Katz, Alarcon Locked in Tight Contest for Senate

Former Assemblyman Richard Katz and Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon were locked in a tight race Tuesday in the San Fernando Valley’s hotly contested race for a state Senate seat.

The race, one of the most closely watched legislative campaigns in the state, pitted a 16-year Sacramento veteran against a home-grown Latino lawmaker who sought to appeal to the Valley’s increasingly active Latino voters.

Alarcon’s campaign was buoyed by a huge infusion of cash by state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), the head the state’s Latino caucus, who contributed $181,500--accounting for nearly 30% of Alarcon’s money.

Speaking from Van Nuys, Alarcon said he took heart at seeing polls jammed with people in the northeast Valley early Tuesday.

“I think that was from us pushing people to the polls,” he said. “We knew part and parcel of this campaign was mobilizing voters and these voters are the last to turn out” to vote.

Katz was also confident as the ballots were being counted.

“We had a good campaign and a lot of grass-roots support,” he said. “Now we are waiting for the numbers.”

Katz complained about Alarcon’s campaign tactics in the final days of the hard-fought race, saying he believes Alarcon played the race card.

“I would have liked it to be more about issues, the issues of the future” Katz said. “I was sorry at the end frankly that so much happened along the racial lines.”

In early returns, with 5 of 311 precincts reporting, Katz had 6,188 votes or 49%, while Alarcon had 3,572 or 28.5%.

In another Valley race that was expected to test the Latino voting strength, 26th Congressional District Rep. Howard Berman (D-Mission Hills) had a commanding lead of 71% over San Fernando Mayor Raul Godinez’s 18%, with just 2 of 221 precincts reporting.

Godinez, who was greatly outspent by a well-known political veteran, had always considered himself an underdog.

“I feel like we gave it our best shot,” Godinez said. “I feel great. We literally campaigned to the last minute.”

Godinez left open the possibility that he may run again in two years. During a speech at his campaign headquarters, he compared his campaign to the first wave of a Marine invasion.

“This the very first step, a real challenge,” he said.

In the West Valley, wealthy businessman and political neophyte Randy Hoffman held an early lead in absentee ballots over two Republican challengers. They are seeking to unseat U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks).

Katz and Alarcon are vying to replace state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles), who is being forced out by term limits.

The 20th Senate District, which stretches from Sylmar to Studio City to Reseda, is considered a safe Democratic district. The primary winner is therefore almost assured a victory in the general election in November.

Katz represented the northeast Valley for 16 years in the Assembly until he was forced out by term limits in 1996, when he reached the height of his political career as Assembly majority leader.

He ran for mayor in 1993, but came in a distant fourth.

Alarcon became the Valley’s first Latino council member in 1993 when he was elected to represent the northeast Valley, a mostly working-class district with a surging Latino population.

Katz and Alarcon are both moderate Democrats who agree on most key issues. Throughout the campaign, the two candidates have focused primarily on background and character, with Katz portraying himself as the experienced lawmaker and Alarcon touting his lifelong ties to the community.

During the campaign, both sides launched some bruising attacks.

Alarcon fired the first volley with an early campaign mailer that attacked Katz’s voting record in the Assembly. Katz fired back with a brochure that criticized Alarcon for taking a $38,000 loan from the wife of a well-connected developer who benefited from a zero-interest city loan.

For most of the race, Katz has led Alarcon in fund-raising, primarily due to $130,000 he transferred to his campaign from a previous Assembly account.

But in the final days of the campaign, Latino caucus chairman Polanco sought to help Alarcon close the fund-raising gap by giving his campaign about $181,500.

Alarcon has insisted that ethnicity is not an issue in the race, but he and Polanco issued a flurry of campaign literature at the end of the race, urging Latino voters to side with Alarcon. One Polanco mailer linked Katz to Gov. Pete Wilson and an immigrant-bashing incident.

The number of Latino voters in the Valley has increased from 7% in 1993 to 9% in 1997--not enough to become a driving political force but enough to sway a close race.

On Tuesday, Alarcon was criticized by Cardinal Roger Mahony for using a photograph of himself with Mahony in a campaign brochure.

“I am very troubled that this photograph is being interpreted by those who see it as my endorsement of your campaign for the California state Senate,” Mahony said in a prepared statement to Alarcon. “I cannot allow my photograph to be used for such blatant political purposes.”

In an interview Tuesday, Alarcon said he planned to apologize to Mahony after the campaign.

“The point of the photograph was not to express an endorsement of the cardinal,” Alarcon said. “My point was to express who I am.”

Alarcon said he did not ask Mahony for permission to use the photo, adding, “In hindsight, I guess I should have called him.”

A handful of voters at polls Tuesday said they had seen Alarcon’s last-minute flier featuring a picture of him receiving Communion from Mahony.

None of them, however, said the mailing influenced a decision to vote for Alarcon.

Blanca Espindola, a 47-year-old teacher’s aide, said she saw the mailer, but had already decided to vote for Alarcon.

“He’s been doing good,” Espindola said.

Another woman, who declined to be identified, said she had received the flier only a few days before the election.

“I go to the same church as [Alarcon] and so I noticed it,” the woman said.

Money has been the focus of the race for the 24th Congressional District seat in the West Valley, where Hoffman, the former president of Magellan Systems Inc., a San Dimas-based company that makes satellite navigation devices, has put $510,000 of his own money into his campaign.

The race involving Hoffman and fellow Republican challengers Joe Gelman, a former newspaper columnist, and William Westmiller, a small-businessman, has been a spirited contest with some heated debate on several national issues.

But the focus of the race has been on Hoffman and his money. Gelman, Westmiller and incumbent Sherman have all accused Hoffman of trying to buy the election without issuing a clear policy platform. Hoffman has shrugged off the criticism and has emphasized his “real world experience” in the business arena.

In the northeast Valley, Godinez has also tried to capitalize on the surge of Latino Valley voters in his bid to unseat Berman in the 26th Congressional District, which includes most of the northeast Valley. He also hopes to appeal to Republican voters, who have no candidate in the race but are allowed to vote for a Democrat under the new open primary rules.

Still, Godinez, an engineer with the city of Los Angeles, has conceded that he is a longshot to beat Berman, a 16-year member of Congress and the ranking member on the Ethics Committee.

Godinez and Berman have had a running feud over public safety that predates the campaign.

Times staff writers Jill Leovy, Martha L. Willman, T. Christian Miller, Jeff Leeds, Megan Garvey and correspondent Jon Steinman contributed to this story.