Rivals Long on Activism, but Short on Name Recognition

“Republican” is not a word Jayne Murphy Shapiro uses lightly. At least not in the solidly Democratic 41st Assembly District, a scenic stretch of beaches and mountains where Shapiro is convinced the “R-word,” as she calls it, hurts her more than it helps.

At a recent candidates forum, a gray-haired man rushed up to Shapiro when she finished speaking to ask her her party affiliation. “I can’t find it anywhere on your campaign literature,” he said.

“I’m a Republican,” replied Shapiro, a registered nurse and children’s safety advocate who is running against Democrat Fran Pavley for the Assembly seat. “This is not a district where I really flash the R-word too often.”

Noting the area’s lopsided voter registration--49% are Democrats and 32% Republicans--most political observers give the edge to Pavley, a middle school teacher and former Agoura Hills mayor, in the contest to succeed Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), who is running for the state Senate.

The affluent district includes some of Southern California’s choicest real estate, extending from Santa Monica and Malibu through the Santa Monica Mountains to the southwest San Fernando Valley, Calabasas and Agoura Hills. The area has been safely Democratic for two decades, represented by such Westside liberal standard-bearers as Kuehl and Tom Hayden.

But Pavley’s surprise victory in the Democratic primary over well-known and better-funded David Freeman, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power chieftan, demonstrated the growing political heft of the West Valley, Topanga Canyon and Las Virgenes sections of the district.

Shapiro, a moderate Republican, has made a point of distancing herself from her party, calling herself “an independent thinker” and emphasizing her liberal stance on social issues such as abortion and gay rights. At one point during the campaign, she said she did not support the Bush-Cheney presidential ticket because of its anti-abortion position, but later said she would vote for them despite her “unwavering pro-choice stance on abortion.”

“Shapiro has an extraordinary resume,” said Allan Hoffenblum, a veteran Republican strategist who publishes a nonpartisan guide to state legislative races. “The only thing that makes her an underdog is her political party.”

Both candidates have long histories of community service and political activism, with Pavley focusing on education and environmental issues and Shapiro devoting herself to health care and children’s safety. But neither enjoys widespread name recognition, according to a recent poll.

That Sept. 19 poll, commissioned by the Shapiro campaign, showed most voters in the district had never heard of either candidate, Shapiro spokesman Eric Rose said.

The telephone poll of 400 likely voters found if the election was held that day, 20% would vote for Pavley and 17% for Shapiro. A whopping 63% said they had not made up their minds. Pavley’s slight lead fell within the survey’s 3%-point margin of error.

But a poll taken last week by the Assembly Democrats showed Pavley with a commanding lead. The telephone poll of 600 likely voters showed 37% supporting Pavley and 22% backing Shapiro. A longtime environmental activist, Pavley helped to incorporate Agoura Hills in 1982, in part to shield the semirural area from excessive development. She became the fledgling city’s first mayor and served on the council there for 15 years.

Pavley has also been a teacher for 28 years, most recently teaching American history to eighth-graders in the Moorpark Unified School District. Her husband, Andy Pavley, is also a teacher. The couple have two grown children.

“The primary reason I’m running is to improve the public schools,” said Pavley, 51, who still lives in Agoura Hills. “There isn’t a greater legacy we could leave future Californians.”

Shapiro, 55, is trained as a cardiac nurse. She spent nearly a decade working in intensive-care units, married physician William Shapiro and later became a nurse in his office. Her husband, with whom she has four sons, died of cancer in 1990.

Similar Views Are Shared on Some Issues

Six years ago, after hearing about a friend’s son who had been sexually molested, Shapiro founded an advocacy group, KIDS SAFE, to push for tougher laws against child abusers. She also serves on the executive committee of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Los Angeles Commission on the Status of Women.

Shapiro, who lives in Encino, ranks inadequate health care as the state’s most pressing problem. “I frankly believe our health care system is in crisis,” she said. “It’s just not on the front burner.”

On some issues, the candidates have similar views. Both are abortion rights advocates who opposed the recent ballot initiative that barred legal recognition of same-sex marriage in California. Embracing a view that is seldom heard even among Democrats, Shapiro declared at a recent forum: “I am very much for the gay community. . . . If that means the gay community wants to marry, they can marry.”

Both Shapiro and Pavley support charter schools and say the Los Angeles Unified School District’s split into 11 subdistricts holds promise to reform the troubled system, though Shapiro has also voiced support for fully breaking up the district. They favor Proposition 39, which would ease the passage of school bonds by reducing the margin needed for approval from the current two-thirds majority to 55%. But they emphasize different priorities.

Pavley asserts the state needs to attract and train 300,000 new teachers over the next 30 years, and says she wants to give local school districts more flexibility to implement reforms.

Citing her work on the California Coastal Commission and the Santa Monica Mountains Resource Conservation District’s board, she promises to protect open space along coastline and mountains. Pavley has fought to mitigate the environmental impact of the proposed Ahmanson Ranch housing development on the east Ventura County line.

Pavley Narrowing Fund-Raising Gap

For her part, Shapiro stresses affordable health care for children and access to prescription drugs. She also backs HMO reform, saying doctors, not administrators, should be making medical decisions. “I want to be a voice for people with disabilities, domestic violence victims, and abused kids,” she said.

She agrees with Pavley that Ahmanson Ranch threatens to swamp the area in traffic, but says new housing is needed and that a balance must be struck between development and land preservation. She favors incentives to attract clean industries to the region and promises to crack down on polluters.

In the final days of the race, money--much of it from Democrats and labor unions--has been tumbling into Pavley’s coffers, according to recent campaign finance reports.

On a single day this week, Pavley took in $18,000, including $5,000 from the California State Council of Service Employees and $4,075 from Assembly Democratic Leadership 2000, the party’s caucus. And the next day--Tuesday--the Democratic State Central Committee gave her $36,000.

As a result, Pavley has rapidly closed the fund-raising gap that Shapiro opened early on by loaning herself more than $275,000. Pavley took in $157,000 during the first three weeks of October, fives times as much as her rival. As of Saturday, she had raised $505,000 while Shapiro had amassed $516,000.

Shapiro’s large donors this month include the California Correctional Peace Officers PAC, which contributed $10,000, while Pavley received $10,000 from both Assemblyman Herb Wesson (D-Culver City) and the California Teachers Assn.

Despite the totals, Pavley reported having more than double the cash on hand--$141,000--as Shapiro, who reported $65,000 on hand.