Decision ’96 / Key issues and races in the California vote : Fight for Dana’s Seat Is Heated; Burke, Antonovich Have It Easier

It is rare that voters have a chance to fill an open seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. The powerful post, representing more people than any California lawmaker or any member of the House, is so coveted by politicians that they rarely give up the office.

One of those rare moments is approaching. After 16 years in office, Supervisor Deane Dana is retiring this fall. So it is not surprising that the race to fill his seat is a fight to the finish.

As the campaign draws to a close, it is ending just as it began--with a sharp choice before the voters: Do they elect Donald Knabe, Dana’s chief of staff and handpicked successor? Or do they vote for someone new from outside the cozy quarters of county government?

Former Rolling Hills Mayor Gordana Swanson and Long Beach Vice Mayor Douglas Drummond are the leading challengers to Knabe. They cannot compete with the big money and endorsements that lined up behind Dana’s chosen replacement.

Knabe has raised more than $1.4 million from special interests, including labor unions, developers, lobbyists and companies that do business with the county. The campaign cash has allowed him to buy huge billboards, run cable television ads, send numerous mailers and buy endorsements on slate cards.

Swanson and Drummond have raised more than $240,000, but cannot compete with Knabe’s ability to reach voters.

Two other candidates, engineer Joel Lubin and businessman Norm Amjadi, are appealing to the voters to change direction at the Hall of Administration. A sixth candidate, Richard Markowski, appears on the ballot but is not campaigning.

The worst fiscal crisis in the county’s history, a legacy of salary and pension increases, the mortgaging of county property and Dana’s decision to hand the office to Knabe provide much of the ammunition in the fight against Knabe.

The decision now rests with the voters in the sprawling 4th District, which includes Marina del Rey, follows the coast to Long Beach and runs inland to Whittier and east to Diamond Bar.

The outcome of two other supervisorial races is hardly in doubt.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke is running unopposed for a second term as the highest-ranking African American elected official in the county.

After a bruising battle in the primary four years ago, Burke is assured of keeping her post in the large, heavily minority 2nd District, which includes the heart of south and central Los Angeles plus parts of the Westside and South Bay.

In the broad arc of the 5th District, which sweeps across the northern and eastern reaches of the county, board Chairman Mike Antonovich faces Dan Kumaus, a little-known challenger. Antonovich will become the board’s senior member if he wins an expected fifth term.

So the suspense lies in Dana’s district, a racially and ethnically diverse mixture of affluence and poverty, hard hit by the deep economic downturn.

Knabe, Swanson and Drummond all vow to fight to save and bring jobs to the district. They all support the Alameda Corridor project to provide better truck and rail access to the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Swanson believes the county should actively market itself to prospective employers.

The three major candidates also believe that public safety should be the county’s top priority. Knabe, 52, stresses his endorsements from Sheriff Sherman Block and the labor unions representing law enforcement and county employees.

Swanson blames excessive salaries and pensions for contributing to the county’s financial problems that have forced the shutdown of some county jails and the early release of prisoners. She wants to audit the Sheriff’s Department and eliminate what she sees as outrageous salaries.

Drummond, who spent 29 years with the Long Beach Police Department, would split the Sheriff’s Department into two distinct divisions, hire jail guards with less experience than deputy sheriffs and use the savings to open more jails.

When it comes to the county’s troubled health care system, Drummond would follow the lead of Orange and San Diego counties in contracting with private hospitals for needed services. All three favor the county’s planned shift in emphasis from expensive hospital care to less costly treatment in community clinics.

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The key differences between the three contenders is their approach to the job. Knabe has been chief of staff to Dana for 14 years. He is an insider who knows county government better than his rivals, but is more likely to maintain the status quo than seek change.

Swanson, 60, a former president of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, forced Dana into a runoff four years ago with her sharp attacks on salary and pension increases, catered lunches and bulletproof limos. Her focus has now shifted to stopping Knabe. “We need to clean house,” she says.

Drummond, 58, a two-term councilman in Long Beach, said he would closely examine how the county provides services to find the most efficient means of serving the public. “We need to streamline and reform Los Angeles County,” Drummond said.

He would shrink county government by proposing that large unincorporated areas like East Los Angeles become cities. Drummond would study breaking off the Antelope Valley into its own county.

That idea would not go over well with Antonovich, who represents the area. The four-term incumbent is expected to coast to an easy win over Kumaus--his little-known, underfinanced opponent.

The district stretches from Claremont to Canoga Park and from South Pasadena to Palmdale, covering part or all of the San Fernando, San Gabriel, Santa Clarita, Pomona and Antelope valleys.

Antonovich is taking the election very seriously.

As of March 9, the 16-year incumbent had raised $928,089, according to campaign records, and has spent more than $520,000 since January 1995. Antonovich has bought television time and sent full-color mailers.

Kumaus, on the other hand, has not sought to raise any money, and said he will not knock on constituent doors.

The 48-year-old deputy county assessor said he entered the race so that Antonovich would not be unopposed. His biggest expense, he said, has been his red, white and blue business cards that say simply, “Elect Dan Kumaus.”

Antonovich, 56, said he is proud of his record of advocating immigration reform; pushing for public/private partnerships in the county’s health care system; his leadership on public safety issues, and his creation of town councils in rural areas to involve local citizens in decision making.