CALIFORNIA / LOCAL ELECTIONS

Faced with wide-ranging questions on complex issues and strict time constraints, 11 candidates for a vacant congressional seat vied to distinguish themselves from the pack at a League of Women Voters forum in Baldwin Park on Wednesday night.

All but one of the 12 contenders in the May 19 special election for the 32nd Congressional District seat took advantage of what is likely to be the only public forum open to them all.

And it enabled those without much campaign money to get some free exposure.

The eight Democrats on the ballot are former Monterey Park Mayor Francisco Alonso; state Sen. Gil Cedillo; state Board of Equalization member and former Assemblywoman Judy Chu; Benita Duran, who worked as a district deputy to now-Labor Secretary Hilda Solis; independent filmmaker Stefan “Contreras” Lysenko; state attorney/legislation analyst Nick Juan Mostert; businessman/field representative Rafael F. Nadal; and former economic analyst Emanuel Pleitez.

Three Republicans -- Monterey Park Councilwoman Betty Tom Chu, South El Monte businesswoman Teresa Hernandez and businessman/police chaplain David A. Truax -- and Libertarian Christopher M. Agrella also are on the ballot.

Hernandez did not attend the forum.

The district, which runs from Los Angeles’ Eastside through a wide swath of the San Gabriel Valley, is strongly Democratic, and the well-financed Judy Chu and Cedillo are widely considered the front-runners.

Although they have attacked each other in mailers to voters, both stayed positive Wednesday night, focusing on their experience and achievements in public office.

Cedillo said he has had about 80 of his bills signed into law and said he has worked with the governor to save 25,000 jobs.

Chu told the audience that she was proud to have the endorsement “of everybody in the family” of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who held the congressional seat until her cabinet appointment this year.

At the forum at Baldwin Park’s Julia McNeill Senior Center, many of the candidates agreed on some issues, including the need for immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship, eliminating tax loopholes for corporations using offshore accounts to shelter income and the need to reform education, especially regarding the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Betty Chu said reforming tax laws and preventing more businesses from leaving the state was key to reviving its economy.

Alonso said he would donate his salary, much as he did when he was on the Monterey Park City Council.

Pleitez, at 26 the youngest of the contenders, offered himself as an example of “new leadership” who was nonetheless prepared to serve and cited his work on the Obama administration’s Treasury Department transition team.

Several of the lesser known, under-financed candidates offered themselves as outsiders who would not be beholden to the interests that help finance campaigns.

“The icing on the cake” of his candidacy, Lysenko said, “is getting the money out of politics.”

Agrella decried “career politicians” and drew lots of applause for his anti-government remarks, Truax cited the federal stimulus package as evidence that the “federal government has too much power,” and Duran described herself as a “regular mom . . . a regular working person.”

The forum sponsors -- the League of Women Voters of the East San Gabriel Valley -- ran a tight ship with an eye toward fairness.

Each candidate was allowed opening and closing statements of two minutes each.

Only written questions that stuck to the issues (no personal attacks or opinions) were allowed from the audience, and campaign signs and other forms of electioneering were forbidden.

Nonetheless, the discussion sometimes grew spirited.

Nadal used his opening statement to attack some of his rivals -- until a League official reminded him of the rules.

Mostert said he supports many of Obama’s initiatives and said if elected he would “fix the tax code so corporations pay their fair share.”

If no candidate wins a majority in this special election, the first-place finishers in each of the three parties will meet in a July 14 runoff.

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jean.merl@latimes.com