CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION : What’s in a Name? Just Ask Sherman : Incumbent Brad Sherman fears that many will vote for a rival who has not campaigned but shares his last name.

Brad Sherman is battling for a second term on the State Board of Equalization in a crowded primary race where his biggest obstacle to reelection may be his own last name.

Sherman says the only opponent in the District 4 race that he fears is a self-employed businesswoman who has done no campaigning and raised no money but has an advantage that could cost him thousands of votes.

Although no relation, her last name is Sherman.

Glanda Sherman, who has not appeared at any campaign functions with the other candidates or reported receiving any monetary contributions, did not return a reporter’s phone calls.

“The other candidate with the same last name as mine is running a 100% zero campaign,” Sherman said. “Her name is on the ballot with an apparent effort to confuse voters. She’s clearly a decoy and it’s going to be harmful.”

Sherman said he suspects that one of his Democratic primary opponents is behind her candidacy but he has no idea which one. All five opponents in the race for the seat, which includes most of Los Angeles County, deny that they had anything to do with Glanda Sherman’s entrance into the race, although some acknowledge that her presence can only hurt Brad Sherman.

“Glanda Sherman is definitely going to confuse the voters,” said candidate Albert Robles, a junior high schoolteacher and mayor of South Gate.

Sherman is trying to repair the damage with last-minute changes to his campaign literature emphasizing that he is Brad Sherman. Yet he worries that all the campaign dollars he has invested over the years in the name Sherman may now be working against him.

In a low profile race where candidates have difficulty raising enough money for television advertising, those with name recognition can have an insurmountable advantage.

In the last election, former state senator and incumbent board member Paul B. Carpenter of Downey won handily even though he had been indicted on racketeering, extortion and conspiracy charges. A later conviction prevented him from serving and he has fled to Costa Rica and is fighting extradition.

“This is a very, very questionable office and it’s questionable because each board member represents about 8 million people and their salaries are $95,000 a year, yet the command of media is zero,” said candidate Al Koch, a tax attorney.

Despite the obscurity, the State Board of Equalization, as the nation’s only elected tax appeals panel, is a powerful body. It rules on personal and corporate tax appeals and oversees the collection and distribution of sales, gas and cigarette taxes.

Four of its five members are elected from districts and the fifth is the state controller, who is elected statewide. In addition to a generous salary, each board member is given a staff and state car.

District 4 is heavily Democratic, yet has attracted two candidates in the Republican primary--Ernie Dynda and Hal J. Styles Jr.--as well as Libertarian Lawrence D. Goldberg and Peace and Freedom Party member Shirley Rachel Isaacson.

Most of the action is in the Democratic primary, where former Long Beach Assemblyman David Elder and Board of Equalization staff supervisor Jerome Edgar Horton have joined Koch, Robles and Glanda Sherman in trying to unseat Brad Sherman.

Without the presence of big money, their campaigns resemble an earlier era in politics when candidates relied on yard signs, handshakes and well-placed mailings to win election.

Some of the candidates are financing mailings with their own money. The biggest campaign loans have come from Brad Sherman, $100,000; Horton, $15,000, and Koch, about $161,000. Koch’s loan has given him the largest campaign treasury in the race.

In the mailings, the candidates zero in on what they consider the big issues. Horton and Robles have adopted similar themes--tax collections in the underground economy.

Horton says the board needs to be more aggressive in its pursuit of businesses that pay little or no tax.

“My issue is with the illegal businesses that collect taxes and fail to remit them to the state of California,” he said. “This forces a higher tax burden on legitimate businesses and makes it difficult for them to compete.”

Robles said the Board of Equalization has put too much staff emphasis on policing legitimate businesses and should redirect more of its resources to the pursuit of tax cheats.

Koch said he would make the board more user-friendly, especially for business people who, because of complex tax regulations, often have no idea what their tax burden will be from one year to the next.