Local Races, Not National, Will Be Draw for Voters on Tuesday

Maybe Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill was right. Maybe, as the late House speaker said, all politics is local. But rarely has that maxim been more clear in a national election year than in Tuesday’s primary when the Los Angeles County voters who do trudge to the polls will do so largely to decide local races, not high-profile contests.

With the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations decided, the Golden State’s primary lacks the luster of many prior elections. And in Los Angeles County, the nation’s largest, that means voters who cast ballots will be drawn primarily by races for 18 congressional seats, 32 state offices, nine city elections and sundry county contests.

“It’s a totally different cycle,” said Democratic political consultant Rick Taylor, who is managing four local campaigns in California.

“Normally, the draw on the ballot is from the top down. This election, it will be from the bottom up. The interest in the Assembly and Senate and Congress [races] will drive the turnout . . . the presidential race will bring it down,” Taylor said.

Alan Heslop, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, agrees. His prediction: less than 20% of the county’s 3.6 million registered voters will cast ballots Tuesday. (Four years ago, when there were 3.3 million registered voters, the turnout was 48.3%.)

“Voters are losing interest each day. We’re late in the presidential stakes,” Heslop said. “Californians aren’t used to the March primary. Consultants aren’t ready. And candidates haven’t raised the kind of money they usually do to get their messages out to voters.”

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Nonetheless, in the San Fernando Valley, a number of spirited contests are being waged including a rough-and-tumble battle in the 39th Assembly District where Democrats are fighting for the chance to succeed veteran Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar).

The contest, where the Democratic nomination almost guarantees victory in November, has also pitted the interests of women’s groups against Latino organizations.

Tony Cardenas, whom activists hope to send to Sacramento as the Valley’s first Latino state legislator, caused the biggest stir early in the primary season as a raft of local politicians endorsed his candidacy, including Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon and the city’s Police Protective League.

But the 32-year-old real estate broker has since been eclipsed in the fund-raising arena by Board of Equalization attorney Valerie Salkin, 29, and former teacher and legislative aide Jim Dantona, 47.

Salkin’s campaign is heavily bankrolled by family and personal wealth while Dantona is receiving financial support from labor unions and lobbying groups.

Despite broad agreement among the candidates on major issues such as public safety and economic revitalization, the tone of the campaign has increasingly turned negative.

Salkin and Dantona have traded the most barbs recently in a series of mailers accusing each other of shady personal dealings or softness on crime.

In her hit pieces, Salkin, who has been endorsed by women’s organizations, concentrates on Dantona’s personal bankruptcy in 1992 and a lawsuit filed nearly 20 years ago by one of his students over an insurance policy he sold her.

Dantona has fought back with fliers painting Salkin as a lukewarm supporter, at best, of the death penalty. He has also reserved some fire for Cardenas, who, records show, did not vote in primary elections in 1992 and 1994.

For his part, Cardenas has criticized Salkin and Dantona for moving to the northeast Valley district relatively recently.

In the neighboring 40th Assembly District, where Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman (D-North Hollywood) is also leaving the Capitol because of term limits, Democratic candidates Bob Hertzberg and Francine Oschin are squaring off in a race in which attorney Hertzberg has built up a sizable endorsement list and war chest compared to his opponent, a senior aide to Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson.

Oschin has countered with attack mailers focusing on Hertzberg’s lawsuit against his own father a decade ago to resolve a business dispute.

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Meanwhile, the Valley has the only two open congressional seats in the state, which are being vacated by retiring 24th District Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) and 27th District Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale).

Both seats have been identified by the major parties as having national import in their struggle to control the House of Representatives after November.

In the 24th District, businessman Rich Sybert, who lost narrowly to Beilenson two years ago, appears to have the GOP nomination sewn up. On the Democratic side, Board of Equalization member Brad Sherman has party support and money but has faced a spirited challenge from attorney Jeffrey A. Lipow, one of six other Democrats in the race.

In the 27th District primary, the chief contest is between former Screen Actors Guild President Barry Gordon and businessman Doug Kahn, who are vying for the Democratic nomination in a seat centered in Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena.

One of them will square off with popular GOP Assemblyman James Rogan in the fall in what has been a Republican stronghold, but is slowly becoming a swing district.

Kahn, an heir to the Annenberg fortune, has bankrolled his own campaign, but after losing twice to Moorhead has lost local party support this time out. Opponent Gordon, who has impressed Democratic activists as being a worthy opponent to Rogan, is rich in major endorsements, but is not nearly as well-funded as Kahn.

On the state level, Sen. Newt Russell’s (R-Glendale) retirement has left his 21st District seat open. Four Republicans, the best known of whom is Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills), are fighting it out for the GOP nomination.

Boland and opponent Robert Oltman, a businessman, have been attacking each other through the mails, while Wilbert Smith, community relations director for Gov. Pete Wilson, who has Russell’s endorsement, is sticking to promoting his candidacy.

Sharon Beauchamp is the fourth contender in a race that has centered on who is the most conservative on an array of hot button issues. An attractive Democratic candidate, former federal prosecutor Adam Schiff, waits in the wings for what looks like a tough battle in November.

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Another wide open race is being waged in the 43rd Assembly district in Glendale and Burbank. Eight Republicans are seeking their party’s nod, which is tantamount to election in this heavily GOP area currently represented by Rogan.

