Political Stars Turn Out to Stump for Harman, Kuykendall

Showing how important the close-fought 36th Congressional District race is in the battle to control the House of Representatives, stars of both major parties flooded the South Bay on Monday to help their candidates, incumbent Republican Rep. Steven T. Kuykendall and his Democratic challenger, former Rep. Jane Harman.

Pulling up to the Hermosa Beach Community Center in a chartered “Women on a Roll” campaign bus shortly after noon, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) brought Harman and a delegation of other Democratic women leaders onto a makeshift, open-air stage as about 75 supporters cheered and waved Harman’s green and orange “Our Views . . . Our Values” signs. Boxer raised Harman’s hand in a victory clench as the rock song “We Are Family” blared from a loudspeaker.

“She’s getting back into the fray for us, for we the people,” Boxer said, referring to party leaders’ aggressive recruitment of Harman as their best hope against Kuykendall and, by extension, the Republican leadership in Congress.

Joining Boxer at the rally were Sharon Davis, the wife of Gov. Gray Davis; Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk); Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers union; Lydia Camarillo, who headed the Democratic National Convention Committee; and television soap star Deidre Hall, who has worked for women’s rights in reproductive choices.

A few miles away, final preparations were underway at the Torrance Marriott Hotel for a $1,000-a-plate Kuykendall fund-raising dinner featuring Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the Vietnam War hero and former presidential candidate. The dinner, which drew about 150 people and was expected to net between $150,000 and $200,000, marked the second time McCain has come to the district to help Kuykendall in what is one of a handful of tight races across the country.

Also Monday, both campaigns launched broadcast television advertising campaigns over most local network affiliates in the vast and costly greater Los Angeles area market. Kuykendall’s ads feature McCain touting his fellow Republican as one who is “not afraid to buck party leaders.” Harman is using the same ad she made for cable stations, in which a district resident knocks Kuykendall as having voted for a large tax cut over funding for schools, Social Security and Medicare. The camera then cuts to Harman talking about her plans to use part of the budget surplus.

The broadcast ads, while certainly more expensive to run than cable ads, can reach voters who don’t subscribe to cable. Neither campaign would say how much is being spent on the broadcast ads or how long or often they will run.

Harman, of Rolling Hills, tapped her family’s wealth and used broadcast commercials in 1992, the first year she ran for the seat. She won and was reelected to two more terms before she relinquished the seat for a 1998 run for governor. Kuykendall this year used television for the first time in any of his campaigns because he expected Harman to use it again.

Kuykendall, of Rancho Palos Verdes, believes McCain, who attracted Democrats and independent voters during his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination earlier this year, can help woo the 20% of 36th District voters who are affiliated with neither major party.

“He was good at stimulating the younger, less involved voters to come back to the process,” said Kuykendall, who has positioned himself as a centrist and is touting his 25-year roots in the politically moderate, Venice-to-San Pedro swing district.

McCain said of Kuykendall Monday night, “There are two kinds of members of Congress: show horses and workhorses. He’s a workhorse.”

McCain spent most of his well-received talk pushing for campaign finance reform, a key plank in his presidential primary platform.

But the Harman campaign has pushed to portray Kuykendall as a right-of-center Republican who votes the party line more often than not and is out of step with voters on key national issues.

Harman campaign consultant Roy Behr said the McCain commercial is another sign that Kuykendall “continues to run a completely issues-less campaign. . . . In this case, generalities that John McCain has recorded for other candidates across the country, using the exact same words.”