A Rhetorical Blow Aimed Right Below the Belt

How sweet and innocent the candidates seemed a few weeks ago in one of California’s most interesting contests. And now Councilman Richard Alarcon and former Assemblyman Richard Katz remain pitted against each other in the state’s most suspenseful race, Alarcon holding a 27-vote lead with more than 1,500 absentee and provisional ballots still uncounted in the safely Democratic 20th Senate District.

What piqued interest in the contest was something that neither candidate wanted to discuss. The two centrist Democrats--one Latino and Catholic, the other white and Jewish--talked more like Pollyannas than politicians in insisting that race, ethnicity and religion were non-factors in this primary.

Then on the Saturday before election day came a rhetorical blow sent to hundreds of Latino households but aimed squarely below Richard Katz’s belt. It carried this letterhead:

Senator Richard Polanco

Chairman,

California Latino Caucus

“Dear Friends,” Polanco’s letter began. “Richard Katz attacked the first Latino to become Speaker of the Assembly. Now Katz is attacking Richard Alarcon.”

It went on to say “Richard Alarcon is a good man,” while Richard Katz, in cahoots with Gov. Pete Wilson, “pushed 167,000 young people out of college” and “cut aid to disabled, blind and elderly.”

It continued: “One of Pete Wilson’s Republican leaders was Guilty in Federal Court of hiring guards to scare immigrants away from voting.

“Attached is your Voting Rights Identification Card. Bring it with you to VOTE ON TUESDAY. Don’t let Wilson and Katz win. Don’t be afraid to vote.”

And indeed, beneath Polanco’s signature, outlined with perforations, is an utterly unofficial “Voting Rights Identification Card.”

The implication was clear, linking Katz by association to Wilson and a memorable Orange County incident in which Republican officials posted uniformed security guards in an effort to intimidate immigrant Latino voters.

“What made the letter so distasteful,” Katz told me Monday, “was first, the blatant appeal to race, and second, all the lies.”

Political propaganda, of course, is rife with half-truths. But Polanco’s letter truly merited deconstruction. History offers a different portrait, from the first line of Polanco’s letter to the last.

For starters, former Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante (D-Fresno), whom Katz is accused of attacking, has publicly praised Katz for providing the political leadership that enabled the Democrats to regain control of the Assembly and enable Bustamante to become Speaker.

But that’s a quibble compared to Polanco’s portrayal of Katz’s role in the Orange County poll guard scandal.

The year was 1988 and Katz, as a member of the Assembly, was mentoring the Democratic Assembly challenger to Curt Pringle. It was in that capacity that Katz heard reports that uniformed guards were positioned near polls. Katz initiated efforts to identify plaintiffs and press for a federal civil rights investigation and, ultimately, a court resolution.

No finding of guilt was ever made in federal court. But in 1989, Republican officials agreed to a $400,000 settlement that paid five individual plaintiffs $17,000 each and provided the remainder to two Latino voter registration projects in Orange County. In a deposition, Pringle frequently invoked the 5th Amendment, a fact that contributed to his defeat in 1990. (He later won an Assembly seat in Garden Grove.)

In researching this episode, I found an interesting quote from Katz in The Times from Dec. 19, 1988, following Pringle’s controversial election. Katz’s comment seems relevant now.

“As candidates, we are all responsible for what’s done in our name,” Katz said. “Curt Pringle is no exception. He is the one ultimately responsible for the use of those guards. Yet he has failed to denounce those tactics.”

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But with Alarcon holding his slim lead, it’s plausible that the smear may help tip this race. So it was interesting to chat with him Monday about the controversial letter. Alarcon distanced himself from Polanco’s tactic, but he didn’t denounce it.

Campaign records, after all, showed that Polanco, an Eastside Democrat, provided Alarcon’s campaign a late infusion of $181,500 through a Latino caucus political action committee.

Alarcon told me he knew Polanco was planning to mail out “symbolic” voter I.D. cards, and that he approved of this “marketing tool” to remind voters to get to the polls. But as for the wording of Polanco’s letter, Alarcon said, “I had no knowledge of that prior to seeing it arrive in the mail.” Alarcon suggested he might have phrased some of the information differently, but he did not criticize his benefactor’s efforts.

Polanco’s hit on Katz, Alarcon suggested, reflected “some personal history” between the two Sacramento veterans. “I frankly don’t know what that’s all about,” he said. “That’s their history.”

If Polanco nursed a grudge, Katz said, he didn’t know what it might be. Katz speculated that Polanco was simply trying to build his power base. (My call to Polanco’s office was not returned before deadline.)

Alarcon seemed frustrated with my questions, speaking proudly of the fact that so many “traditionally disenfranchised” voters showed up at the polls and that he had such a strong showing from the northeast Valley. He emphasized that he had to win broad-based support, not just a strong Latino turnout, to establish his lead.

And Alarcon said he felt Katz, a politician with a reputation for playing rough, had delivered some low blows in a mailer that he said misrepresented a dispute with the IRS.

About this, I have no reason to doubt Alarcon. But as the vote count continues in a primary where both candidates claimed ethnicity didn’t matter, it suddenly seems much easier to root for one centrist Democrat against the other.

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Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to him at The Times’ Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St. , Chatsworth 91311, or via e-mail at scott.harris@latimes.com Please include a phone number.