Forum Does Little to Divide Knox, Kuehl

In their second face-to-face appearance in the San Fernando Valley, Assembly members Sheila Kuehl and Wally Knox struggled to distinguish themselves Tuesday night for 70 people at a Jewish Federation/Valley Alliance forum here.

But the courtly exchange seemed only to further flummox some audience members, who confessed to liking both candidates.

Forced by term limits to leave the Assembly, the two liberal Democrats are vying for the 23rd Senate District seat being vacated by Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles).

In the affluent, well-educated and liberal district--which stretches from Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica on the Westside to Woodland Hills, Calabasas, Sherman Oaks and Studio City in the Valley--winning the March 7 Democratic primary is considered tantamount to winning the seat in November.

Friends and political allies, Knox and Kuehl have avoided mudslinging. At their first forum last October at the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging, the candidates’ strongest critiques seemed to be aimed not at each other, but at the voter-approved term limits they say pitted them against each other in the first place.

With just five weeks left until the primary, the two candidates remained civil rather than caustic, referring to each other as “my friend, Wally,” and “my friend, Sheila Kuehl.”

Kuehl sought to portray herself as a leader in Sacramento, while Knox chose to characterize himself as a fighter, taking up the against-all-odds battles, like his campaign against the phone companies to roll back the overlay that forced 11-digit dialing in the 310 area code.

Rather than a debate, each candidate had 10 minutes to make an introduction followed by questions from the audience.

Kuehl chose to tell her compelling personal story, while Knox told the Jewish audience a dramatic tale of the passage of a Holocaust bill that requires insurance companies to release the names of unpaid policyholders from before World War II or get kicked out of California.

And then the candidates spent a lot of time agreeing.

They agreed education is the most important issue in California’s future. They agreed that they do not favor secession or the breakup of the Los Angeles Unified School District, but they do not make those decisions and favor voters right to choose.

Indeed, their presentations seemed more confounding than clarifying for some who attended.

“I think you’re both terrific,” said a man from Agoura Hills, the first from the audience to question the candidates. “And I’m very frustrated.”

Kuehl, an openly gay attorney and former actress who played the young Zelda Gilroy on “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” has championed women’s causes, health care and the environment. More than 50 of her bills have been signed into law.

Knox, also an attorney, touts his success in rolling back the 11-digit dialing in the 310 area code, and his successful quest for funding for two projects designed to improve traffic flow at the San Diego (405) and Ventura (101) freeway interchange.

Knox has the backing of organized labor, and the endorsement of Republican Mayor Richard Riordan, who will host a fund-raiser for him at his Brentwood home Feb. 10, while Kuehl has proved more adept at winning support from the party faithful.

Knox has the lead in fund-raising through the most recent reporting period, but his war chest includes $283,000 he loaned his campaign. Knox reported $778,000 through Jan. 22, including $75,000 garnered in the first three weeks of January. He reported $474,611 in cash on hand.

But Kuehl is close on his heels, raising $61,000 in the three weeks ended Jan. 22, and $707,000 overall, according to her campaign manager. That does not include any loans to herself. She reported $278,000 in cash on hand.

Both candidates have stuffed Westside mailboxes with campaign literature in recent weeks. Kuehl sent out a stream of endorsement letters from Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Gov. Gray Davis, and an eight-page biography documenting her career, dubbed “From Zelda to Sacramento.”

Knox sent mailers reminding voters of his work on rolling back the 310 area code overlay, getting money to improve the interchange, and one mailer targeted at Jewish voters, reminding them of his Holocaust legislation.

“So far what I’ve seen is a fairly civil contest,” Robert M. Stern, co-director of the Center for Governmental Studies, a nonprofit research organization in Los Angeles, remarked recently. “The question is how can they distinguish themselves from each other, without appearing to be negative? If you go too negative you may be punished. On the other hand, negativity usually helps.”