Term Limits Call Tune for Lawmakers

In a primary election highlighting the profound consequences of term limits, incumbent state legislators in every corner of California battled one another for political survival Tuesday while new candidates fought for the right to take their places.

Along the foothills of Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena, early returns--mostly absentee ballots--showed Assemblyman Jack Scott (D-Pasadena) leading Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles) in the race to succeed state Sen. Adam Schiff. Both said they felt the need to move to the upper house, in part because term limits would force them from the Assembly in two years.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that I’ll win,” Scott said as returns began to trickle in.

On the Westside, another fight between veteran politicians appeared headed for a more lopsided outcome, as Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) took a healthy lead over Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles). Both faced the term-limits hook this fall.

“It looks really good. I’m ecstatic,” Kuehl said. “This is really a historic race. There has never been an open lesbian or gay person in the Senate before.”

In a district that stretches from the fringes of downtown Los Angeles to Hollywood, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg held a commanding lead over AIDS activist Cesar Portillo in the race to replace Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa. Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) is mounting a run for mayor of Los Angeles, in part because he is being forced out of the lower house by term limits.

“I think we had a fantastic campaign,” said Portillo, who held a press conference last month to reveal he had once been arrested for soliciting an undercover police officer; he said he feared that his opponent was planning to use the incident against him. “Is there something we should have done different? No.”

In Ventura County and the northwest San Fernando Valley, conservative Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) led moderate Ventura County Supervisor Judy Mikels 3 to 1 in early returns to replace outgoing Sen. Cathie Wright, who strongly backed Mikels and poured what was left in her campaign coffers into Mikels’ race.

“Obviously this was a strong vote of confidence in the fight I’ve waged for streamlined, downsized and limited government,” McClintock said.

And in south Los Angeles and Inglewood, Assemblyman Ed Vincent (D-Inglewood) was running well out in front of Assemblyman R.E. “Dick” Floyd (D-Wilmington) to succeed Teresa P. Hughes (D-Inglewood). Hoping to prolong his political career, Floyd packed his bags to move into the district, which was outside the area he represented in the Assembly.

“If I don’t win, I will actually have more money to spend by retiring,” Floyd said.

Though they received relatively little attention in a presidential election year, the Legislature’s primary contests had major ramifications for California politics.

All of the Assembly’s 80 seats were in play, as well as half of the state Senate’s 40 seats. Of those, 32 Assembly seats and nine Senate seats had no incumbents seeking reelection--a direct result of voter-approved term limits, which guarantee a mass infusion of new blood in Sacramento this November.

Republicans, outnumbered 47 to 32 in the Assembly and 24 to 15 in the Senate, sought to lay the groundwork for a reinvigorated run at regaining ground in the Legislature.

Democrats sought to expand their majority, heading into the upcoming redrawing of Legislative districts, a deeply politicized process always manipulated by the controlling party to strengthen its hold on power.

In most corners of the state, the primary races represented an internal winnowing of each party’s contenders in anticipation of fall’s clashes--the ongoing philosophical struggle between conservative and moderate Republicans, and, to a lesser degree, a similar battle between liberal and moderate Democrats.

But in Democrat-dominated Los Angeles, the primaries were the race.

With widening leads in voter registration and fund-raising, Democrats squared off in costly and sometimes bitter campaigns, knowing the winner was all but assured of victory in November.

The state’s most expensive legislative primary was in the prosperous neighborhoods of West Los Angeles and the western San Fernando Valley, as Assembly members Kuehl and Knox raised $1 million each while campaigning for the same Senate seat. Liberal colleagues with nearly identical voting records, both said they dreaded facing each other.

As Villaraigosa prepared to leave the Legislature, his solidly Democratic district also became an intraparty battleground. Councilwoman Goldberg, with Villaraigosa’s backing, sought to succeed him, but faced opposition from Portillo, who was supported by kingmaker and state Sen. Richard Polanco.

Across the city to the east, Assembly members Scott and Wildman (D-Los Angeles) waged a similar winner-take-all fight to replace Schiff. Unlike Kuehl and Knox, both Wildman and Scott could have served another term in the Assembly. But both chose to risk what they had in hopes of succeeding Schiff, who is running for Congress against Rep. James Rogan (R-Glendale).

Once solid GOP turf, Schiff’s seat, which spans Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena, has grown increasingly Democratic in recent years. Nevertheless, the Democratic winner is still expected to face a strong challenge from the Republicans’ newest recruit, South Pasadena Councilman Paul Zee.

The GOP had its share of combative primary races as well.

In one of the races labeled by the right-wing Liberty Caucus as crucial for the survival of the true right in the GOP, for example, conservative former state Sen. Phil Wyman led moderate Victorville City Manager James L. Cox to represent the High Desert seat along the Nevada border being vacated by Assemblyman Keith Olberg (R-Victorville).

Similarly in Orange County, moderate Huntington Beach Councilman Tom Harman, bolstered by a bevy of organized labor contributions, took a slim lead over conservative businessman James Righeimer to succeed Assembly Republican leader Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach), who is being forced out by term limits.

In Santa Clara County, Assistant Atty. Gen. Tony West and San Jose Councilman Manny Diaz were neck-and-neck in a battle to replace Democratic Assemblyman Mike Honda of San Jose, who is running for Congress.

And in the northern Sierra, Assemblyman Rico Oller (R-San Andreas) looked to easily dispatch lobbyist Skim Baum in a race that received statewide recognition because of a controversial ad employed by Baum. The ad questioned Oller’s allegedly barbarous bear-hunting practices.