ELECTIONS / 35TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT : Winery Owner and Professor Face Off

Twelve years ago, Republican candidate Brooks Firestone narrowly lost his bid for the state Assembly to Democrat Jack O’Connell.

In November, the Santa Barbara County winery owner will get a second chance.

But he won’t face the veteran lawmaker this time. O’Connell is giving up his 35th Assembly District seat, which covers western Ventura County, to run for the state Senate.

Instead, Firestone will face Mindy Lorenz, a college professor and former Green Party congressional candidate who surprised political pundits by soundly beating Bob Ream, an aide to state Sen. Gary Hart (D-Santa Barbara), in the Democratic primary.

“It’s a classic battle between two very different people with very different approaches (to solving problems),” Lorenz said of her matchup with Firestone.

Indeed, the candidates’ personal backgrounds are as different as their political views.

Lorenz, 47, is a single mother who has gone from living on food stamps to earning a doctoral degree and a job as an art history professor at Cal State Northridge. The Summerland resident is also a longtime political activist who at different times has been a member of the Peace and Freedom Party as well as the Green Party.

“Part of what people like about me is that I have a demonstrated record of having the courage of my convictions,” Lorenz said. “I’m not afraid to take tough stands.”

Firestone, 58, is the grandson of the founder of Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. After earning a bachelor’s degree in economics from Columbia University in 1961, he worked in the family business for 11 years, serving two years as operations director in Great Britain. In 1972, he moved his family to the Santa Ynez Valley where he started his own winery.

“I do business in California, and I’m successful at it,” Firestone said. “I would do a good job for California.”

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Aside from their personal backgrounds, the two candidates are also separated by their positions on some social issues.

For instance, Lorenz opposes the death penalty, while Firestone, who has the endorsement of Ventura County’s top law enforcement officials, supports it.

Lorenz said she is not convinced the death penalty deters crime, or that it is evenly or justly enforced.

“A lot of it depends on how much money you have,” she said. “All we have to do is look at the (O.J. Simpson) case.”

Both candidates are pro-choice advocates, but Firestone said he favors a waiting period of at least 24 hours and parental consent in cases involving a minor.

“It seems to me that these conditions would be a very reasonable part of the (law),” Firestone said.

Both candidates agree that the biggest problem facing California is the economy, but argue over who is best qualified to help turn it around.

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On the stump, Firestone talks up his business experience and managerial skills and how he plans to use them to get California’s economy rolling again. “It’s Time to Take Care of Business,” reads his campaign slogan, underscoring both his determination to set things right and his strong pro-business stand.

“I’m a manager,” Firestone said, “and I think California desperately needs good management.”

Lorenz, however, takes a different view of Firestone and his plans for economic recovery.

“Brooks is in that camp that says dismantle government, deregulate, hands-off and everything will be fine,” Lorenz said. “He’s a throwback to the trickle-down policies that have failed us and that are part of the reason California and the country are in the shape they’re in.”

Of the two, Lorenz said she is the true reformer, someone who believes government can play a major role in stimulating the economy by providing incentives for development and expansion of small businesses.

Unlike Firestone, who Lorenz said hails from a background of “wealth and privilege,” Lorenz said she also understands firsthand the needs of working families.

“Brooks talks about being a business owner who understands what it takes to make the economy work,” Lorenz said. “I think it is just as important to know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of a paycheck and understand what people are going through with the diminishing job base and a troubled economy.”

For his part, Firestone has characterized Lorenz in campaign literature as an opportunist, “a political candidate looking for a party and a belief.” He says she was not only a member but a leader and organizer of the Green Party, an ecology and social justice movement modeled on the European Greens.

“That would put her at the outer edge of the liberal spectrum,” Firestone said, adding, “I don’t know what party she agrees with.”

Republican leaders say Firestone represents the best chance they have had in years of regaining the 35th Assembly seat, which represents Ventura, Santa Paula, Ojai and most of Santa Barbara County.

