GOP Leader Gives $40,000 to Democrat

A Democratic assemblyman trying to oust a Democratic state senator from Inglewood has received an unusual and hefty $40,000 campaign contribution from Senate Republican leader Rob Hurtt.

The contribution drew an immediate condemnation by Senate Democratic leader Bill Lockyer as an effort by conservative “extremists” to infiltrate the Democratic Party.

The donation from Hurtt, high-spending supporter of conservative candidates for the Legislature, appeared on a required campaign finance statement filed by Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. of Inglewood with the secretary of state.

Tucker, a moderate Democrat who has carried bills to expand gambling and relax restrictions on smoking, is challenging veteran Sen. Teresa Hughes (D-Inglewood), a liberal and chairwoman of the Senate’s Public Employment Retirement Committee, in the March 26 primary. She was elected in 1992.

The winner of the primary in the Democratic district is expected to easily win the November election. Currently, Democrats hold a majority by only a single vote in the Senate.

Tucker did not return a reporter’s telephone calls, but Hughes charged that Tucker had “sold out his political party for his own personal ambitions and political goals. I’m angry, disappointed and really fighting mad.”

“Does he think that people are stupid?” Hughes asked. “He sold his vote. He sold the Democratic party in our community to a right-wing Republican who we know is anti-gay, anti-equality, anti-minority, anti-labor and certainly anti-women. How low can a person stoop to keep a job in the Legislature?”

She said she believed that in spite of the contribution from Hurtt she would defeat Tucker.

By most accounts, the primary race between Tucker and Hughes is one of the tightest battles for the Senate. Most other incumbents are expected to have little or no opposition in the March 26 election.

The $40,000 contribution by Hurtt, the biggest personal donor to legislative candidates in California history, is one of his largest in a primary race. It was made Feb. 29 by one of Hurtt’s businesses in Garden Grove, Monarch Warehouse Partners. It has the same address as Hurtt’s better known enterprise, Container Supply Co.

The donation by Hurtt, who overthrew moderate Ken Maddy as leader of Senate Republicans last August, was the first the Garden Grove senator had made to a Democrat, Hurtt assistant Rob Stutzman confirmed.

In the past, Hurtt has showered conservative Republicans with his contributions. He has said that his first priority was to return control of the Senate to Republicans by electing “pro-business, anti-tax” GOP candidates.

“Sen. Hurtt believes that Mr. Tucker would be a good vote for job creation in California,” Stutzman said. “He has always based his contributions upon electing candidates who would improve the job creation environment of California.”

But Hurtt’s donation to Tucker, who succeeded his late father in the Assembly in 1989, drew angry criticism from Democratic leader Lockyer, who has warned in the past against what he terms a takeover of the Legislature by religious conservatives.

“The political religious right-wing extremists have already taken over the Republican Party and now they are trying to infiltrate the Democrats,” Lockyer charged in a statement. “It is frightening.”

He made no mention of Tucker’s acceptance of the campaign gift. An aide said Lockyer, of Hayward, who is officially neutral in Democratic primaries, would not comment on Tucker’s action “until he knows more about the circumstances.”

Stutzman defended Hurtt’s donation and dismissed Lockyer’s criticism. “The takeover Mr. Lockyer describes has existed only in his own mind and his fund-raising mail.”