Democrats Fight for Voters’ Attention

Even as they go out of their way to talk tough on crime, two of the three main Democratic candidates for California’s top law enforcement post pledge to focus on another side of the attorney general’s office, one that they say is at least as important.

Heading into the June 2 primary, state Sen. Bill Lockyer of Hayward and San Diego lawyer Lynn Schenk vow to revamp and expand the civil litigation units--drawing on California’s 900 deputy attorneys general to sue businesses over antitrust violations and to enforce laws against discrimination and for consumer and environmental protection.

The third Democrat, state Sen. Charles M. Calderon of Whittier, casts himself as more moderate and business-friendly. He talks about his upbringing on “the tough streets of East Los Angeles” and about the need to create after-school programs so youths have an alternative to drugs and gangs.

“First and foremost,” Calderon said, “the job is to protect public safety. If you don’t feel safe when you leave your home, then you’re not free.”

With vast authority to enforce and interpret civil and criminal laws, the attorney general’s post is the second most powerful statewide office, next to the governor. Public opinion polls show that most voters know little about the race and even less about the candidates.

In the latest Los Angeles Times poll, Lockyer had 27% support among likely voters, well ahead of Calderon at 4% and Schenk at 3%.

If money wins campaigns, Lockyer is also clearly the one to beat.

Lockyer, who must leave the Legislature because of term limits, spent four years as Senate president pro tem, giving up the post this year to run for attorney general. As Senate leader, Lockyer was a prodigious fund-raiser. He gave most of it to other Democrats, but also amassed $4.1 million for his own campaign, more than what other candidates, Democrat and Republican, have raised combined.

Much of Lockyer’s money comes from trial lawyers and organized labor, traditional Democratic sources of money. The donations buy all-important television air time for 30-second ads, the main way statewide candidates in California wage campaigns.

Calderon, no fund-raising slouch, also draws on donors cultivated during his tenure in Sacramento. He has raised nearly $1.5 million, enough to air commercials of his own, including spots on Spanish-language radio.

Calderon, also termed out, hopes to win enough votes from Latinos in the June 2 primary to gain the Democratic nomination, and face the victor in the Republican race, either Chief Deputy Atty. Gen. Dave Stirling or Orange County Dist. Atty. Mike Capizzi, in the November general election. Incumbent Republican Dan Lungren is running for governor.

Calderon’s largest single source of money--$469,000--comes from Indian tribes battling the state and federal government for the right to operate casinos in the way they see fit in California. The U.S. Justice Department is trying to shut down what it contends are illegal gambling practices. The state attorney general has regulatory authority over gambling in California, and is a key part of the state team negotiating with tribes over the types of casino games they can operate.

Calderon says the money from Indian gambling interests won’t affect his ability to oversee the burgeoning industry. He also insists that Native Americans have the right to govern their own affairs.

“The issue isn’t Indian gaming,” he said. “The fundamental issue is tribal sovereignty.”

Calderon, 48, and Lockyer, 57, have a combined four decades in the Legislature.

Contrasting herself against the longtime lawmakers, Schenk, 53, portrays herself as the outsider, though she has been a Democratic fund-raiser, was in Gov. Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr.’s cabinet as secretary of business, transportation and housing, and won a seat in Congress in 1992. She lost her bid for reelection when Republicans seized control of Congress.

Appearing before a law enforcement group in Sacramento after Lockyer, Capizzi, Stirling and Calderon had spoken, Schenk opened by wryly asking: “Notice any difference?” She hopes that being a woman will help her attract votes. She would be California’s first female attorney general.

Schenk trails Lockyer and Calderon in the money race, with $700,000. But she has more legal experience than the others, having been a deputy attorney general for two years in the early 1970s. She now is affiliated with Baker & McKenzie, the world’s largest law firm.

Like the other main candidates, Schenk is pro-death penalty and vows to wage war on drugs and crime. Although most candidates refer to the post as the top law enforcement office, Schenk says she wants to be the state’s “top lawyer.”

She has a long list of societal ills she would target: unsafe food, telemarketing operations that coax money from the elderly, domestic violence, sexual harassment, unpaid child support, health maintenance organizations that aren’t patient friendly, even road rage.

Schenk says she will be especially tough on tobacco, pursuing litigation against the industry, and trying to stop it from marketing its wares in movies and on television.

