Candidates Try to Move Voters on Transit Issues

Maybe it was the rain.

Or maybe it was the fact that the candidates’ forum Monday took place in a hotel nestled in the curve of the congestion-choked 405-101 interchange, where attendees could see traffic crawling through the drizzle from banquet tables by the windows.

Whatever the reason, transportation emerged as a common theme at a forum co-sponsored by the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce for candidates from the 19th, 21st and 23rd state Senate districts.

Before an audience of about 70, candidates also opined on education, runaway film production, health care and how to bring high-tech jobs to the area.

Only candidates in primary races that are competitive were invited. Each had two minutes for introductions, and one minute to respond to each question.

In the 19th state Senate District, veteran Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) and Ventura County supervisor and former Simi Valley council member Judy Mikels sparred over who should succeed 19th District Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), who is retiring because of term limits.

The district includes the San Fernando Valley communities of Chatsworth and Northridge, as well as the Santa Clarita Valley and most of Ventura County.

When it came to transportation issues, McClintock may have had an edge because his comments were sometimes more specific to the Valley, said Cathy Maguire, chairwoman of the industry association. “I think that McClintock had more specifics because of working in the area,” Maguire said. “And that would be positive, if they agreed with what he had to say.”

McClintock said the answer to ending gridlock on Valley freeways lies in ending the current practice of siphoning highway tax dollars to other projects, instead of building more and better freeways.

Some people wanted to slow California’s explosive growth by stopping road construction, he said.

“The idea was that if we stop building things, people won’t come,” McClintock said. “Unfortunately, people came anyway.”

The result is a 116% increase in demand for freeway capacity since 1974, but only an 8% increase in capacity, he said.

McClintock said the governor should be given emergency powers--such as those following the 1994 Northridge earthquake--to act decisively to end gridlock.

Mikels said the solution lies in providing a variety of transportation options such as light-rail commuter lines, high-speed magnetized rail systems and shuttles to move people around cities.

“They’re not all that expensive and they will move people,” she said. “We’re not going to build ourselves out of this one.”

In both the 21st and 23rd state Senate districts, where popular Assembly Democrats with similar agendas contend, candidates further refined their messages and tried to differentiate themselves from their competitors--with limited success.

In the 21st Senate District, where Assemblyman Jack Scott (D-Altadena) is running against Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles) on the Democratic side for the seat of state Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), candidates fielded a question from the audience about sex education.

Scott said he believed sex education should be provided in public schools.

Wildman said sex education should be taught in schools, and said preaching abstinence as a form of sex education was not sufficient. He said sex education should start young.

“It can’t happen in 10th grade,” he said. “It has to happen much, much earlier.”

Electrical engineer and TV broadcaster Dave Wallis--the only Republican candidate from the 21st District present at the forum--said he believed in sex education, but said it should be gender- and age-appropriate and should start about 10th grade. Wallis is running for the GOP nomination against South Pasadena City Councilman Paul Zee.

The 21st district includes portions of the northeast and East Valley, as well as Glendale, Griffith Park and Los Feliz.

Both Wildman and Scott stressed the need for transportation improvements and regional planning.

Scott called for a transit bond issue, if necessary, and said a more aggressive approach is needed. He advocated the expansion of public transportation, such as the Pasadena Blue Line.

Wildman said innovative technology must be coupled with regional planning.

In the 23rd District state Senate race, in which Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) is running against Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles) for the seat of state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), Knox reiterated his pitch as the won’t-take-no-for-an-answer candidate who takes on the tough fights.

Kuehl again highlighted her strength as a leader in Sacramento, able to work effectively with conservatives and liberals alike.

That district runs from Hancock Park to Malibu and over the Santa Monica Mountains into the West Valley.

Kuehl attempted to broaden the regional transportation discussion from a narrow focus on Knox’s project to widen lanes at the 101-405 interchange. It is a theme Knox mentions at virtually every Valley speaking engagement, and appears in most of his Valley campaign mailers.

“It’s a mistake to look at just one interchange,” Kuehl said, saying she wants to demonstrate the kind of leadership she used in bringing together a number of different groups to talk about a dangerous stretch of Pacific Coast Highway where 13 people have died.

Kuehl said transportation issues cannot be solved by just continuing to widen highways.

“We can go up to 16 lanes either way,” she said of the 101 Freeway. “That still wouldn’t solve the problem. We need rapid transportation as well.”

Knox said the 405 interchange project was just a first step.

Knox drew a small ripple of applause from business people present when he briefly alluded to a bill he introduced last week that would roll back a new 411 charge of 46 cents to 25 cents a call, and would restore the number of free monthly calls to information from three to five for residences, and zero to two for businesses.