Similar Tragedies, Opposing Views

Assemblyman Jack Scott lost a son when a host accidentally shot him in the head during a dinner party. Ken LaCorte lost a sister when a robber shot her and her boyfriend.

Senseless tragedies by any measure, but what sets Scott and LaCorte apart are the roles the killings have played in each man’s life.

For Scott the Democrat, the 1993 slaying of his son Adam, a 27-year-old attorney, has transformed him into one of the Legislature’s most ardent gun-control 0advocates. For LaCorte the Republican, the murder of his sister Cathy in 1973 and his fight to keep her killer behind bars has led him to campaign publicly to abolish parole and probation for violent offenders.

Each impassioned by tragedy, Scott and LaCorte are now vying for the 44th Assembly District seat, which stretches from the northeast San Fernando Valley to La Canada Flintridge and Pasadena.

A key Republican strategist said his party is in the process of evaluating whether to target the race, noting that results from recent GOP polls show it shaping up to be more competitive than predicted.

“It’s Jack Scott 35% and Ken LaCorte 27%, which for a perceived popular incumbent is nowhere near where it should be,” the strategist said. “I don’t think this is going to be a cakewalk for Jack Scott.”

Scott said his own polls show him leading by 21 points. Scott said he is confident that if the Republicans decide to dump money into LaCorte’s campaign, the Democrats will be there to help him out as well.

“You can count on me to run hard until election day,” Scott said. “I always run hard. I don’t let up.”

Though traditionally a Republican seat, the 44th Assembly District was claimed by Democrats when Scott wrested it away in 1996 from incumbent Bill Hoge. Recent voter records show that Democrats outnumber Republicans 45% to 39%.

As a result, Dick Rosengarten, publisher of the political newsletter Calpeek, predicts Scott will win the seat, not only because Democrats have an edge, but because of the prominent role Scott has played in the fight to impose stricter controls on guns.

“The Republicans are going to have to wait for Scott to get termed out,” Rosengarten said. “The one caveat is if Democrats don’t turn out on election day.”

Republicans are hoping the presidential scandal will keep Democratic voters home.

Getting Republican voters out in the area is also important for freshman Rep. James E. Rogan (R-Glendale), a member of the House Judiciary Committee and a key player in the impeachment debate, who is waging a tough campaign for reelection.

“It benefits the Republicans to get involved in one of the Assembly races out there,” said Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican consultant and publisher of the nonpartisan California Target Book. “They need a strong Assembly race to get out the Republican vote. To not get involved could hurt Jim Rogan.”

LaCorte and Scott are running on platforms that differ on education reform, guns and abortion. Scott is an abortion rights advocate, while LaCorte opposes abortion except in cases of incest, rape or threat to the life of the mother.

Scott was disappointed by Gov. Pete Wilson’s decision last month to veto legislation aimed at strengthening California’s ban on military-style assault weapons.

LaCorte, who says he favors outlawing all forms of automatic weapons, said he believed the legislation went too far and supported Wilson’s veto. LaCorte said he supports reasonable restrictions on guns and a crackdown on felons with handguns. He is a member of the National Rifle Assn., which has taken out newspaper ads against Scott.

“I keep a firearm to protect my children . . . locked in a steel box under my bed,” LaCorte said. “A lot of legislation is aimed at people like me.”

Scott has sponsored legislation aimed at tightening security at plants that manufacture the inexpensive Saturday night specials, many of which are concentrated in Southern California.

“More people die from gunfire in California than automobile crashes,” Scott said. “We can’t eliminate [gun-related deaths], but we can reduce them.”

Besides contrasting stands on key issues, the two men also possess distinct personal styles. LaCorte is a 33-year-old father of two young sons; Scott is a 65-year-old grandfather of eight.

A former Pasadena City College president, Scott has gained a reputation in the Legislature for being lucid, organized and having a flair for oratory colored by his Southern accent. In his first term, Scott pushed through 25 pieces of legislation, including increasing highway patrols in the Sunland/Tujunga area and upgrading the Altadena sheriff’s substation.

As chair of the committee that handles education funding, Scott is quick to point out his support for measures to reduce class sizes and lengthen the school year. He also sponsored a bill making it easier to fire community college teachers by changing the standard for dismissal from “incompetence” to “unsatisfactory performance.”

If reelected, Scott, who has raised slightly more than $317,000, said he will continue to push for school funding and to devise ways to hold low-performing schools accountable.

LaCorte has proposed that report cards be issued on individual schools, covering classroom sizes, teachers’ pay, standard test scores and how much money is spent in classrooms. If elected, he said he will work to reduce taxes on small businesses and expand to nonsexual offenders Megan’s Law, which allows police to alert neighbors to molesters in their midst.

A medical supply dealer who has previously worked for a political consulting firm, LaCorte has raised nearly $126,000 and lists the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Assn. and Susan Carpenter McMillan, a television commentator and spokeswoman for the Woman’s Coalition, as endorsements.

LaCorte made headlines earlier this year for posting the names of dozens of Los Angeles County’s most dangerous sex offenders, a list he culled from the Megan’s Law CD-ROM and posted on the Internet. Last month he also began distributing a booklet listing the names of hundreds of registered sex offenders in the San Gabriel Valley and parts of the northeast San Fernando Valley.

LaCorte, who has described Scott as an extreme liberal, alleged in a campaign brochure that his opponent’s voting record has been soft on crime and anti-business. Scott brushes such charges aside.

“If he’s trying to paint me as soft on crime, he’s going to have a hard time doing it,” said Scott, who has received endorsements from every major law enforcement agency in the state.