A LOOK AHEAD * As election nears, candidates boost efforts to discredit foes. It’s . . . Fear and Loathing on the ‘Gotcha Trail’

At first Alan Lowenthal’s campaign people thought the memo passed along to them was too good to be true, perhaps a prank or even a setup.

Here was Republican Assembly Leader Bill Leonard seemingly calling his own party’s contender for the pivotal Long Beach-Palos Verdes Assembly seat “light on issues.”

The memo, which was sent early this month to potential contributors, gave brief synopses of the races in 16 districts that are key to Republican efforts to take control of the Legislature’s lower house. In the column on 54th Assembly District, where Democrat Lowenthal is battling the GOP’s Julie Alban for the seat being vacated by a Republican seeking another office, this was written:

“Vulnerable. Democrat is elected official with a base of support. Recent polling has Alban ahead by 4%. Alban has compelling story, but light on issues. Democrat has already begun strong mail campaign.”

Once they ascertained that the memo was authentic, Lowenthal campaign staffers wasted no time trying to turn it to their candidate’s advantage. They issued a press release highlighting the excerpt and labeling it “a candid admission of trouble in the Alban camp.”

Leonard said it was no such thing.

“At the time I wrote the memo, there were not a lot of issues being talked about. It was mostly about Julie Alban telling her personal story,” Leonard said. (Alban was shot and paralyzed by a rejected suitor, then went on to earn a law degree and become a city prosecutor specializing in victims’ rights.)

Since he wrote the memo, Leonard said, the campaign emphasis has shifted, and Alban has demonstrated that “she has a lot on the ball on the key issues important to this state.”

Still, Leonard wishes he had chosen his words more carefully.

“You know any good copy editors?” he wryly asked a reporter recently. “If I had had a good copy editor, I would have written [the memo] in such a way that it wasn’t open to misinterpretation.”

While not everybody gets unintended help from opposition leaders, Lowenthal is far from alone in his efforts to find material to make his competitor look bad.

As the low-visibility but hotly contested races for key congressional and legislative seats enter their final days, the battles get increasingly nasty. The zingers, unleashed in press releases, news conferences, forums and campaign mailers, begin flying at gale force.

Armed with voting records, lists of campaign contributors, documents pertaining to private lives and even--perhaps especially--missteps on the campaign trail, candidates in tight races dig up whatever they can to put opponents on the defensive.

Races in suburban, swing congressional and legislative districts are especially ripe for “gotcha”-style campaigning. There are several of these--including the 54th Assembly District race--ringing Los Angeles, districts that both major parties have targeted with money and other resources in their efforts to win majorities in Washington and Sacramento.

These targeted districts tend to be politically moderate, with party registration about evenly divided among Democrats and Republicans. Candidates in such races struggle to catch the attention of voters bombarded by statewide campaigns, and a big challenge for strategists is determining what issues are likely to click.

Julio Ramirez, the manager of Democrat Janice Hahn’s race against Republican Steve Kuykendall for the open, Venice-to-San Pedro 36th Congressional District seat, believes that he has found one in tobacco. Polls have shown that California voters do not like tobacco companies, and Kuykendall has a bit of history that Ramirez would like voters to remember.

Kuykendall now holds the Assembly seat being sought by Alban and Lowenthal. He won his first bid for that seat in 1994 with the help of a last-minute, $125,000 contribution from tobacco giant Philip Morris. He took heat for it and said he would take no more money from tobacco interests.

But the Hahn campaign has pointed out that the state and national Republican Party caucuses, which accept contributions from tobacco interests, are waging their own campaigns on Kuykendall’s behalf.

“Steve Kuykendall looked the people of this district in the eye and said he would not accept cash for his campaign from ‘big tobacco,’ but by allowing the Republican Party to run TV spots and send out mail on his behalf, he is doing just that,” Hahn charged in a press release last week.

“If Steve Kuykendall cared about the terrible harm that tobacco does to our kids, he would stay true to his campaign pledge by telling the Republican Party to immediately pull its TV ads and stop sending mail,” Hahn continued.

Kuykendall called that “a real stretch.”

“Both parties receive their own donations from lots of different sources,” he said. “How you filter that, I don’t know.”

Besides, he charged, Democrats who spend money on Hahn’s behalf have taken plenty of tobacco contributions.

Hahn wasn’t done. Her campaign staff researched Kuykendall’s voting record and matched it against the claims he made in mailers. They seized on a claim that Kuykendall had voted to toughen penalties for selling tobacco to minors, then pointed out that the bill he cited, AB 2188, would have knocked down that particular violation from a misdemeanor to an infraction. (The governor ultimately vetoed the bill.)

“I don’t believe he has the gall to say this . . . he is misleading the voters,” Hahn campaign manager Ramirez said after examining the bill.

Kuykendall said that making the crime an infraction would have improved sanctions against storekeepers who broke the law because they could have been fined, with increases for repeated offenses. As it stands now, most scofflaws get off because overburdened prosecutors give these cases low priority.

“This is a case where somebody can spin something either way they want,” Kuykendall said. “I’ve got a record [of anti-tobacco] legislation that is definitive,” he added, saying that tobacco companies long ago stopped looking to him for support.

In the South Bay’s 53rd Assembly District, where Republican Bill Eggers is running against Democrat George Nakano, a veteran Torrance City Council member, for the seat being vacated by Debra Bowen (D-Torrance), Eggers’ campaign has tried to sully Nakano’s straight-arrow reputation.

Last week, Eggers’ campaign manager, James Fisfis, offered reporters documents showing that Nakano’s family was claiming a homeowners exemption on rental property that it owns in Gardena. The exemption, which represents a substantial property tax break, is intended only for owner-occupied homes.

“I don’t know whether it is illegal, but on its face, it doesn’t look right,” Fisfis said. His point? “I think George Nakano needs to be more careful in watching how he conducts financial affairs. He’s going to be responsible for a lot of important financial things in Sacramento.”

Nakano campaign manager Becki Ames said the tactic was a “desperate attempt” by Eggers to draw attention away from a lack of experience. (Eggers was a government reform expert for the libertarian-oriented Reason Public Policy Institute before leaving to make his first run for elected office.)

Ames said the house in question had belonged to Nakano’s mother, who as its occupant was entitled to the exemption. When she became ill and had to move to a nursing home, her four children bought the home in trust, and at least one family member still lives there. Nakano’s brother Toshio handles all the paperwork, Ames said, and Nakano lists the house on the financial disclosure documents that elected officials are required to file for public scrutiny.

The family believes that it is entitled to the exemption, Ames said, but “to be on the safe side,” the Nakanos took steps with the county to have the exemption removed immediately. “If there is any money owed, the family will take care of it right away,” Ames said.

Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican consultant who publishes the California Target Book, a nonpartisan guide to state legislative and congressional races, said attacks are part of the political process.

“Remember, it’s an adversarial relationship,” Hoffenblum said. “Voters really do want to know the difference between the candidates, and that’s what all campaigns are trying to do. The hits are part of the attempt to create contrast.

“Some campaigns do it well, some do it poorly. Hopefully they do it honestly rather than dishonestly. . . . It’s the voter’s responsibility to know the difference.”