Gubernatorial Hopefuls Hold Landmark Forum

In a landmark demonstration of the growing Latino influence in California politics, the four major candidates for governor addressed the hopes and tensions of a changing population Saturday in a forum hosted by the state’s two largest Spanish-language media companies.

The forum, held in the fine arts auditorium at Loyola Marymount University, raised a series of questions about some stress points in California, such as the widening gap between rich and poor, concerns about immigrants competing for jobs and the state’s contentious relationship with Mexico.

But the candidates--Democrats Al Checchi, Jane Harman and Gray Davis, along with Republican Dan Lungren--were more measured than animated, treating this second and final face-to-face appearance of the campaign more like a pillow fight than the messy brawl that might have been expected just 10 days before the election.

The candidates did not break new ground on issues; they recited their rehearsed positions and steered clear of some of the most explosive subjects--such as affirmative action and Lungren’s support for Proposition 187, the 1994 initiative aimed at banning public benefits for illegal immigrants. All three of the Democrats opposed the measure.

Still, there were some testy exchanges, particularly between businessman Checchi and Lt. Gov. Davis. The two men clashed over Checchi’s personal wealth and whether his business background or Davis’ career in government is better training for the governor’s job.

“Gray, you keep saying I spent my life earning money,” said Checchi, the former co-chairman of Northwest Airlines. “I know how to build things and how to create employment and how to change things. And having listened to your answers, it would have done you well to have spent some time in the private sector. . . . It is the way jobs are created.”

Davis waited until it was his turn to speak, then he belittled Checchi’s experience and took credit for generating about 30,000 jobs through his support for a leveraged loan program to encourage housing development.

“You were effectively the CEO of a company that had a budget in the $6-billion to $7-billion range,” Davis said. “I was controller of a state that had a budget in the $65-billion range.”

Gray overstated the size of the budget during his years as state controller, which ended in 1992. He was also put on the defensive by Lungren, who came to Checchi’s side in crediting private companies with job creation.

“Gray, we need a little humility in government,” said Lungren, the state attorney general. “We don’t create jobs, they create them. We may assist by getting government out of the way.”

Lungren’s participation was a sign of the state’s new blanket primary law that voters will face for the first time when they are allowed to vote June 2 for any candidate--not just the ones from their own party.

The blanket primary has forced Lungren to broadcast commercials and seek to build up his support, even though he does not face serious opposition for the Republican nomination.

At the same time, Lungren used his role Saturday to try to distance himself from the hostility created in the Latino community and else-where by the Republican Party’s prominent role in promoting Propositions 187 and 209, the 1996 measure to end affirmative action in government.

“The problem with my party has been--over the last number of years--that we haven’t shown up often enough in the Hispanic community,” Lungren said in his opening remarks.

“Some people say, ‘My lord, look at what the state’s going to look like. It’s going to be far more Hispanic,’ ” Lungren continued. “And I say that’s wonderful.”

Overall, however, this was a forum with few memorable moments. The candidates seemed stung by recent polls suggesting that some of the negative campaign tactics used so far have backfired--damaging the accuser along with the accused.

That effect was most evident for Checchi, who in a Los Angeles Times poll last week was blamed for running the most negative campaign. The same survey found Checchi--who once shared the Democratic lead in the race with Harman--now trailing in third place, while Davis has opened a significant lead.

The upshot is that the forum may be a mere ripple--if that--in this unusually volatile race.

The two co-sponsoring media companies--La Opinion, a newspaper in Los Angeles, and the television network Univision--said the forum was broadcast to 100,000 households in the Los Angeles area, and also along a Spanish-language television network to San Francisco, Sacramento, Bakersfield and Fresno. The sponsors said they did not know whether the event was broadcast by any English-language stations.

Davis will head into the final week of the race as the front-runner and perhaps the first white male to be nominated for governor by the California Democratic Party in 20 years.

Davis might also benefit from the fact that his rivals indicated Saturday that they are through with negative television commercials and plan to finish the race on a high note.

“During the last week before the primary, I am going to focus each and every day on education,” Checchi said during the forum.

Even without causing a shake-up, Saturday’s forum was a landmark event in California political history. The Latino vote in state elections has climbed recently from 7% in 1992 to 10% in 1996. The recent Times poll indicated that 11% of those most likely to vote in the June 2 primary will be Latino.

“Something like this would never have come off even as recently as three years ago,” said Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute of Claremont Graduate University. “What happened is after ‘94, there was a giant awakening of political consciousness not only in the Latino community, but also by mainstream candidates of the importance of the Latino vote.”

Raul Hinojosa, director of the North American Immigration and Development Center at UCLA, said Saturday’s event “sets a precedent that will probably become a tradition. This is clearly an indication that the Latino vote has arrived.”

The forum--called California Hacia El Futuro (California Into the Future)--required the candidates to focus on policies that government might offer to expand access to jobs, schools and hospitals.

One questioner from the audience of about 200 community activists and leaders wondered how the candidates would narrow the gap between rich and poor by boosting the middle class.

The answers pitted Lungren against all three Democrats when the GOP candidate suggested that he did not “totally accept the premise of the question.”

“John Kennedy told us that a rising tide lifts all boats,” said Lungren. “I still believe that.”

All three Democrats disputed Lungren’s response, with Checchi saying, “You must have been traveling in a different state for the last couple of years.”

In all, there were seven questions during the one-hour format, some from audience members and others from a pair of panelists, Jesus Javier of KMEX-TV in Los Angeles and Maria del Pilar Marrero of La Opinion.

The candidates were never questioned directly about Proposition 187, the issue credited with heightening political activity and awareness in the Latino community. But some questions were related, such as one about whether immigration is to blame for a lack of jobs.

