Face Is Familiar, but Whose Prints Are on This Election?

When it comes to face time, Barry Gordon, a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 44th Assembly District, has a clear edge.

While candidate Diana Peterson-More was holding one of her trademark “Dialogues With Diana” in a private home Tuesday night, and candidate Carol Liu was speaking to the Kiwanis in Sunland-Tujunga, Gordon was beamed into millions of living rooms nationwide as a nerdy fingerprint expert on the television show “NYPD Blue.”

As he whisked his evidence out of a briefcase, and offered his theories on whose “papillary ridges” were on the murder weapon, he looked an awful lot like the guy you see standing on the podium these days at local political forums.

When Gordon rushed out the door, you could almost hear him saying: “Gotta go. I’ve got a debate in Pasadena in an hour.”

“That’s just one of my day jobs,” said Gordon, a former president of the Screen Actors Guild, who is one of three Democrats, three Republicans and a Libertarian vying for the 44th Assembly seat of Jack Scott (D-Altadena) in the March 7 primary.

Gordon added that his lines on the show contained nothing that could be construed as a campaign pitch.

There were no subliminal “Vote for Barry Gordon” messages during the broadcast, and close inspection of his suit revealed no tiny campaign button cleverly concealed on his lapel.

Still, Gordon’s constant presence on network TV and in the movies over the last 40 years does leave those who meet him for the first time with the uncanny sense that they have seen him somewhere before.

“He came out and introduced himself and said this is the first time we’ve met,” said a volunteer who recently started working on the Gordon campaign. “I spent until midnight trying to figure out where I knew him from.”

The volunteer soon learned Gordon was an actor, but a week later, he remained perplexed: “I’m still trying to figure out what episode of ‘M.A.S.H.’ he’s from. . . . I think it’s the one about the nose job.”

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MORE GLITZ: Presidential politics are getting local.

Conservative activist Susan Carpenter-McMillan enjoys national name recognition for her role as spokeswoman for Bill Clinton-accuser Paula Jones.

She is seeking the Republican nomination in the 44th Assembly race.

Observers say the articulate former TV commentator will probably garner the support of Republicans repulsed by Clinton and his womanizing.

But Mark Geragos, who served as Susan H. McDougal’s attorney and lives in La Canada Flintridge, felt compelled to take a stand in the race, given the competition.

McDougal, Geragos’ former client, was acquitted in federal court in Arkansas a year ago of obstructing justice in the Whitewater investigation.

On Sunday, Geragos and his wife, Paulette, held a coffee at their home in the hills to support Democrat candidate Diana Peterson-More.

“He got into it because he doesn’t support Susan Carpenter- McMillan,” More said Wednesday. “He scoped out all the candidates and decided to vote for me.”

Those who were there said Geragos was graceful in his remarks, but they were first on his agenda. He told them he had met Carpenter-McMillan in Arkansas and just wanted to help out on the other side.

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THE WANNABES: Perhaps taking a cue from Clinton, who played his saxophone on late-night TV for Arsenio Hall during his campaign, Democratic candidates in the 41st Assembly District deftly steered the dialogue at a recent political forum in Studio City to their musical accomplishments.

Activist and attorney Amanda Susskind was introduced as a juris doctor, mathematician and violinist. In her own 60-second introduction, Susskind added that she still plays her violin in a local orchestra.

Not to be outdone, Paul Koretz, a veteran West Hollywood city councilman, slipped in his own musical plug while opining on term limits.

“I also play two instruments,” he told the crowd. “The accordion and the tuba.”

Beverly Hills physician Dan Stone looked almost apologetic as he approached the podium following Susskind and Koretz.

“I am completely nonmusical,” he confessed to the slightly crestfallen diners. “But I want to do the will of the people.”

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LOOKALIKES: They look the same on paper, and their voting records are very similar.

But now Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles) has caught Assemblyman Jack Scott in an embarrassing example of how they are not the same.

The two are locked in a close race for the 21st District state Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), who is running for Congress against Rep. James Rogan (R-Glendale).

Scott’s campaign literature boasts that he has a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood, plus their endorsement.

But Martha Swiller, the executive director of the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project, disputes that. Instead, she said, Scott recycled an endorsement from a previous election.

In a tersely worded letter of clarification dated Feb. 7 she wrote: “. . . We are concerned about the following quote: ‘Jack Scott is rated 100% by American Association of University Women. After his only full term in office, he was rated 100% by NOW. He also was rated 100% (and endorsed for reelection) by Planned Parenthood PAC.’ ”

Scott did receive Planned Parenthood’s endorsement. The only problem: It was two years ago when he was running for a different office.

Swiller said that during the 1997-98 legislative session Scott abstained from voting on 11 anti-choice amendments on two pieces of Planned Parenthood-sponsored legislation, earning him an 87.5% rating on his voting record. That compares to Wildman’s rating of 100%.

As a result, this time Planned Parenthood endorsed Wildman.

In the letter, Swiller also asks that her group’s position “be portrayed more accurately in future campaign communications.”

Scott’s campaign manager, Wendy Gordon, defended Scott’s literature and said they have no plans to change it.

“We knew there was a later rating. But we still stand by the accuracy of that statement, and do not believe it is misleading,” she said.

She said the rating itself is misleading. In previous legislative sessions, abstentions didn’t count on the Planned Parenthood rating. This time around, without notifying legislators, they changed the criteria, she said.

Scott said he has consistently voted pro-choice and will continue to. He also said knowing the new rating criteria could change his vote in some instances.

“I’m not going to change my convictions,” he said. “But if there is a scorecard being kept on abstentions, it might be wiser in the future for me to just vote no.”

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SLOW MAIL: Two candidates for Los Angeles City Council seats representing the San Fernando Valley filed campaign finance statements that arrived by mail at the city Ethics Commission on Wednesday, a week and a half after they were due, but the candidates maintain the disclosures were not late.

Candidates are in under the deadline as long as their statements were postmarked by Jan. 31.

Ethics Commission spokeswoman Barbara Freeman said the filings by 3rd District candidate Scott Schreiber of West Hills and 5th District candidate Robyn Ritter Simon were postmarked on Feb. 1 and took a week and a half to arrive.

Harvey Englander, a campaign manager for the two, said the mailings were sent by certified mail, and he has a receipt stamped Jan. 31, so no fines for late filings should be imposed.

Freeman said the fine for late filings is $10 a day.

“Whether or not we would issue a fine to this particular filer has not been determined,” Freeman said. The certified mail receipt might be sufficient to satisfy the deadline requirement, she said.

Schreiber, a Valley businessman, reported lending his campaign $25,000 of his own money, on top of contributions from others totaling $6,275.

Simon reported lending her campaign $5,000 in addition to receiving contributions from others totaling $19,143.

Although the election is more than a year away, the two have already begun spending.

Both announced this week that they have hired Englander, a veteran political consultant, to manage their campaigns.

Englander managed the campaigns that twice elected Laura Chick to the 3rd District seat.