Rivals Are Closely Matched on Issues

Cindy Montanez ignores the barking dogs, scoots past the backyard chicken coops and passes the lawn signs shouting support for her opponent.

That’s how the 28-year-old mayor of San Fernando gets out the vote on Fillmore Street in Pacoima.

As the light drains from the sky over the stucco barrios, the front-runner in the 39th Assembly District race slips down a dirt alley, past laundry draped over a fence, and heads around back to a tiny bungalow tucked behind the main house.

“I’m the mayor of San Fernando,” she tells the teenage girl who answers the door.

“Oh my God, really?” the girl says, eyes widening at the sight of Montanez in blue jeans. “Nice to meet you!”

As it turns out, neither Jessica Montenegro, 18, nor her mother, Rosa, is registered to vote. But that doesn’t stop Montanez from chatting with them for 15 minutes, explaining her plans to boost public safety and education in the northeast Valley.

“Even if they’re not registered to vote, I always like to introduce myself,” Montanez said as she headed to another house. “They’re still constituents, right? It’s good for them to know who their assemblywoman is going to be.”

Montanez has reason to be confident. As of Feb. 16, her campaign had raised more than $325,000, compared with $74,000 collected by her opponent, Yolanda Fuentes.

Montanez also has lined up substantial union support, which may prove critical in getting voters to the polls Tuesday, expected to be a low-turnout election day.

But Fuentes, 27, an aide to current Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Panorama City), insists that her Sacramento experience will carry the day. Cardenas has endorsed her, as has Los Angeles City Council President Alex Padilla, a popular leader raised in Pacoima.

“It’s not about money,” Fuentes said. “We saw that with Tony. In his first [1996] race, he was outspent, three to one....Even with all the mail Cindy has sent out, people are still supporting me.”

The winner in the primary is virtually guaranteed victory in November in this heavily Democratic area, where the party has registered 61% of the voters. The working-class district includes Sylmar, Lake View Terrace, Sun Valley and Pacoima--where Fuentes grew up--as well as the city of San Fernando, Montanez’s base.

On the issues, there is little to distinguish either woman from her opponent, although they emphasize different priorities.

Montanez calls public safety her top concern, especially tightening security at airports. She envisions clean neighborhoods fortified by more school funding and solid jobs, and she favors preserving historic homes.

Fuentes, who helped craft state legislation to fund after-school programs and parent centers, calls education her top priority. She contends that the Los Angeles Unified School District would function better if divided into smaller pieces.

Until now, the race has been largely devoid of the vicious sniping that has scarred candidates in the neighboring 40th District. But a recent Fuentes mailer signaled a change in tactics.

The piece showed a photo of Montanez with the word “Lawbreaker” emblazoned across her forehead. “Would you trust a lawbreaker with your future?” it read.

The charge appeared to refer to a complaint made to the California Fair Political Practices Commission that Montanez had not included the addresses of some contributors in her campaign finance reports.

The mailer, which included images of commission letters, claimed that Montanez was fined for the violation. But an agency spokesman said the commission had no record of a fine.

“The gall of this woman, to consider running for office after she forgot to put some addresses on her FPPC form!” said Parke Skelton, a campaign strategist for Montanez, in mock horror. “I’m not going to let my candidate be called a criminal without responding in some fashion.”

Rick Taylor, a consultant working for the Fuentes campaign, insisted that Montanez had broken the law. He said she was fined--not by the commission but by the city of San Fernando, for a local campaign violation.

But Steve Klotzsche, the city’s finance director, said: “We have absolutely no record of her ever being fined by the city....As far as we’re concerned, there is no basis of fact to that particular [charge].”

Outside players have jumped into the scuffle. A nonprofit watchdog group, Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, has voiced concern about Montanez’s ties to trial lawyers. Michael Vallante, the Los Angeles-based group’s director, said he identified $125,000 in contributions to Montanez from personal-injury attorneys and other lawyers.

“I’m going to be a very strong consumer advocate, no doubt about it,” Montanez said.

There’s little sign of the bickering at Fuentes’ campaign headquarters in Arleta, a scene of pleasant chaos tinged with optimism.

A coffee machine burbles in the corner. One of Fuentes’ former high school teachers, Ellen Gigger, teeters atop a folding chair as she hangs schedules onto the wall. A 67-year-old volunteer named Ralph shows up to help.

Richard Gigger, Ellen’s husband and the retired marching band director at San Fernando High School, brags about what a great leader Fuentes was as drum major a decade ago. He will hear nothing of his prized student’s uphill climb in the current campaign.

“We’ve got to think positive,” he said. “She’s got to win it.”