war zone. Another quoted a crime victim: “I was trimming my roses when a man walked up and said, ‘Give me your wallet.’ ”

The other candidates are trying to reach their core voters too. West Hollywood Councilwoman Abbe Land sent a piece to women voters. Los Angeles school board member Mark Slavkin targeted parents with school-age children. He also went after older Jewish voters, noting his endorsements by Rep. Anthony Beilenson and County Supervisor Ed Edelman.

Attorney John Duran is mounting an absentee-ballot effort among voters identified as gay and lesbian, going so far as to pick up the completed ballots to make sure they get in. Homeowner activist Laura Lake is paying special attention to the San Fernando Valley portion of the district, and West Hollywood Councilman Paul Koretz has sent out a potholder and a picture of his family.

Slavkin aide Jefferson Crain said he expects just 1,000 votes to separate the top several candidates in this strong field.

The 41st Assembly District, to the west, is a schizophrenic swing district running from Santa Monica through the West San Fernando Valley to the Ventura County line, lumping Santa Monica renters with more conservative homeowner types.

The six Democrats in the race are working hard, and money does not seem a problem for most of them. Two Republicans, banker Peter Eason and law student Michael Meehan, are seeking to oppose the winning Democrat in November.

One Democratic candidate, attorney Edward Tabash, won a place on the Berman-D’Agostino slate mailer and is also on another major slate mailer put out by consultant Clint Reilly.

Tabash has set himself apart on immigration issues, suggesting in an interview that undocumented residents who seek emergency medical treatment should be deported after receiving it.

One of his opponents, attorney Roger Diamond, says Tabash’s “immigrant-bashing” is an example of how the candidates in this race are “pandering to the baser instinct in human beings . . . to their fears and prejudices.”

Sheila James Kuehl, a Santa Monica women’s rights attorney, is concentrating on her base of women and Santa Monica voters. Statements touting her as essential to protect rent control and featuring her extensive background on women’s issues have already hit the mailboxes.

The other candidates appear to be concentrating on the Valley portion of the district, where half the votes lie.

In the 47th District, which was drawn to favor election of an African American, nine Democrats and two Republicans want to represent the area, which encompasses the Crenshaw District, Cheviot Hills and Ladera Heights.

Among the contenders are Kevin Murray, son of veteran Assemblyman Willard W. Murray Jr. (D-Paramount), and Ed Johnson, a longtime aide to Rep. Julian Dixon (D-Los Angeles).

Both have significant support from elected officials, but community activist Valerie Lynne Shaw, a grass-roots candidate, is also a contender, along with attorney Geoff Gibbs.

In the 53rd Assembly District, which runs from Venice to the South Bay, freshman lawmaker Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey) is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. David Bohline and Julian Sirull are the Republican contenders.

Parts of the Westside are also included in a state Senate contest that features a legislator--State Sen. Ralph C. Dills (D-El Segundo)--who has been an elected state official since Franklin D. Roosevelt was President.

Dills faces three challengers in the 28th District, which stretches from Venice to Long Beach. They are Torrance City Councilman George Nakano, Venice attorney Mike Sidley and Manhattan Beach real estate broker Jo Ann Rodda.

* LIST OF CANDIDATES: Page 6