Candidates Find 42nd Assembly District Is a Small World

You just never know when you are going to see people again.

Dr. Daniel Stone, an internist and geriatric specialist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, used to be Amanda Susskind’s doctor. Now they are running against each other in the Democratic primary of the 42nd Assembly District.

Susskind said she did not change physicians because of a conflict of interest. Their doctor-patient relationship ended years ago.

“It’s just one of those weird coincidences,” she said. “When I heard he was running, I called to congratulate him.”

She said the coincidences go further. The third Democrat in the primary race--West Hollywood City Councilman Paul Koretz--is one of her former law firm clients.

“So there is a weird relationship with each of them,” she said.

Susskind still lives on the same street as Stone. Koretz lives a few miles away.

STOOD UP IN PASADENA: When the candidates from the 44th Assembly District gathered to earnestly debate issues of health care and education before senior citizens in Pasadena, Republican Susan Carpenter-McMillan was conspicuously absent.

Turns out the former spokeswoman for Clinton-accuser Paula Jones was at a local studio, filming Bill Maher’s nationally televised show, “Politically Incorrect.”

Seated in large white chairs, Carpenter-McMillan, 1980s teen idol Leif Garrett, Gilbert Gottfried and Russell Simmons were having a very different discussion.

A letter sent from the show to Carpenter-McMillan to help her prepare listed the following topics they were “considering for Thursday’s show.”

1) Some rap stars, despite their distance from their former thug lives, still commit violent acts. Considering their enormous wealth, their unparalleled success and their obvious resources, why would these men resort to violence?

2) Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has criticized Hillary Clinton for allowing Billy Joel’s “Captain Jack,” a song about drug abuse, to be played at a recent campaign event. Do you really believe that the mayor was offended, or is he merely playing politics, hoping that his constituents will agree with his outrage? Considering her for-the-children stance, shouldn’t Hillary have done a better job of screening the song list?

3) Which is more important: the melody or the lyrics? Are lyrics more important to men or to women?

4) Today’s 6-year-olds are incredibly concerned with designer labels. Should prepubescent kids be so picky?

Who knows? Maybe the seniors in Pasadena would have been more interested in “Politically Incorrect.”

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS: Returning to the 42nd District Assembly race, Koretz is generally known as a progressive feminist.

So why has he taken $2,000 in campaign contributions from the Body Shop, an all-nude strip club on Sunset Boulevard.

Koretz said people are just trying to make him look bad. He said the Body Shop is involved in the community and its neighbors do not complain.

“They are just a local business like any other,” Koretz said. “Most of my contributors are local businesses, as opposed to my opponents, who are taking money from special interests like insurance companies.”

Koretz said that several years ago it was complaints from the Body Shop about prostitution on Sunset Boulevard that led to a successful crackdown.

CONTROLLING INTERESTS: Los Angeles City Council members representing different parts of the San Fernando Valley clashed this week over a proposal that some thought put the city in the position of playing Big Brother.

Councilman Mike Feuer, whose district extends from Sherman Oaks to West Los Angeles, proposed that the council adopt a resolution urging parents to question whether there are guns in houses where their kids go to play.

The resolution urged parents “not to allow their children to visit a home unless the answers to these questions are satisfactory.”

That drew a chorus of objections from Councilmen Joel Wachs of Studio City and Hal Bernson of Granada Hills.

“I think that goes too far,” Wachs groused, “to sit there and tell parents not to let their children go someplace.”

Agreed Bernson, “I don’t think we should try to tell parents what they should do.”

Bernson said the resolution was “one more stone for someone trying to abolish gun ownership.”

Councilman Nate Holden said the resolution by Feuer, a candidate for city attorney, was a publicity stunt that was “not worth the paper it’s written on.”

Faced with the barrage of criticism, Feuer said he wanted “to raise the consciousness of parents regarding a very vital public-safety issue affecting kids.”

But in the end, the council agreed only that parents should ask questions about gun safety.