Candidates Clash on Mix of Issues in 1st Debate

Clashing over school reform, runaway film production and gay marriage, Republican Craig Missakian faced Democrat Dario Frommer on Thursday in their first debate for the hotly contested 43rd Assembly District seat.

Missakian, an Armenian American attorney and former county prosecutor, and Frommer, a Latino attorney and former appointments secretary for Gov. Gray Davis, are vying in a district that includes parts of Glendale, Burbank, Toluca Lake, Los Feliz and Hollywood.

The two candidates agreed Sacramento needs to do more to address school overcrowding, crime and the loss of film production to other states and countries. But they often clashed over how best to solve the problems.

Frommer said he supports a ballot initiative that would make it easier for school districts to pass school bonds, reducing the margin of approval from a two-thirds vote to 55%.

Missikian said he opposes the measure, countering that school districts have shown they can achieve the two-thirds voter approval if they make a good case to voters.

“I think it’s unfair to ask homeowners to shoulder the entire burden of tax increases without requiring a two-thirds vote,” Missakian said.

Both said they would work in Sacramento to streamline the process for approving new schools. Frommer said the six- to nine-month approval process by the state architect is “unconscionable.”

Missakian said it should not take 16 actions by the state to approve a new school. “That is a recipe for disaster,” he said.

Both candidates said they oppose a school voucher initiative, Frommer because he fears it does not provide accountability and does not guarantee children will get adequate classrooms. Missakian said he instead supports creating charter schools “giving parents more control of the schools their children attend.”

Competing in an Assembly district that contains many of the region’s entertainment firms, the two candidates also had differences over how to prevent film production from leaving the state.

Missakian supported state tax credits to “make it a little more enticing” for film companies to produce their projects in California.

Frommer called for streamlining the local permitting process for filmmakers, saying it is a “damper” on local production. Frommer also said he is interested in looking into creation of a film development bank at the state level that could provide funding for independent film productions that agree to film in California and hire workers in the state.

Missakian, who has worked as an entertainment attorney, said the idea is flawed.

“I would like to see how Dario’s investment bank is going to go about deciding which movies to fund and which not to fund,” Missakian said.

Both candidates oppose a ballot measure that would require first-time, nonviolent drug offenders to be sent to rehabilitation programs instead of jail.

Missakian said he supports the concept of medical use of marijuana but opposed a state ballot measure a few years ago that legalized such use because he said it was too loosely written and provided too much chance for abuse.

Frommer said he supports legalization of medicinal use for people “whose suffering is alleviated by the medical use of marijuana.”

The two men disagreed over whether the state should legally recognize marriages of gay couples.

Missakian said he supported a ballot measure earlier this year that recognized marriage as the union between a man and a woman.

“Marriage historically in this country has been between a man and a woman. I believe that tradition is something I have stood up to preserve,” Missakian said.

Responded Frommer: “I think it’s very important not to discriminate against anyone.”

Although the district’s voters are 44% Democratic and 34% Republican, Missakian hopes to appeal to crossover voters in the Armenian community as well as the 17% of the voters who declined to state their party affiliation.

“We feel that our message is going to appeal to Armenians who are Democrats, Republicans and Independents and that could be the margin of victory,” said Missakian in an interview before the debate.

He directly appealed to Armenian voters during his closing comments, saying his grandfather immigrated to America to escape genocide against Armenians.

Meanwhile, Frommer is getting help from the Democratic Party and he used his time during the debate to align himself with the policies of his former boss, Gov. Davis, and the state’s $5-billion plan for improving transportation in California.

The debate Thursday took place on Bill Rosendahl’s cable television show “Week in Review.”

The two candidates will get another chance to square off tonight during a forum at Flintridge Preparatory School, hosted by a coalition of chambers of commerce in the area.