Attacks Mark Final Days in Valley Races

After weeks of campaign turmoil, sinking poll numbers and a staff shake-up, Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills) is frantically trying to stage a comeback in a state Senate race that not long ago she was favored to win.

The cliffhanger race for the seat long held by Republican Newt Russell could be a career-ender for Boland and a career-maker for her opponent, Democrat Adam Schiff.

But it’s not the only race in the Valley that has brought suspense as well as big spending to districts that had been considered solid for one party or the other. At least four other races will keep the candidates and their supporters on edge until election night, with the potential to give Democrats three new seats in the state Legislature and Republicans one in Congress.

A donnybrook in the West Valley-centered 24th Congressional District being vacated by Democrat Anthony C. Beilenson is an intense match between two Harvard-trained lawyers, Republican businessman Rich Sybert and Democratic State Board of Equalization member Brad Sherman.

Although Republican Assemblyman James Rogan appears to be leading in his quest for the other congressional seat, in the 27th District, Democrat Doug Khan remains in striking distance.

And Democrat Scott Wildman appears to be gaining on Republican businessman John Geranios in the race to fill the 43rd Assembly District seat being vacated by Rogan.

In the east Valley, allegations of gambling and money borrowing have exposed incumbent Assemblyman Bill Hoge (R-Pasadena) to a possible upset by Democratic challenger Jack Scott in the 41st district.

As the days to the election wind down, constituents in the five districts are being flooded with mailers and telephone pitches of an increasingly negative tone.

In one incident reflecting the frantic level of campaigning, Schiff’s mother could hardly contain herself when a campaign worker from Boland’s camp phoned to imply that her son opposes the “three strikes” law.

“I really let him have it, the poor guy,” said Sherry Schiff, visiting from Florida. “I said, ‘You’re lying about my son.’ ”

A half hour later, another call. Same message.

The hastily assembled Boland phone banks, along with a glut of attack mail, come courtesy of patrons such as Gov. Pete Wilson and Senate Majority Leader Rob Hurtt, who have sent more than $264,000 her way since Oct. 19.

Schiff’s backers are pouring on the cash too--$125,000 in the past two weeks. Both campaigns for the 21st state Senate District seat have spent more than $1 million and counting.

In their quest for office, Republican Sybert and Democrat Sherman have moved into the West Valley congressional district, donned the vestments of political moderates and collectively drained their bank accounts of $1 million.

Sybert gave up his job in Sacramento as the governor’s planning director to launch what has turned into a three-year campaign for Congress. His out-of-pocket costs so far: $610,000.

Sherman, who juggles his round-the-clock campaign schedule with his duties as a full-time member of the state’s elected tax board, poured $390,000 of his money into the race.

All this jockeying has come in pursuit of a shared ambition: to replace Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills), who is retiring after 20 years in Congress.

Beilenson decided to call it quits after nearly getting bounced from office by Sybert in a bitter contest two years ago. He planned his departure for this year, hoping a Democratic successor would be swept to victory by an anticipated surge of Democratic voters and President Clinton’s popularity.

But the 24th Congressional District, which extends into Ventura County, has a fickle political streak. Heavily Republican Thousand Oaks is counterbalanced by Democratic-leaning neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley and trendy show-biz liberals in Malibu.

The result is a classic swing district, where Democrats have a 5% edge in registration but are notoriously casual about going to the polls on election day. About 11% of the voters declare no party affiliation.

Public posturing aside, Republican and Democratic party officials consider the race a tossup. They agree it is one of the seats in play that will determine which party controls the House of Representatives in the years to come.

Both candidates have been working feverishly for more than a year. Courting the same group of swing voters, they have presented fairly similar views.

Sybert has downplayed his libertarian streak, instead portraying himself as a moderate “pro-choice” Republican, a card-carrying Sierra Club member since high school and someone with compassion for the poor.

“I’m not a blind follower of any party,” Sybert said, distancing himself from conservative House leaders.

Sherman also has cast off some ideas from his past, saying the word liberal is a term that fails to accurately describe him today.

He favors the death penalty, wants to see affirmative action programs phased out and has joined Sybert in calling for tough measures to control illegal immigration.

“I’m a moderate,” he said. “I’m pro-business, pro-environment, pro-education and pro-choice.”

Still, there are differences. Sherman vows to push for tighter controls on handguns and tobacco, whereas Sybert questions the need for any more restrictions on adult smokers.

Sybert wants environmental laws to be more flexible to adapt to different regions and be less burdensome to business. But Sherman says any such flexibility will just weaken them.

Democratic Party officials initially feared Sherman was not tough enough to take on Sybert, who had a running start on the race because he has been campaigning virtually nonstop since 1993.

