Education Issue Spurs Democrats to Victory

Democrats headed toward victory Tuesday in most of the San Fernando Valley’s state legislative races, further cementing the area’s reputation as an emerging Democratic stronghold.

The tightest race had Republican Craig Missakian battling with Democrat Dario Frommer for the 43rd Assembly District in the Glendale-Burbank area, a fiercely contested region swamped by campaign mailers, phone banks and door-to-door canvassers.

With about three-fourths of the precincts reporting, Frommer, the son of a Mexican American mother and a Hungarian American father, moved far ahead of Missakian. If he retains his lead, he will become the first Latino to represent the district.

Frommer declared victory shortly before 1 a.m. The former appointments secretary to Gov. Gray Davis hit the campaign trail at 5 a.m. on election day, scurrying between get-out-the-vote phone calls and precinct visits in a full-court press to push voters to the polls.

“This is a crazy political year,” Frommer said shortly after the polls closed. “You can’t take anything for granted.”

By midnight, his persistence appeared to be paying off. “The trend is running in our favor,” he said during a celebration at a Glendale restaurant. “We’re feeling pretty good.” Before any returns were reported, Missakian told supporters in a packed ballroom at the Glendale Hilton: “It’s been a tough, hard fight . . . We walked into battle. We started in a small garage in Glenoaks and we built it over time.”

Missakian, an Armenian American former county prosecutor, said he hoped a surge of Republicans, energized by the hot congressional race between Republican Rep. James Rogan (R-Glendale) and Democratic state Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), would carry him to victory.

“We’re just patiently waiting until all the results are in,” Missakian, his fingernails bitten to the quick, said shortly after midnight as Frommer’s lead widened.

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An unprecedented number of Valley-area seats were up for grabs this year, the result of the term-limit initiative approved a decade ago. Voters elected several fresh faces--as well as some seasoned politicians who jumped between houses in the Legislature--to three open state Senate seats and five open Assembly slots.

Assemblyman Jack Scott (D-Altadena) claimed victory over Republican Paul Zee, a South Pasadena councilman and businessman. Scott had raised nearly $2 million, about twice the amount raised by his opponent.

But as midnight approached, with Scott leading by 15 percentage points, Zee refused to concede defeat. His campaign manager said he had gone home to bed.

“We are very encouraged that we have won this election,” Scott said in his victory speech at the Pasadena Hilton, where several Democratic candidates and their supporters had gathered. “We have done things because you have inspired me: gun control, health care and standing up for consumers.”

Two women with long histories as small-town politicians also leading in early returns for open seats in the 41st and 44th Assembly districts. Democrat Fran Pavley, who helped found Agoura Hills and served on the council there for 15 years, had a comfortable lead over Jayne Murphy Shapiro, a Republican nurse who scrambled to distance herself from her party in the solidly Democratic 41st Assembly District.

Shapiro was one of the first candidates to concede, releasing a statement that said: “I knew it would be an uphill battle . . . Sure, defeat is a very hard thing to swallow. But I do feel that I gave it my all.”

Pavley predicted that more women in Sacramento will spell a stronger emphasis on education and child care.

“All of the women [candidates] had put in years and years of experience,” said Pavley, who spent the night surrounded by supporters at the Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center. “They were in service clubs, school boards, had kids, been on city councils. They’d paid their dues.”

Democrat Carol Liu, a La Canada Flintridge councilwoman who contributed heavily to her own campaign, had amassed a large margin over Republican Susan Carpenter-McMillan, a conservative television commentator who once served as the spokeswoman for Paula Jones, in the 44th Assembly District. Looking disappointed, Carpenter McMillan arrived late to the Republican bash in Glendale. “It doesn’t look good,” she said. “But when you have $200,000 and your opponent has $1.2 million . . .”

In fact, Liu had raised closer to $1.7 million overall. Liu’s victory would make her the first woman to fill the seat.

