Right Makes Might in Antelope Valley Politics

For the past 20 years, change has been sweeping through the Antelope Valley like a high desert wind.

The population has grown fivefold, including an influx of blacks and Latinos. Fast roads now link the cities of Palmdale and Lancaster to L.A.’s urban core 70 miles away. Retail growth is mushrooming, with Joshua trees vanishing into Costcos and Carl’s Jrs.

But one aspect of life in the Antelope Valley hasn’t changed--the political scene. The area remains the most staunchly conservative region in Los Angeles County, political observers say.

Witness Kevin W. Carney, the sheriff’s sergeant elected Nov. 2 to the Palmdale City Council--four days after he was arrested on suspicion of molesting a 14-year-old girl.

Carney, an outspoken conservative, used his anti-diversity, pro-school prayer views to tap into a well-organized network of church groups, right-wing activists and Republican businessmen. That support helped him build a bank of absentee votes before his arrest that proved decisive.

Carney was popular even before the council election. He served on the local high school board, and as a sheriff’s sergeant he embodied the spirit of law and order that attracted many residents to the High Desert.

But many Antelope Valley politicians, both friends and foes of Carney’s, said the conservative groups that endorsed him and helped pay for his campaign wield enormous clout in the region.

“How else would an accused child molester get elected?” asked Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford, a self-described moderate Republican. “The far right controls everything here. They’ve made nonpartisan elections partisan. They are better financed and better organized than anybody else. That’s how it’s always been.”

Ledford is part of the tight circle of white, middle-aged Republican men who run the Antelope Valley. Others in the power grid are Assemblyman George Runner (R-Lancaster), who founded a church school, and William “Pete” Knight (R-Palmdale), a right-wing state senator who is leading the charge against same-sex marriage.

“In politics, there’s a big clique up here and it needs to get weeded out,” said Palmdale resident Bob Rogers.

That’s why Rogers said he voted for a 20-year-old college kid, Carlos Chavez, who ran for mayor but lost: “What the heck, how can he do any wrong? He may have brought some new blood in.”

Old Guard a Potent Force

The Antelope Valley Republican Assembly is one of the most powerful political organizations of the old guard, according to Republicans and Democrats. A conservative group formed in 1977, it backs candidates who are traditionally anti-tax, anti-gun control and anti-abortion. Its president, Wayne Woodhall, is a retired aerospace engineer who is now an emu rancher.

Woodhall spent a recent morning on his emu ranch south of Palmdale trying to reconnect with his flock of 150 flightless birds he had neglected during the recent election cycle.

“Remember our rule, Red,” Woodhall told a recalcitrant emu who pecked his hand when approached. “You have to be a friend to have a friend.”

Woodhall sees himself as typical of many Antelope Valley residents: He came to get away from the values of “down there” as he calls L.A. He believes creationism should be taught in school and calls the laws of physics “God’s laws.”

Those views were echoed in 1995 with the “Contract with Antelope Valley Families,” backed by seven candidates, including Carney, who was then running for a seat on the board of the Antelope Valley Union High School District. Similar to the Republican Party’s “Contract With America,” the tenets opposed teaching about sexual orientation and multiculturalism, and supported campuswide moments of silence.

Carney won his race that year, continuing the conservative majority that ran the board for years.

Back then, Carney was supported by the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly. He’s a member of the group and won its endorsement for the City Council race this year.

Twelve of the 18 local candidates in this election cycle who were supported by the conservative assembly won their seats. Among the city councils and elementary school boards in Lancaster and Palmdale, the Antelope Valley Community College Board and the Antelope Valley Union High School District, all but two are controlled by a majority of either Republican assembly members or candidates endorsed by the assembly.

“If you’re not endorsed by AVRA, the chances of you winning an election are slim,” said Sandy Corrales, a registered Democrat who lost to Carney by 97 votes. Absentee votes were her downfall; Corrales’ 169 mail-ins fell far short of Carney’s 410, the most absentee ballots of any candidate.

Backed Nixon as a Teenager

Carney, who is 48, married and the father of three adult children, walked precincts for candidate Richard Nixon as a teen.