She attacks Lockyer and Calderon for taking tobacco company donations, citing campaign finance reports showing that Lockyer has taken $184,000 during his years in office, and that Calderon has taken $76,000. Lockyer, who like Calderon, is not taking tobacco money now, points to a handful of tobacco donations Schenk took during a congressional campaign.

In the past, Lockyer did help the tobacco industry. He and then-Speaker Willie Brown drafted a massive rewrite of civil law in 1987. Part of it exempted tobacco companies from some suits over tobacco-related illness. In Sacramento, the deal is legendary. Outlined on a napkin in Frank Fat’s, a political watering hole, the legislation zipped through the Legislature late at night in an end-of-session crush of bills. Calderon voted for it.

A decade later, as other states joined nationwide tobacco litigation, Lungren balked, saying the 1987 law barred him from suing the industry. Lungren filed California’s lawsuit last year, only after the Legislature lifted the exemption.

Although Lockyer maintains that the 1987 law did not preclude Lungren from suing, Superior Court Judge John Lewis of Sacramento ruled otherwise this month. Tossing out a portion of the suit, the judge concluded that the tobacco industry was immune from some liability for the years when the exemption was on the books.

Lately, however, Lockyer has done an about-face on tobacco.

As Senate leader last year, Lockyer killed legislation that would have permitted continued smoking in bars in California. He also appointed outspoken tobacco industry critic Stanton Glantz, a medical school professor at UC San Francisco, to a state board that oversees the state Department of Health Services’ tobacco control efforts.

“Lockyer’s record has gone from bad to good,” Glantz said.

Most career politicians downplay their insider status. Not Lockyer. He hopes that voters will see it as a benefit. Speaking to a gathering of local police officials this month, he vowed to be in the middle of annual state budget fights to wrest money for law enforcement.

“I will do it better than anyone in history,” Lockyer said.

He acknowledged that he has minimal courtroom experience, but dismissed its importance, saying: “The attorney general isn’t conducting trials. The attorney general is the senior partner of the largest law firm in the state.”

Like Schenk, Lockyer has big plans for that law firm: enforce abortion rights, protect women from domestic violence and the elderly from abuse, restrict assault weapons, sue polluters, bring civil rights and consumer protection actions, improve Department of Justice crime labs and computer systems to aid local police and prosecutors.

Lockyer is renowned for putting in extraordinarily long hours. As Senate leader, he took a hand in virtually every major bill, and led Democrats in budget negotiations with Gov. Pete Wilson.

He made his legislative mark by writing detailed, often arcane, bills to overhaul the criminal and civil justice systems. He talks about being driven to write anti-crime laws in part because he was molested as a child.

Last year, Lockyer pushed legislation to ensure that the state would pay the costs of operating Superior Courts. He wrote Proposition 220 on the June ballot to consolidate Superior and Municipal courts, a move he says will make them more efficient.

He also carried legislation that won Wilson’s signature to make death penalty appeals move more quickly.

In his campaign material, Lockyer takes credit for writing California’s first three-strikes sentencing measure. It’s a stretch. Lockyer’s version, sponsored by local prosecutors, was part of a massive rewrite of sentencing laws. It included a provision imposing life sentences on repeat felons convicted of violent felony on their final crime. Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed the 1989 bill because it shaved sentences for lesser felonies.

The three-strikes law ultimately approved by the Legislature and voters in a 1994 initiative is much broader, imposing life sentences on repeat felons who commit any felony, violent or not.

Mike Reynolds, the Fresno photographer who promoted the 1994 three-strikes measure after his daughter was slain, scoffed at Lockyer’s claims, saying Lockyer “did everything to oppose” his measure. “When it was clear that the train was coming through, he got on board.”

Like Lockyer, Calderon also has a long legislative record, albeit one that is less ambitious.

He tried to win passage of legislation to make it easier for celebrities to bring court actions against tabloids. Actor Steven Seagal was among the stars who testified for it. Seagal was Calderon’s featured guest at a recent fund-raiser that raked in $300,000.

Although he has won his share of legislative battles, Calderon also has been a maverick. As an assemblyman, he joined a block of Democrats and Republicans in a failed effort to dump Willie Brown as speaker in the 1980s. In more recent years, some of his bills have angered liberal groups.