“A victory for me is an honor,” said Liu, the Chinese American daughter of a fourth-generation Californian and an immigrant father. “I would be the first woman to represent this district, and obviously the first woman of color. There hasn’t been a Chinese American in the Legislature for over 30 years, so obviously Asian Americans are underrepresented.”

The potent Democratic showing reflects the politics of a region that has grown more liberal as increasing numbers of immigrants, especially Latinos, have registered to vote.

In the three congressional districts that make up most of the Valley, Democrats have amassed a substantial lead over Republicans in voter registration. Democrats now number 49.3% of Valley voters, while Republican registration has dropped to 31.6%. Swing voters have also emerged as a force to be reckoned with, as 19.1% either favor a third party or declined to state any party affiliation.

“The Democrats have gained ground with the immigration of Latinos, Armenians and Asians over the past few years,” Scott said. “We have gained more of the Caucasian vote, probably among young people in the entertainment industry. We have also made sure to run centrist candidates, while the Republicans have lost ground by continuing to run really conservative candidates.”

Reflecting the largess of a party in power in Sacramento, Democrats also outspent their opponents in many of the Valley contests, with party leaders and labor unions pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into their candidates’ coffers. Scott reaped $1.1 million from the Senate Democratic Leadership Fund, while Frommer took in more than $200,000 from party leaders in his close race.

This year, many of the Valley candidates rated education as a top priority, lamenting the sad state of the Los Angeles Unified School District and, if their resumes allowed, emphasizing their backgrounds in teaching or school administration.

The new crop of Valley legislators includes two longtime teachers, Pavley and Liu, as well as Scott, the former president of Pasadena City College. Even Frommer, who teaches a political science class at Glendale Community College, touted his classroom credentials during the campaign.

Before the election, Democratic strategists suggested that the thriving economy would benefit their candidates if voters credited the Democratic administrations in Sacramento and Washington. Republican consultants countered that many of the Valley districts, particularly the hotly contested Pasadena-Burbank-Glendale area, were once solid GOP bastions that could be won again.

An unexpectedly tight race developed early Wednesday in the 38th Assembly District, previously a safe haven for Republicans in the northwest Valley and Ventura County.

Republican Keith Richman, a physician, was leading Democratic math teacher Jon Lauritzen by less than 1 percentage point with three out of four votes counted.

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In the Democratic-leaning 42nd Assembly District, Paul Koretz, a veteran West Hollywood city councilman who ran unsuccessfully for this seat six years ago, was coasting toward victory over Republican Douglas Cleon Taylor and three third-party candidates. Two Sacramento heavyweights from opposing parties, Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) and Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge), were breezing toward victory in their state Senate races.

Kuehl, the Assembly’s speaker pro tem, handily beat Republican Daniel Rego and Libertarian Charles T. Black to win the solidly Democratic 23rd Senate District, while McClintock cruised to victory in the 19th Senate District, which is reliably Republican. He beat Democrat Daniel Gonzalez.

Incumbents, meanwhile, amassed large leads in several Valley districts. Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) led over Republican accountant Kyle Hammans and Libertarian Kelley Ross in the 40th Assembly District. Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar), meanwhile, was far ahead of Enrique “Henry” Valdez, a Republican mailman who did not actively campaign, and Christopher “Kit” Maira, a Libertarian.

In the Antelope Valley, Assemblyman George Runner (R-Lancaster) once again was leading the same Democrat he beat two years ago, Paula Calderon. And in the 17th Senate District, state Sen. William “Pete” Knight (R-Palmdale) was well in front of Democrat Richard Lott, an aerospace engineer, as well as Libertarian John Gibson and Natural Law Party candidate Douglas Wallack.

Contributing to this story were staff writers Annette Kondo, Andrew Blankstein, Patrick McGreevy, Jean Guccione, Martha L. Willman, Carol Chambers, Zanto Peabody, Caitlin Liu, Roberto J. Manzano and correspondent Grace E. Jang.