NRA Takes Offensive to Unseat Wildman, Scott

In a preview of next year’s political battles, two freshman assemblymen are under attack by the National Rifle Assn. and Republican challengers who have criticized the lawmakers on issues of crime and gun control.

The NRA this week bought full-page newspaper ads blasting Assemblymen Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles) and Jack Scott (D-Altadena) for their votes favoring controversial gun control measures.

Glendale Mayor Larry Zarian, a Republican, is considering challenging Wildman at the behest of the GOP, which hopes to win the seat and boost its membership in Sacramento.

Zarian said that if no other viable GOP challenger emerges, he may enter the race. “I have said all along that I’m going to sit back and see who is running and I would give an answer after the first of the year.”

Joel Friedman, head of the NRA’s Pasadena chapter, rejected suggestions by Democratic Party leaders that the NRA and the Republican Party are working in cooperation to oust Wildman and Scott.

“Everyone wants to look at this as a partisan move,” he said. “I’m not saying we want Republicans in there. I’m saying we want someone in there who understands” the NRA position.

Meanwhile, Scott is under attack by Ken LaCorte, a Republican anti-crime activist from La Crescenta who plans to run for the seat next year with a tough-on-crime message that he hopes will resonate with conservative voters.

The two seats are crucial to GOP hopes to regain control of the Assembly next year. Both Wildman and Scott are considered vulnerable Democrats in “swing districts.” Scott’s is centered in Pasadena and has, until recently, been considered safe for Republicans. Wildman’s Glendale-based district has also long been represented by conservative Republicans.

The early challenges and attacks indicate that the two freshman lawmakers face grueling fights to retain their seats next year.

But a spokesman said the Democratic Party will campaign strongly for the two incumbents.

“The party is going to go all out for Jack Scott and Scott Wildman,” said Dario Frommer, a spokesman for the state Democratic Party. “We are going to be knocking on doors, getting out the vote. We are going to be a part of whatever they need to do to win the race.”

As in most local races, crime and public-safety issues, such as gun control, are likely to be key.

Zarian refrained from attacking Wildman’s legislative record but said he would consider entering the race to help the GOP win back the Assembly seat that has historically been held by a Republican.

“I want to support and want to be a part of a candidate [who] is going to win,” he said.

Wildman, a former teacher who won the seat by 161 votes last year, said he is not worried about a challenge from Zarian because of his strong support from voters who belong to both parties.

“If Larry wants to run, more power to him,” Wildman said. “I feel I have good Republican and Democratic support.”

LaCorte said he is running against Scott because Scott has been soft on crime.

LaCorte gained notoriety in August when he published a list of sex offenders on the Internet. He criticized Scott for refusing to support a bill to put the entire database of sexual offenders on the Internet. The bill died in an Assembly committee.

Critics warned that placing such volatile--and sometimes inaccurate--information in an unregulated environment such as the Internet is dangerous.

Scott said he never voted on the Internet issue but opposed a procedural measure to take the bill--and dozens of others--out of committee for debate before the entire Assembly.

“I believe in prevention of crime and strict law enforcement,” Scott said.

Scott and Wildman have been targeted by the NRA, which criticized each for supporting a bill to ban so-called Saturday-night specials. Over NRA objections, the Legislature passed the bill, but it was vetoed by Gov. Pete Wilson.

The NRA also criticized Scott and Wildman for voting in favor of other gun-control legislation.

“Their votes were so anti-self-defense . . . that we felt we had to say something about it,” said the Pasadena NRA’s Friedman.

The ads, which appeared in two local newspapers, are the first volley in the gun group’s campaign against the lawmakers, Friedman said.

“At this point, more stuff is being planned,” Friedman said, declining to elaborate.

But Art Torres, chairman of the California Democratic Party, said he believes the NRA attack plan will backfire. He feels that mainstream voters in the districts Wildman and Scott represent disagree with most NRA positions.

“To be hit with NRA mail is probably the best thing that ever happened to [Wildman and Scott] because the issue of guns proliferating in Southern California is not going to go over well with voters,” Torres said.