Waging a Bare-Knuckles Political War

A bare-knuckled political war was dragged into the sanctuary at the Bethel AME Church on South Western Avenue on Tuesday as Democratic candidates in a heated race for a state Senate seat swapped challenges to each other’s party loyalty.

The 25th District race pits incumbent Teresa Hughes and Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr., both of Inglewood, against one another in an overwhelmingly Democratic district that stretches from Marina del Rey to Paramount.

Hughes called a news conference Tuesday at the church to denounce Tucker for accepting a $40,000 campaign contribution from Senate Republican Leader Rob Hurtt, a wealthy Garden Grove conservative who also supports an anti-affirmative action initiative on Tuesday’s primary ballot. That donation could be damaging in the heavily African American district.

As Hughes and her supporters attacked Tucker for accepting the Hurtt donation--among other alleged sins--Tucker and a few of his aides sat quietly in a pew, taking in the proceedings.

Tucker, prevented by the state’s term limits law from running for reelection to the Assembly, is the only California legislator challenging an incumbent lawmaker this year.

Some political observers have said that the current friction between Tucker and Hughes stems from a 1992 agreement after reapportionment forced Hughes out of the Assembly district she had held since 1976. Tucker, they said, agreed not to compete with Hughes when she ran for the Senate seat, and she in turn agreed to step down in his favor this year. But a Hughes campaign spokesman said Hughes agreed only to reexamine her options this year.

At her news conference Tuesday, Hughes questioned how a loyal Democrat could accept support from GOP leader Hurtt, who she charged “got up last month and led a small delegation off the Senate floor during a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.”

State Democratic Party leaders have condemned the Hurtt contribution to Tucker as an effort by “extremists” to infiltrate the Democratic Party.

At Tuesday’s news conference, State Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres, a former state senator, declared: “I’m only here to say to the Republican Party: Stay out of our neighborhoods. Your inflammatory and racist attitudes do not belong in a free society.”

Hughes then vowed that she could say “no” to the “super right who support super wrongs. I’m never, ever getting in bed with those people who don’t do the right thing.”

Republicans now control the state Assembly and Democrats hold a majority by only a single vote in the Senate. Hughes’ daughter, Los Angeles Police Commission President Dierdre Hill, suggested Tuesday that the Hurtt contribution to Tucker could be a move to buy that vote.

“Any candidate who would stoop so low to give both houses to the Republicans does not deserve to wear the Democratic badge,” she said.

Tucker denied that he has cut a deal to hand over control of the Senate to Republicans. He called Tuesday’s attack from the Hughes camp “a ploy by a struggling campaign.”

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As a knot of reporters gathered around him after the Hughes news conference, Tucker accused Hughes of being “unfamiliar with the very area she claims to represent.”

Tucker pointed out--and the county registrar-recorder’s office confirmed--that Hughes had called her news conference in a South-Central Los Angeles church outside her district.

Tucker, a moderate Democrat who has carried bills to expand gambling and relax restrictions on smoking, insisted Tuesday that he is “not going to sell out my soul or my district for $40,000. The claim that I am betraying the Democratic Party is ludicrous.”

He said he is a lifelong Democrat and looks forward “to casting my vote for a Democratic president pro tem of the California state Senate.”

As Tucker spoke to reporters in the church, Hill approached, asking of the Hurtt contribution: “Are you going to give it back, Curtis? Are you going to give back the blood money?”

“Give it back?” Tucker shot back. “Blood money? Heck no. I’ll give it back when [Hughes] gives back her money from the trial lawyers.”

Whichever Democrat wins next week is assured of victory in November against Republican Cliff McClain in a district that is 71% Democratic and 14% Republican.

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25th State Senate District

The race in this overwhelmingly Democratic and heavily African American district pits incumbent Teressa Hughes against Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. Both are from Inglewood.