Election ’94 : 44TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT

State Assemblyman Bill Hoge (R-Pasadena), 48, was first elected in 1992. A former insurance executive, Hoge lives in Pasadena, is married and has three children.

Democratic challenger Bruce Philpott, 50, is the former chief of the Pasadena Police Department. Philpott lives in Sunland, is divorced and has three children.

This could be a highly competitive race, especially if Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) jumps in to give Philpott financial help.

In Sacramento, Hoge is known for casting about as many no votes as anyone in the Assembly.The incumbent is also affiliated with Christian fundamentalist politics. When TV evangelist Pat Robertson was running for President, he nominated Hoge as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1990, and Hoge’s 1992 campaign was financed with $40,000 from conservative Christians sources.

Despite such ties, Hoge has been involved in drafting gambling legislation that state Atty. Gen. Dan Lundgren, a fellow Republican, has twice condemned. In 1994 alone, Hoge had received at least $50,500 in campaign contributions from horse-racing, Nevada gambling, alcoholic beverage or tobacco industry sources as of Sept. 30, public records show.

“I thought he was supposed to be a strong Christian, family-type guy,” Philpott said recently. “But when he takes money from these interests, it seems inconsistent.”

Philpott hopes to appeal to the growing minority and Yuppie populations in the 44th District by painting himself as a moderate and Hoge as an ultra-conservative with an appetite for special interest money.

Philpott is no stranger to controversy himself.

In 1991, he urged Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates to resign after the Rodney King beating. And in late 1990, Philpott was detained by Glendale police for driving unsafely. Although never cited, the chief complained he was the victim of racism because his passenger was a black woman. The incident stirred up a feud between the mayors of Glendale and Pasadena that ended only after Pasadena’s mayor agreed to stop accusing the Glendale Police Department of racism and has been raised as a character issue by the Hoge campaign.

Registration in this district is 45% Democratic, 42% Republican.

Also running is Libertarian Ken Saurenman, a contractor from Pasadena.