After graduating from Chatsworth High School in 1969, he earned a political science degree from Cal State Northridge. He has lived in Georgia, Alaska and Ghana and has a knack for languages, speaking French, Spanish, German and Italian.

“I make no bones about being conservative. Whether you are liberal or conservative, family issues and values are the root of community,” he said. “I know there are Democrats who vote for me. I make no apologies for who I am and what I am.”

He is equally resolute about the October molestation allegations by a 14-year-old girl, who is a family friend.

“I am not guilty of anything,” Carney said, declining further comment.

No charges have been filed against Carney. An arraignment is scheduled Monday, but the district attorney’s office said it will request a continuation.

For Carney, the case serves as a painful flashback. In March 1997, he was accused of inappropriately touching two young neighborhood girls. Two months later, after the district attorney did not file charges, Carney pushed ahead with plans to run for mayor. He lost the November 1997 election.

Carney and his allies are quick to tie that case and his Oct. 29 arrest to Palmdale’s often down-and-dirty politics. One culprit, they say, is Diana Beard-Williams, an outspoken, liberal black Democrat who publishes the Antelope Valley Political Chronicles, which frequently targets the Christian right.

“Politics in this valley is a dirty game, don’t fool yourself,” her October newsletter reads. “The question is: How does that square with calling yourself a good Christian just to get votes?”

Beard-Williams acknowledges a long-running enmity between herself and the Republican assembly and Runner.

But Beard-Williams said she was shocked when Carney accused her of being a source for last month’s molestation charge, which she denies.

Officials in the Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s office said they do not believe politics is behind the girl’s case.

Palmdale Democrats Have Slight Edge

Palmdale’s registered Democrats slightly outnumber Republicans by 42% to 40% for the first time in 15 years. In Lancaster, Republicans still outnumber Democrats by about 10%.

Yet, of the 50-plus candidates seeking office this month, only three endorsed by the Democratic Club of the High Desert won.

This frustrates Democrats because the voter base has been growing in directions that should be helping them win seats.

From 1980 to 1999, Palmdale’s population exploded by 878% and Lancaster’s by nearly 171%, according to data from the Census Bureau and the state Finance Department. The fasting-growing groups in the area are blacks and Latinos. For example, the number of black residents in Palmdale soared by 947% between 1980 and 1990.

Today, Palmdale is 7% black and 28% Latino, and Lancaster is 8% black and 23% Latino, according to county estimates.

Any shift away from the Republican assembly power base won’t happen overnight because its tight network of businesses and churches are deeply entrenched in the community, said Donald Ranish, a political science professor at Antelope Valley Community College.

The Republican dominance here is known across the state.

“Year after year, it’s one of our better strongholds,” said Stuart DeVeaux, spokesman for the California Republican Party.

The strongest church group is the opaquely named Community Impact Committee, a group led by pastors who rally behind conservative candidates, putting together slate mailers and passing out fliers at Sunday services. This past election, the committee endorsed 15 candidates. Thirteen won.

Local Republican businessmen, led by R. Rex Parris, a personal injury lawyer, and Frank Visco, an insurance salesman, amplify that clout by contributing generously to church-backed candidates such as Carney.

Perhaps Carney’s most vital endorsement was from Runner, the boyish, home-grown assemblyman who has carved out a secure niche for himself with church-based politics.

During this month’s local races, Runner was attacked by some for trying to lift the “cactus curtain”--the imaginary fence between Palmdale and Lancaster--and take over Palmdale by installing cronies like Carney on the City Council.

These flaps go back to the late 1980s, the beginning of Antelope Valley’s explosive growth and the start of Lancaster and Palmdale’s Athens versus Sparta rivalry for retail projects.

As a councilman, Carney told campaign supporters he is eager to work with his counterparts in Lancaster. He also said he wants to push for a Palmdale hospital and more deputies. And, in concert with the conservative groups that supported him, Carney said he plans to block any additional low-income housing in the area.

He will have more time for politics now. After 23 years with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, Carney has decided to retire because his credibility in law enforcement has been compromised, he said.

“There’s a group of people who will always believe [these allegations],” Carney said. “It’s time for me to move on.”