“You can’t be a leader unless you’re willing to go against the status quo, and that means going against what’s politically correct,” Calderon said.

After an especially hard divorce, Calderon has pushed for legislation to give fathers greater rights in child custody battles, a crusade that has put him at odds with women’s groups.

Calderon carried several bills to rewrite environmental laws dealing with water quality standards and dumps, often siding more with industry than environmentalists.

Sacramento Sierra Club lobbyist Michael Paparian said Calderon “has become quite hostile to environmental interests on a number of occasions.” The environmentalist group has endorsed Lockyer.

In his campaign, Calderon does not talk about using the office to fight many of the societal problems that Schenk and Lockyer emphasize. His is a more traditional message.

Among his proudest legislative accomplishments is a bill inspired by actor Carroll O’Connor’s lawsuit against a drug dealer who sold drugs to O’Connor’s late son.

The measure allows individuals, hospitals and others to sue drug dealers for injuries caused by drugs, whether or not the dealer sold the drugs that caused the injury. The law has not yet been invoked in a lawsuit. He said he would use the law as attorney general.

When Calderon talks about the crime-fighting side of the attorney general’s office, he recalls his own childhood, telling audiences how he managed to avoid getting into gangs, and vowing to help others do the same.

Other candidates on the blanket primary ballot are Democrat Michael K. Schmier, an attorney from Emeryville, who is opposed to the state appellate court practice of issuing opinions that cannot be cited as precedents in other cases; Peace and Freedom candidates Gary P. Kast, a criminal defense lawyer, and Robert J. Evans, a criminal defense lawyer; Libertarian Joseph S. Farina, an attorney; and American Independent Diane Beall Templin, an attorney.

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Profile: Charles M. Calderon

Calderon is a state senator from Whittier. He grew up in East Los Angeles and Montebello and later was a member of the Montebello school board. The son of an insurance salesman and working mother, he is one of five children.

* Age: 48

* Residence: Whittier

* Education: B.A., Cal State L.A.; UC Davis law school

* Career highlights: Calderon worked as a deputy city attorney in Los Angeles for two years, prosecuting misdemeanor crimes. He was elected to the Assembly in 1982, and state Senate in 1990, where he followed Sen. Bill Lockyer as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was a lawyer with the Los Angeles law firm Burke, Williams & Sorensen.

* Family: Married, two sons from a previous marriage

* Quote: “As a parent and your next attorney general, I will wake up every morning thinking of ways to keep our families safe.”

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Profile: Bill Lockyer

Lockyer is a state senator from Hayward. He is the son of a roofer, and has been involved in Democratic politics for all of his adult life.

* Age: 57

* Residence: Hayward

* Education: B.A., UC Berkeley; McGeorge Law School

* Career highlights: Lockyer was Senate president pro tem for four years, ending earlier this year. As Senate leader, he was responsible for taking the lead in budget negotiations and for making hundreds of appointments. He has carried major legislation dealing with the civil and criminal justice systems. He was elected to the Assembly in 1973, and state Senate in 1982. He attended law school two nights a week for 7 1/2 years while he was in the Legislature. He is affiliated with a small law firm in Hayward. One of the partners is president of the California Trial Lawyers Assn.

* Family: Single, divorced twice, adult daughter from his first marriage

* Quote: “My principle commitment is to ordinary citizens as a politician and as a lawyer. I want to be the people’s attorney. I want to run the Office of Justice, not the office of just us.”

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Profile: Lynn Schenk

Schenk is the daughter of a tailor who escaped from Hungary in the Holocaust and migrated to Los Angeles, where Schenk graduated from Hamilton High School.

* Age: 53

* Residence: La Jolla

* Education: B.A., UCLA; University of San Diego law school

* Career highlights: Schenk served one term in Congress from 1992-94. She also worked as a deputy state attorney general in San Diego for two years, then was counsel to San Diego Gas & Electric. Gov. Jerry Brown appointed her secretary for business, transportation and housing. She now is special counsel to the international law firm Baker & McKenzie.

* Family: Married 25 years to Hugh Friedman, a law professor at the University of San Diego. She has three stepchildren and four grandchildren.

* Quote: “I’m not entrenched in that Sacramento special interest wheeling and dealing. I’m the one who is most independent.”