Roberti Calls GOP Foe a ‘Phantom Candidate’ Who Hides Her Views

A day after being forced into an embarrassing runoff election, state Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) lashed out Wednesday at his Republican opponent, Carol Rowen, labeling her a “phantom candidate” who is trying to hide her views from voters.

Roberti attracted the most votes of 10 candidates in a special election Tuesday to replace former state Sen. Alan Robbins in the San Fernando Valley’s heavily Democratic 20th Senate District. But Roberti’s 34% of the vote fell far short of the 50%-plus-1 he needed to avoid a June 2 runoff with Rowen.

Rowen, a veteran abortion rights activist from Tarzana who is making her first run for public office, took 21% of the vote. She vowed Wednesday to make Roberti’s longtime opposition to abortion rights a centerpiece of her runoff campaign.

“Choice was a key issue. . . . The question I was most frequently asked was, ‘What is your position on choice?’ They didn’t even want to know my political affiliation,” said Rowen, chairwoman of the Los Angeles chapter of California Republicans for Choice.

Also in the runoff will be Glenn Bailey of the Green Party, John Vernon of the Libertarian Party and Gary Kast of the Peace and Freedom Party, who qualified under special election rules.

The race has been closely watched as the first test this year of incumbents’ political survivability at a time of unusually high voter anger at both the Legislature and Congress. A liberal, Roberti has been a Sacramento fixture since 1966. He is president pro tem of the Senate, a position that makes him one of California’s most powerful Democrats.

Roberti is running for Robbins’ old seat after being forced out of his Hollywood-based district by reapportionment. Robbins resigned last year after agreeing to plead guilty to federal corruption charges.

Asked at a news conference Wednesday if he thought that anti-incumbent sentiment affected his vote totals, Roberti said: “No question about it. There’s an anti-incumbent feeling against anybody who happens to hold office.”

Roberti, who opposes abortion for personal reasons, also acknowledged that his views “lost me some votes.” But he insisted, as he has in the past, that he never pressured another legislator to vote against his or her personal convictions about abortion.

Roberti also conceded that questions about his residency played a role in Tuesday’s balloting.

Rowen and other candidates repeatedly attacked Roberti for being a carpetbagger in the 20th District after he rented part of a Van Nuys bungalow in February in an effort to establish residency in the new district.

Opponents claimed that his real residence is a large, Tudor-style home that Roberti has owned for years in the upscale Los Feliz district. Four opponents sued unsuccessfully last month in an effort to keep him off the ballot, arguing that he had not met a state requirement that candidates must reside in a district for one year before running.

Asked Wednesday if he was willing to sell his Los Feliz home and buy one in the Valley if he is elected in June, Roberti reiterated that he and his wife, June, already “live permanently in the Valley.”

However, he said, he had no immediate plans to sell his Los Feliz home because his elderly father lives there.

“My father is 88 years old,” he said. “My father cannot move. . . . No election is worth my having regrets that I uprooted him and shortened his life to any extent.”

The senator also tried to turn the residence issue against Rowen, pointing out that her home adjoins a country club and arguing that she is out of touch with more downscale voters.

“I’ve seen more of the Valley . . . in this campaign than she has,” he said. “I’d like to see her at the GM plant gates, I’d like to see her at the poor churches in Pacoima, I’d like to see her at all of the parts of the Valley that aren’t Braemar Country Club.”

Rowen responded that she has lived in her house for 23 years and saw no need to explain where she resides.

Roberti also lashed out at a group composed mostly of gun owners that mailed 200,000 leaflets to Valley voters attacking him as “king of the back-room, special-interest deals in the state Senate.”

He claimed that the group, Californians Against Corruption, is “a front” for the National Rifle Assn., which vehemently opposed a landmark ban on military-style assault weapons that Roberti co-authored in 1989.

He further charged that the group did not file a legally required statement of organization with the state or report how much money it spent against him in the campaign, a sum he estimated at “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

CAC spokesman Manuel Fernandez said his group includes NRA members but is primarily a grass-roots organization aimed at defeating Roberti. He said he believes that the group has filed the necessary papers, which was confirmed by the secretary of state’s office.

Fernandez estimated the value of CAC’s brochures at $120,000, but said they were prepared in small batches by volunteers around the country, none spending enough individually to trigger state reporting requirements.

A spokeswoman for the state Fair Political Practices Commission said political action committees such as CAC must file campaign finance reports if they spend $1,000 or more. But she said commission lawyers could not immediately determine if that requirement applied to Fernandez’s group.

Roberti also charged Wednesday that Rowen deliberately dodged a televised candidates forum and refused to return a questionnaire from The Times because she is trying to hide her views from voters in the district.

“For all my faults and all my virtues, I let the people know where I stand on the issues--controversial issues,” he said. “We have a right to know Ms. Rowen’s stands, as she can’t go through this election as the phantom candidate.”

Rowen said she did not attend the forum because she was afraid that Roberti’s campaign would videotape her answers and use them later in paid TV commercials intended to make her look bad by taking her responses “out of context.”

She said she received The Times questionnaire on Saturday, only a few hours before it was due back, and did not have time to fill it out.

The Times hand-delivered the questionnaire to Rowen’s home April 1, which she said she never received, and faxed another copy Friday.

Rowen said she expects that her new status as a runoff contender will attract support from abortion rights and women’s groups that have long opposed Roberti.

“He doesn’t want to discuss choice, but he can’t avoid the issue,” she said. “It’s very important in this district.”

Despite this year’s anti-incumbent fervor, most political analysts expect Roberti to prevail in June.

“It’s a mixed message from voters,” said Republican Assemblywoman Cathie Wright of Simi Valley, who is in her sixth two-year term.

“On one hand, they’re saying throw those incumbents out. On the other hand, they want somebody with experience,” she said.

GOP political consultant Eric Rose agreed, saying Roberti will win in June because voters will be convinced that he is better positioned to deliver government services to them.

ELECTION RETURNS

This special election is being conducted to fill the seat held by Alan Robbins, who resigned after agreeing to plead guilty to federal corruption charges.

SAN FERNANDO VALLEY

STATE SENATE 20th District 471 of 471 precincts reporting (unofficial final results)

CANDIDATE VOTE % David A. Roberti (D)* 16,162 33.9% Carol Rowen (R)* 10,037 21.1% David Honda (R) 7,170 15.0% Dolores White (R) 5,015 10.5% Ted Dan August (D) 3,209 6.7% Bill Dominguez (D) 1,980 4.1% Glenn Bailey (Green)* 1,676 3.5% John Vernon (Lib)* 1,149 2.4% Gary Kast (P&F;)* 586 1.2% Drew M. Angel (D) 578 1.2%

* Will appear on June 2 runoff ballot