But Democrats have grown more confident as Sherman has matched Sybert blow for blow in the increasingly rough-and-tumble race.

Sybert has repeatedly attacked Sherman as an insatiable tax collector, eager to raise other people’s taxes, but who was once late in paying property taxes--a contention that Sherman disputes.

Sherman has returned fire by questioning Sybert’s sincerity in supporting abortion rights, reprinting a 1989 article that Sybert wrote. The article predicted the Supreme Court was about to correctly overturn Roe vs. Wade.

A campaign mailer based on that article is the latest battleground in the campaign. It portrays abortion-rights advocate Sybert as supporting a return to back-alley abortions--one of the things Sherman said would temporarily occur if abortion were outlawed on the federal level and left to states to regulate.

Sybert, needless to say, does not advocate back-alley abortions. His views on abortion are mostly similar to Sherman’s, except on funding issues.

The race for the other open Valley congressional seat in the 27th District seems tame by comparison, though all is hardly sweetness and light.

Having learned his lesson in the primary after an attack mailer brought howls of criticism, Democrat Doug Kahn is so far sticking to issues. Kahn’s plan is to portray his opponent, Assemblyman James Rogan (R-Glendale), and House Speaker Newt Gingrich as of one mind.

“Two peas in a pod,” a recent Kahn mailer stated.

Rogan has turned a Kahn primary attack piece against the Democrat, saying Kahn is a negative campaigner. The Kahn mailer suggested in a salacious way that his primary opponent, actor Barry Gordon, did nothing to stop sexual harassment while president of the Screen Actors Guild.

Kahn has since apologized to Gordon, who has endorsed his fellow Democrat.

Although polls show Kahn is within striking range, it is hard to find a political insider who predicts Kahn will beat Rogan unless swept along in a Clinton landslide.

The two Assembly races nestled within the 21st state Senate District are as fractious as the Boland/Schiff fray.

Changing demographics and an influx of 8,000 newly registered voters have Democrats hopeful of winning one or both races. The GOP is fighting equally hard to hold the seats.

In the 43rd District, now represented by Rogan, the GOP’s Geranios had been expected to coast to victory. Polls then began showing opponent Wildman, a teachers’ union official, as competitive. This opened the floodgates for an infusion of more than $50,000 from the state Democratic Party for mailers.

Some mailers portray Geranios as an unqualified businessman trying to buy an Assembly seat--an opinion shared by some Republican insiders in the district.

Geranios has fired back, accusing Wildman of being an ultra-liberal union representative.

In the neighboring 41st Assembly District, the race between incumbent Hoge and Scott, a former community college president, was always viewed as highly competitive.

Hoge’s expected incumbent advantage may be blunted by allegations that he is a gambler whose proclivities have lead him to borrow money unwisely. The two-term lawmaker also borrowed money from a staff member who later received a 50% pay raise, spurring criticism and negative publicity.

In the meantime, Hoge has characterized Scott as a “liberal professor” who wants to lower tuition rates for illegal immigrants.

Given the slim majority the GOP holds in the Assembly, the party has been pouring money into the Hoge effort, while Democrats, coveting the seat, are spending money to help Scott win.

Either one of these seats could turn Democratic, as could the state Senate seat Schiff and Boland are seeking. Schiff campaign manager Mike Shimpock said during one recent stretch he counted 10 attack pieces out of 12 Boland mailers.

To counter the onslaught, Schiff’s mailers--no matter what the subject--usually include a warning against Boland’s alleged history of negative campaigning. A pending libel lawsuit from the primary is usually mentioned.

Still, Boland’s new spokesman, Rob Stutzman, on loan from the staff of state Senate Majority Leader Hurtt, said Friday the phone-bank allegations about Schiff’s three-strikes position is fair game. The strategy is to portray the former federal prosecutor as softer on crime than Boland.

The authority for the charge is contained in a 1994 mailer in which Schiff said he backed the “three strikes” law for violent felons, not specifically mentioning serious felonies that were also included in the initiative. “How he defined himself on this issue in 1994 still matters in 1996,” spokesman Stutzman said.

But Schiff said in 1994 and maintains today that he supports the voter-approved initiative as written, including its application to serious felonies, and opposed the court decision that weakened it this year.

Pressing the crime issue Friday, Boland accused Schiff of wrongly plea-bargaining in 1988--less than two years into his career as a federal prosecutor.

In response, Schiff consultant Parke Skelton cited his candidate’s proven mettle in federal court at putting felons--including an FBI spy--behind bars. He dismissed Boland’s soft-on-crime pitches as the “shrill recitation of a palpable lie.” Schiff said the plea-bargain attack showed Boland’s lack of knowledge of federal court, where judges set sentences, not prosecutors.