Wilk Drops Out of Race for Assembly : Politics: He says the entry of Tom McClintock, who is backed by a powerful PAC, 'alters the dynamics' of the race.

Wilk Drops Out of Race for Assembly : Politics: He says the entry of Tom McClintock, who is backed by a powerful PAC, ‘alters the dynamics’ of the race.

By KENNETH R. WEISS

Dec. 21, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Scott Wilk, chief of staff to Assemblywoman Paula Boland, has decided to drop out of the race for her Assembly seat saying he cannot stomach the “slash and burn” style of campaign he needed to defeat fellow Republican candidates.

Wilk said he made his decision after former Assemblyman Tom McClintock’s last minute entry into the race in the 38th Assembly District, which includes western portions of the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys as well as Simi Valley and Fillmore.

McClintock, a former Thousand Oaks Republican who has been living in Sacramento, was recruited as a candidate by a powerful conservative political action committee affiliated with Senate GOP leader Rob Hurtt of Garden Grove.

“McClintock’s candidacy greatly alters the dynamics of this contest,” Wilk wrote in a letter to his supporters. “My consultant and others have informed me that it will take another $150,000 and a highly negative ‘slash and burn’ campaign to defeat McClintock.”

Wilk said he did not want to mount a nasty campaign, nor ruin a political alliance with McClintock.

Wilk said he will not endorse another candidate in the race. He said he will return much of the political cash he has raised and take whatever is left to recruit and train conservative candidates for school board and other local offices.

Wilk said he will continue to work for Boland, a Granada Hills Republican, through next year, when she will have to retire from the Assembly because of voter-imposed term limits. Boland is running for a state Senate seat.

With Wilk’s departure from the Assembly race, the remaining GOP candidates are Steve Frank, a Simi Valley government affairs consultant; Peggy Freeman, retired director of a Santa Clarita Valley community clinic; Robert Hamlin, a retired sheriff’s deputy who lives in Castaic; Ross Hopkins, a Canoga Park public affairs consultant; Bob Larkin, a Simi Valley insurance agent and McClintock.