All four candidates attributed job and wage stress to other conditions. “If we have declining wages in this state, it’s not because of hard-working people,” said Checchi. “It’s because of a failure of government policy.”

Harman used the question to distinguish between legal and illegal immigration.

“I oppose illegal immigration,” she said. “People who live here and abide by the rules deserve the services America provides. People who do not abide by the rules, do not.”

Lungren recalled his support as a congressman for federal legislation granting amnesty to thousands of illegal immigrants.

“When I hear people say what you’ve suggested in your question, normally I look at them and I ask what your last name is,” he said. “Very rarely is it Running Bear or Sitting Bull. Normally, they come from someplace else, as did my ancestors. And my idea is just because I got over the bridge doesn’t mean it’s time to put the drawbridge up.”

There were two questions about education: one about how the candidates would use community colleges to help those who can’t attend the state’s higher education campuses and another about bilingual education. All four oppose Proposition 227, the measure on the June ballot that would virtually end bilingual education. And each suggested a prominent role for community colleges.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

How the Candidates Stand

The Issue

The Economy: What can the next governor do to narrow the gap between California’s rich and poor?

Their Positions

AL CHECCHI: Expand international trade, particularly with Mexico, and following the lead of states like Texas in developing good relationships with trading partners. Boost the minimum wage.

“We should be pulling capital into the United States, we should be representing our interests abroad, we should be forging an economic partnership with Mexico. There is no state that spends less per capita than California on economic development.”

JANE HARMAN: Provide a “first-rate” education system, from kindergarten through college. Stiffen gun controls to create safer schools and communities.

“I have supported public works projects like the Alameda Corridor [in Los Angeles], which is the largest public works project in history....As governor, I will personally intervene to make sure that those areas of California where there is less economic development...will get my full attention.”

GRAY DAVIS: Hike the minimum wage and appoint a commission to annually consider further increases. Improve the education system.

“I am convinced the more we ask of our people, the better they will do. You can graduate from high school today with something called general math. I don’t now what it is, but it’s not algebra, it’s not trigonometry, it’s not calculus. It will not prepare people for the world they are about to face.”

DAN LUNGREN: Cut capital gains tax and improve state’s education system.

“Small businesses, and small businesses becoming medium-sized businesses, is the wave of the future....Anybody who believes the public sector is going to create most of the jobs hasn’t been looking at this economy.”

Analysis: Here, more than on any other issue, the candidates split sharply along ideological lines. All of the Democrats agreed the gap between rich and poor is widening and suggested active ways that government, along with the private sector, could improve matters. Republican Dan Lungren, however, flatly rejected the premise. He offered a more measured approach, favoring free markets, deregulation and a GOP standby--cutting the capital gains tax--over more aggressive efforts to broaden the recovery. All made a point of favoring an improved education system, reflecting the issue’s singular importance among voters this year.

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The Issue

Health Care: What should the state do to provide health care for uninsured Californians?

AL CHECCHI: Seek to guarantee coverage for every California child by expanding existing state and federal programs; establish “patients bill of rights,” including right to sue HMOs for malpractice, ensuring direct access to specialists.

“Is the right to life in our society a function of income? Or is it a right guaranteed by our Constitution? I think it’s a fundamental principle that’s a guarantee of our Constitution . “

JANE HARMAN: Expand the existing federal-state Healthy Families program, for children of working poor uninsured by employers or Medicare; implement “patients bill of rights”; offer tax deductions for self-employed or others forced to buy private health insurance.

“It’s critical that we extend private - based health insurance to cover more people and then provide a safety net for those who are not covered.”

GRAY DAVIS: Use tax credits as incentive to businesses to extend benefits, and encourage small businesses to pool their resources to maximize clout in negotiating coverage from health-care providers.

“I think it’s imperative people have health care. It’s a right, not a privilege. I would find a way within the free-enterprise system to make it available.”

DAN LUNGREN: Expand Healthy Families program, but avoid excessive government mandates on private employers.

“We ought to be very careful what we do in terms of, yes, trying to increase the kinds of benefits that are available to employees, but not burdening small business so much that the jobs aren’t there.”

Analysis: All of the candidates talked about ways to expand the availability of health care benefits, but only Checchi talked about the potentially huge costs. Davis and Lungren struck a similar conservative chord, proposing to rely more on marketplace reforms and incentives to private business rather than government-imposed mandates.

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The Issue

Immigration: Has California’s huge influx of immigrants driven down workers’ wages or hurt the ability of native-born residents to find jobs?

AL CHECCHI: No.

“It’s not our people that are the problem. The problem is our leadership...[People] don’t see a partnering role between the government and the private sector.”

JANE HARMAN: No.

“I fought efforts to lump legal and illegal immigrants together and to treat legal immigrants different from citizens. Legal immigrants should become citizens, and I have proposed effort to facilitate [this].”

GRAY DAVIS: No.

“It’s very important to reward people for waiting their turn and coming here legally and not just to take matters into their own hands and come anytime they want...As governor I would make the good offices of state agencies available to accelerate the opportunity for people to become citizens.”

DAN LUNGREN: No.

“We need immigrants in this country...My idea is just because I got over the bridge doesn’t mean it’s time to put the drawbridge up.”

Analysis: This was a campaign forum aimed at a predominantly Latino audience, and all of the candidates used the opportunity to sing the praises of California’s Latino community. The Democrats also took the chance to condemn Proposition 187, the controversial 1994 anti-illegal immigration initiative. Lungren supported Proposition 187. All four restated their opposition to Proposition 227, the measure to effectively scrap bilingual education.

Reported by MARK Z. BARABAK and CATHLEEN DECKER / Los Angeles Times