Assembly Candidates Trade Barbs Over Political Pasts, Family Values : Debate: Democrat Schiff questions stability of incumbent Rogan’s beliefs. Rogan, an ex-liberal, says he has simply matured.

Democratic candidate Adam Schiff charged Monday that the 1988 political conversion of state Assemblyman James Rogan (R-Glendale), a former liberal Democratic party activist now aligned with the GOP right wing, was so radical that it calls into question the stability of his political beliefs.

Schiff’s charge, bolstered by an obscure 14-year-old document, was made during the pair’s penultimate debate, at the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, during which Rogan ascribed the change in his political beliefs to growth in his family and religious values as he matured.

Meanwhile, the mail campaigns of the two candidates have begun moving into high gear with Schiff, a former federal prosecutor, trying to capitalize on a controversial plan to remove toxic wastes from the Lockheed plant. At the same time, Rogan, a former deputy district attorney, has released a letter of endorsement from the son of an elderly couple whose accused murderer Rogan prosecuted.

The two men are seeking the 43rd Assembly District seat formerly held by GOP leader Pat Nolan, now serving a state prison sentence for political corruption. Rogan gained that seat in a special election last May and is now seeking to win his first full two-year term.

The 43rd District includes Glendale, Burbank and parts of Hollywood.

Schiff’s main assault on Rogan in Monday’s debate was to disclose documents showing that Rogan, now heavily supported by conservative Christians, was a supporter of liberal U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy’s (D-Mass.) insurgent candidacy in 1980 to deny President Jimmy Carter the Democratic party nomination.

The document--part of Rogan’s own bid to get elected as a Kennedy delegate to the Democratic convention--includes a resume that notes that Rogan had previously worked on the campaigns of such liberal notables as Robert F. Kennedy and George McGovern. Also included is a photo of Rogan, with a beard and a cigar.

Schiff called Rogan’s change in beliefs “an amazing transformation.” In an interview after the debate, he said he wondered how Rogan’s beliefs would change in the future: “Whither Rogan next?”

Rogan laughed off the questions, saying his beliefs have matured with his hairline.

The Schiff campaign also questioned how honest Rogan has been in describing his political transformation. Rogan has previously downplayed the extent of his conversion, saying that he had been a conservative Democrat who simply made the logical transition to the GOP as the Democratic party grew more liberal.

But the Schiff campaign has said that the evidence about Rogan’s background shows a radical leap. “He’s not being honest with the voters about how far he’s moved,” said Parke Skelton, Schiff’s campaign consultant.

But Rogan defended the change in his views as the product of deeper thought and additional experience as he gained a wife and children. He stressed his status as a family man, in contrast to Schiff--especially when Schiff criticized him for agreeing to accept a $20,000 annual pay hike for state legislators.

Rogan said Schiff had no right to criticize him for taking the money because Schiff has no family responsibilities--”no wife, no children, no connection to the district.”

“Before criticizing me for exercising my family responsibilities, perhaps you ought to get one,” Rogan said.

Schiff told the audience of 150 that his fiancee, Eve Sanderson, was with him, joking about their names that, “We are, in fact, Adam and Eve.”

Meanwhile, Bob D’Amato, a perennial Metro Rail critic, accused Schiff of not being the tough prosecutor he has claimed to be when he was assigned to investigate complaints of contract fraud involving the Metro Rail subway. Schiff is a former assistant U.S. attorney.

“He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” D’Amato said, claiming the federal probe was marked by “prosecutorial foot-dragging.” D’Amato owns his own Northridge safety consulting firm.

Schiff declined to comment on the accusation, saying that he is bound by ethical constraints because the criminal investigation is continuing. He said in an interview later that he was on the case for a year, not enough time to bring a prosecution in such a complicated matter.

Meanwhile, in his mail campaign, Schiff has redoubled his efforts to tap into growing opposition in Burbank to construction of a system for removing toxic deposits from soil at the local Lockheed plant and releasing the filtered products into the air via a 65-foot-tall “smokestack.”

In a mailer to Burbank voters, Schiff has provided residents with petitions to sign objecting to the project. Schiff has said he will personally present the petitions to the South Coast Air Quality Management District as part of his campaign of “doing everything I can to stop this smokestack.”

Schiff has also sent out a districtwide mailer (his first since last summer) touting his record in the Los Angeles U.S. attorney’s office. Schiff, the mailer contends, had a “100% jury trial conviction rate” and was the lead prosecutor in the case that led to the 1990 conviction of former FBI agent Richard Miller as a Soviet spy. Among other things, the mailer shows a photo of Schiff holding a military-style assault rifle marked as an exhibit in a trial.

In several mailers, Rogan has continued to hammer away at his theme that he is the toughest candidate on the issues of illegal immigration and crime. Rogan supports Proposition 187, the measure to deny illegal immigrants schooling, medical and welfare benefits, while Schiff instead supports plans to beef up the nation’s border defenses.

Among the latest Rogan pieces is a letter from Kenneth Goldman, a Canoga Park businessman, who called Rogan “a hero to my family” because of his tenacious efforts to prosecute the accused murderer of Goldman’s mother and father.

David and Bertha Goldman were killed in Altadena in December, 1984. Harles Hamilton, a Pasadena resident, was later arrested in connection with the murders. “Jim Rogan fought tooth and nail for over two years to bring this vicious killer to justice. He never gave up. Jim’s tenacity earned my respect and my friendship,” Goldman said.

Hamilton was never convicted after four trials--all resulting in hung juries--and three of the trials were prosecuted by Rogan.