Assembly Hopefuls Wear Victimhood as Badge of Law and Order

In the race to succeed Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) in the northeast Valley, public safety ranks among the top issues for voters alarmed by the increase of violent crime.

So it’s no surprise that the Democratic candidates in the district emphasize their strong anti-crime stands, nearly all of them trotting out incidents from their personal pasts to support their point.

Attorney Valerie Salkin makes frequent references in interviews and campaign literature to an incident in 1980, when she was 14, in which she was shot by a rifle-wielding teenager as she roller-skated on a playground.

“I’ve got big scars on my legs to prove it,” Salkin said.

A new anti-crime mailer sent this week to probable primary voters features an open letter from Salkin’s parents, Abe and Dorothy, about the attack, calling it “a spiritual test” that instilled in their daughter “an abiding sense of justice and a firm commitment to the rights of crime victims.”

As a result, Salkin describes herself as a “strong, strong advocate of the death penalty,” contrary to the traditional Democratic viewpoint.

One of her chief rivals, Jim Dantona, says the same, and counters with his own tale of violence as a backdrop to his tough-on-crime stance.

In the 1970s, his parents helped manage a Granada Hills motel. They were robbed by two men who pointed guns at their heads, said Dantona, who identifies crime as the No. 1 priority in the 39th Assembly District.

“When they did that to my parents, it absolutely, unequivocally changed me . . . in realizing it was on our streets, in what would have been considered a safe neighborhood at the time,” Dantona said.

Not to be outdone, candidate Tony Cardenas says that in the late ‘60s, an older brother and sister were accosted as the children walked to a corner store to buy radio batteries. The brother’s radio was stolen.

“They punched him and knocked him around and left him on the floor,” Cardenas said.

And candidate Michael del Rio recalls his own family tragedy.

“I have a brother who was killed in 1989 by a drunk driver. I compare that to the family being violated [in the other incidents], in terms of something that shouldn’t have happened.”

Candidate Jose Galvan could not be reached.

Missing the Marx

In the 19th state Senate district in November, Republican incumbent Cathie Wright will go up against John Birke, a Democrat who is running unopposed for his party’s nomination.

Those familiar with the local political scene will recall Birke as the outspoken young man who attended meetings of Voices of Citizens Together to protest the Sherman Oaks group’s ardent support of Proposition 187, the ballot measure to deny social services to illegal immigrants.

Indeed, in the winter of 1994, Birke was arrested at one of those meetings, accused by a teenage boy of shoving him during an angry confrontation between Birke and members of the group. The city attorney ultimately declined to press charges.

But Birke’s reputation as a firebrand remains--witness this month’s issue of Inside California Politics, which calls him “a young Marxist with views so radical that talking to him is like speaking to someone in a 1950s Berkeley coffee shop.”

Birke, an attorney, dismisses the label.

“I’m not a Marxist,” he said. “It’s an obvious attempt of character assassination. I don’t care what kind of moniker they want to hang on me, if they want to call me Marxist or socialist or left-wing or ACLU lawyer or whatever. I’m running a serious campaign.”

Boland/Oltman, Round 1

Assemblywoman Paula Boland’s district chief of staff, Scott Wilk, gets the staff largess award of the year.

He loaned his boss $40,000--more than half the amount she’s raised in her campaign for the state Senate in the Glendale-Burbank-based 21st district.

Wilk raised the 40 grand when he was thinking of succeeding Boland in the Assembly, a seat that became available due to term limits. But when former assemblyman Tom McClintock jumped into that contest, Wilk jumped out.

One of Boland’s opponents, businessman Robert Oltman, is critical of the loan. His consultant, Bob Gouty, says it’s against the rules because, as a state employee, Wilk stands to benefit if Boland stays in office. Wilk’s wife is also a part-time political worker for Boland.

But Gary Huckaby, spokesman for the Fair Political Practices Commission, said that, while unusual, the loan is legal because it’s one campaign committee loaning money to another campaign committee.

“It would only be a conflict where the loan was seen as a source of income to her personally,” Huckaby said.

Bob Stern, of the California Commission on Campaign Financing, said the loan doesn’t bother him from an ethical standpoint, either. He did, however, readily concede that Wilk need not fret about job security.

“A $40,000 loan is huge,” Stern said. “Certainly, there is going to be an obligation. The legislator is not going to fire the staff person.”

Boland/Oltman, Round 2

The Boland camp, meanwhile, has stepped up its demands that Oltman produce a canceled check to prove he contributed to the Proposition 187 campaign.

Their research shows there’s no contribution, they say, despite claims that one was made. Oltman also got himself in hot water by saying during a campaign forum that he didn’t vote for the immigration crackdown measure. Oltman’s literature not only says he supports 187, but his campaign produced a letter of support last week from the immigration reform group Save Our State.

His consultant says Oltman was trapped into making a misstatement, but Boland’s camp smells blood. Stay tuned.

Paper Work

If local congressional candidates want a top billing in the Christian Coalition’s voter guide, they are going to have to work for it.

The religious group recently mailed candidates a questionnaire with 91 questions on topics ranging from federal tuition tax credits to pornography on the Internet.

Only the most serious policy wonks will get to the end of it.

The Christian Coalition will synthesize the responses, according to Charles H. Cunningham, the group’s director of voter education, and issue voter guides showing where candidates stand on the issues of the day. No explicit endorsements will be offered.

Although the guides are often passed out in churches, the issues they cover stray far from religion.

For instance, the coalition asks candidates if they support granting federal government employees the right to strike, abolishing the congressional pension system, imposing a flat tax, giving statehood to the District of Columbia or restricting female soldiers from combat.

FOR THE RECORD: Elisa J. Charouhas’ name was inadvertently omitted from a list in Sunday’s Times of Democrats running for Congress in the 24th district primary, the seat being vacated by Anthony C. Beilenson’s retirement. The corporate ethics consultant and onetime aide to former Gov. Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown had not raised any campaign funds by the December filing period. Like Brown in his 1992 presidential bid, Charouhas has pledged to take no contributions over $100.

Chu and Hill-Holtzman reported from Los Angeles, Lacey from Washington, D.C.