Democrats in the district hold a firm lead over registered Republicans--46.7% to 36.9%. But GOP leaders are quick to point out that Republicans traditionally tend to go to the polls more often than do Democrats. That trend, they say, combined with a possible low turnout at the polls in November, could give Firestone the edge.

“With someone who has worked as hard as Firestone and who has the financial advantage he does, I’d say he has a very good chance,” said Bob Larkin, chairman of the Republican Central Committee of Ventura County.

Campaign finance reports filed at the end of June 30, the last reporting period, showed that Firestone had more than $200,000 in the bank, contrasted with Lorenz’s $1,496.

But Lorenz said she already has raised several thousand dollars since the primary and has a number of fund-raisers planned. Moreover, she said she has greater name recognition than Firestone because of her victory over Ream in June. Firestone was unchallenged in the Republican primary.

“I have the advantage,” said Lorenz, who spent more than $100,000 in the primary. “I’ve already sent the message out there about who I am.”

Both candidates are focusing much of their attention on western Ventura County, which makes up about 40% of the district and is heavily Democratic.

“I think they’re going to fight it out in Ventura County,” said Mary Rose, a Democratic political consultant in Santa Barbara. “That’s really where they’re unknown.”

Meanwhile, the candidates continue to turn up the volume of their attacks on each other.

In one campaign flyer, Firestone refers to Lorenz’s former membership in the Peace and Freedom Party, which supports extending citizenship to every illegal immigrant living in California.

Lorenz said she does not support this position, and that it was because of such radical views that she left the Peace and Freedom Party.

“They had very extreme positions I could not agree with,” Lorenz said.

On the same issue, Lorenz accused Firestone of flip-flopping on the Save Our State initiative, a statewide ballot measure that calls for the banning of public services to illegal immigrants.

Lorenz said she does not support the measure, but prefers instead to beef up border patrols and to enforce laws already on the books against employers who hire illegal immigrants.

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Firestone said he also does not support the ballot measure because it goes against federal law. At the same time, however, he said he believes government should find some way to stop funding education and health benefits to illegal immigrants.

“It’s a big problem, and it’s on a lot of people’s minds,” he said, contending public opinion polls show overwhelming support for the SOS initiative.

Firestone said he supports establishing some type of non-discriminatory method that would help employers determine the legal status of an employee, but was not certain how that could be done.

Firestone said there is no way to know if he himself had ever hired illegal immigrants at his vineyard because there is no system to check an employee’s Social Security number against his or her’s state employment records.

“The problem is, and particularly for someone in my position, we can’t be sure,” he said. “We tend to hire the same people. We don’t hire transients. But there is no way to be sure if we have ever hired (illegal immigrants).”

Candidate Profiles

Mindy Lorenz

Age: 47

Party: Democrat

Residence: Summerland

Occupation: Art history professor at Cal State Northridge and at the university’s satellite campus in Ventura.

Education: Ph.D. in art history, UC Santa Barbara.

Background: Resident of the district 15 years; Green Party write-in candidate for Congress, 1990; Green Party nominee for Congress, 1992; switched to Democratic Party in 1993; as an educator for 20 years, she has taught at all grade levels and has lectured at schools in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Issues: Wants to streamline regulations on business, while providing tax incentives for small businesses; favors strengthening gun control regulations and establishing boot camps for young and nonviolent offenders; wants to give more control to local school districts and place greater emphasis on the development of job skills at the high school level.

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Brooks Firestone

Age: 58

Party: Republican

Residence: Los Olivos

Occupation: Owner and operator of the San Antonio Cattle Ranch and Firestone Vineyard.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in economics from Columbia University.

Background: Worked for family business, Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., from 1961 to 1972, serving three years as director of operations in Great Britain; in 1972, he moved his family to the Santa Ynez Valley and founded a cattle ranch and winery; he narrowly lost his bid for the state Assembly against Democrat Jack O’Connell in 1982.

Issues: Wants to eliminate excessive government regulations on business and continue workers’ compensation reforms; favors truth-in-sentencing laws and supports tougher sentencing for violent juvenile offenders; wants to reduce administrative overhead in education, while cutting down on excessive regulations on local school districts.