Lieu Begins in Assembly as Fellow Democrats Pin Hopes on Fall Vote

Ted Lieu was sworn into the Assembly on Wednesday after winning a resounding victory in a special election to represent the coast from Venice to Lomita.

After a brief ceremony in which Lieu, a Torrance City Council member, stood at the Assembly rostrum and swore to uphold the state and U.S. constitutions, his fellow Democrats said they hoped he was a harbinger of a strong party performance at the polls Nov. 8, when voters face several initiatives backed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Lieu won with 60% of the vote, so far ahead of his Republican challengers that he does not have to compete in a runoff in November. He replaces Mike Gordon, a Democrat who died in June of brain tumor complications eight months after he was elected to represent the 53rd Assembly District.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) said a majority of voters in the district voted in 2003 to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and replace him with Schwarzenegger.

“So if the governor’s message was resonating,” Nunez said, “it would have resonated during this election. In fact ... Republicans went to the polls and voted for Ted Lieu because of his stance on education.”

Assembly Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) scoffed at the notion of Lieu’s victory as a sign of frustration with GOP candidates or priorities. He said the race was predetermined by district boundaries -- voters there are registered 41% Democratic, 35% Republican and 20% declining to state.

Moreover, McCarthy said, Democrats fielded only one candidate, while there were four choices on the GOP side.

The leading Republican candidate, anesthesiologist Mary Jo Ford, invested $300,000 of her money in the race and received more than $45,000 from Republican Assembly members. She got 19% of the vote.

Lieu loaned himself $100,000 and received more than $20,000 in support from the Democratic State Central Committee of California. “The Democratic Party overspent to keep a seat they already had,” McCarthy said.

Lieu, 36, vice president at the financial services firm UBS with degrees in law, political science and computer science, said his legislative priorities were education, transportation and the environment. Lieu said he would, in particular, fight to increase public school funding by the $3 billion that Democrats argue Schwarzenegger had promised during negotiations to balance last year’s budget.

Lieu said he would work to advance the bills introduced by Gordon, a friend for whom he once served as campaign chairman.

“But after that, I’ve got my own bills, I’m my own man,” Lieu said.