Election ’94 : 41ST ASSEMBLY DISTRICT

Democrat Sheila James Kuehl, 53, is a law professor at Loyola Law School and co-founder of the California Women’s Law Center. She is single and lives in Santa Monica.

Republican Michael Meehan, 28, is a law student at Loyola Law School and a reserve deputy sheriff. He is single and lives in Santa Monica.

If Kuehl wins, she will be the state legislature’s first openly gay member.

In this affluent, liberal district, which includes Santa Monica, the western San Fernando Valley and the Conejo Valley, Kuehl’s sexual preference has barely raised eyebrows.

This is not to say Kuehl did not benefit from her gay community ties as she campaigned in last spring’s crowded Democratic primary for the seat of Assemblyman Terry Friedman (D-Brentwood), who had announced earlier that he would run for a Superior Court judgeship instead of reelection.

Kuehl’s $330,000 primary campaign - marked by a blizzard of mailers from her - was heavily fueled by gay money gleaned from Los Angeles and throughout the nation. The former companion of Torie Osborne, head of the Washington, D.C.-based National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Kuehl is a bona fide member of the gay community’s political elite.

Still, there’s more to Kuehl than this. As a young woman, Kuehl (then known as Sheila James) played the love-lorne Zelda Gilroy in the 1960’s TV sitcom “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.” Later, she earned a degree from Harvard Law School and became a teacher and well-known champion of civil rights for women and children.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) was recently quoted as saying that Keuhl’s political roots and style reminded him of himself.

Kuehl’s financial strength, her deep involvement in the West Side’s political life and the tilt of the district (51% Democratic, 36% Republican, according to the latest registration figures) makes Meehan’s job daunting.

Meehan, who was the 1988-89 student body president at UCLA, says his candidacy would catch fire if only voters had a chance to compare his moderate GOP views with those of the liberal Kuehl. But he also predicted he will be unable to finance even one district-wide campaign mailer to voters.

Also running is Libertarian Phillip Baron, a Tarzana real estate salesman.