Among the candidates are Glendale City Councilman Sheldon Baker, Los Angeles Police Officer Peter Repovich, businessman John Geranios, Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Missakian and Moorhead aide Pete Musurlian.

The campaigning has been lively as well in South Los Angeles and the neighboring cities of Long Beach, Compton and Lynwood, where many prominent African American officeholders--some in the same families--are furiously vying for seats in Congress and the Legislature. Key races include the following:

* 37th Congressional District: The seat, left vacant when former Rep. Walter Tucker III resigned after his federal conviction on extortion, has been the focus of a crowded and confusing contest. Voters will face two ballots: one to fill the remainder of Tucker’s term, another for the right to appear on the November ballot, when a full two-year term will be at stake.

Candidates include five AfricanAmerican officials: state Assembly members Willard H. Murray Jr. (D-Paramount) and Juanita M. McDonald (D-Carson); mayors Omar Bradley of Compton and Paul H. Richards of Lynwood, and long-time Compton City Clerk Charles Davis. Among the other candidates are Tucker’s wife, Robin, and M. Susan Carrillo, a member of the Water Replenishment District of Southern California and the only Latino in the race. The district covers Compton, Carson, Watts, Lynwood and parts of Long Beach.

* 55th Assembly District: Candidates for the office vacated by Juanita McDonald in her bid for Congress include former Democratic Assemblyman Dick Floyd, who lost the seat to McDonald in 1992. Floyd, who is white, hopes to retake the office in much the way McDonald won before. Then, she captured the district’s black vote while Floyd and another former assemblyman, Dave Elder, split the vote of whites. Now, Floyd’s bid may hinge on whether two African American candidates--McDonald’s son, Keith, and Carl E. Robinson, a retired postal worker--split the black vote. The district encompasses portions of Long Beach, Carson and Compton.

* 52nd Assembly District: Left open by Willard Murray’s run for Congress, this office is sought by his daughter, Melinda, a deputy district attorney, and the Rev. Carl Washington, an aide to County Supervisor Yvonne Burke and known in the community for helping to broker a truce among gangs in Watts. The district includes Compton, Gardena, Lynwood and Watts.

* 25th Senate District: The race to represent this district, which runs from Marina del Rey to Paramount, is between liberal incumbent Teresa Hughes (D-Inglewood) and Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood). The contest has been so intense that the politically moderate Tucker recently received an unusual $40,000 contribution from state Senate GOP leader Rob Hurtt.

In addition to some lively local contests, Tuesday’s election also includes plenty of familiar political names: Tucker, Murray, McDonald. Even Roosevelt.

In Long Beach, Delano Roosevelt, a Costa Mesa businessman and heir to a presidential dynasty, seemed sure to inherit a council seat from a veteran city councilman. But Roosevelt’s name drew unexpected attention--and other candidates--to the race. Now, the grandson of Franklin Delano Roosevelt is in a tight contest that includes community leader Sandy Blankenship, attorney Dennis Carroll, retired contractor Mike Horrigan and financial consultant Craig Koehler.

For the first time in almost 30 years, the Long Beach area will have a new state senator with the term limits retirement of Robert G. Beverly (R-Long Beach). GOP contenders are Assemblyman Phil Hawkins of Bellflower and Long Beach businessman Frank Colonna. Democratic candidates are former Assemblywoman Betty Karnette of Long Beach and Brian Finander. The 27th District includes the Palos Verdes Peninsula, San Pedro, Bellflower, Cerritos and Downey.

Just north of Long Beach, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Rolling Hills) will run unopposed in the primary. But Republicans bidding to challenge her this fall include her 1994 opponent, former Rancho Palos Verdes Rep. Susan Brooks, who lost to Harman by only 812 votes, and onetime Democrat Irwin Savodnik, a Rancho Palos Verdes psychologist who has spent $300,000 of his own money in an effort to win the GOP nomination. The 36th District runs from San Pedro to Venice.

And in the Democratic stronghold of the Westside, seven incumbents for state and national office--including 11-term Rep. Henry A. Waxman--will cruise unopposed to victories. Only one, Assemblyman Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles), faces a challenge, and the area’s large number of Democrats could mean that wins Tuesday are preludes to wins in November.

In the San Gabriel Valley, Democratic Assemblywoman Diane Martinez of Monterey Park is facing a challenge in the 49th District primary from a former campaign contributor, Alhambra developer Benjamin “Frank” Venti, over her support for “right to die” legislation.

Perhaps that region’s most bitter contest pits Republican Assemblyman Gary G. Miller against his old sparing partner, Diamond Bar Councilman Clair Harmony, in the 6Oth District Republican primary. The district covers the southeast San Gabriel Valley and the Whittier area.

And among the many judicial contests countywide, none has received more attention than Superior Court Judge Ronald M. Sohigian’s bid for reelection. Sohigian, hoping to keep the job he has held since 1988, recently received a “not qualified” rating from the Los Angeles County Bar Assn.--only its third in 20 years for a Superior Court judge. Sohigian, who has dismissed the significance of the rating, faces Beverly Hills attorney Ronald S. Smith and Santa Monica criminal defense lawyer Charles L. Lindner. The county bar rated Smith “well qualified” and Lindner “qualified.”

Contributing to this report were Times staff writers J. Michael Kennedy, Duke Helfand and correspondents Laura Accinelli, Deborah Belgum and John Cox.

This article was reported by Times staff writers Henry Chu, Nancy Hill-Holtzman, Greg Krikorian and Richard Winton.