2 GOP Candidates for Senate Divided by Style and Ideals

As the two Republican candidates walked the shady streets of Simi Valley one recent Saturday, the moderate county supervisor and the conservative state Assemblyman both noticed the same thing.

Bright blue “Yes on Prop. 22” signs were planted on many front lawns of voters who usually stay home on election day. So Supervisor Judy Mikels and Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) knocked on those doors too.

Not that Mikels ever mentioned the statewide initiative that allows marriage only between men and women when these issue-driven prospects opened the front door. She hates it.

“I don’t avoid them because Prop. 22 is there. I want a shot at them,” she said. “But I think it’s just one more extremely divisive initiative that will accomplish absolutely nothing.”

McClintock welcomes any mention of Prop. 22.

“Marriage is the foundation of any human civilization,” McClintock said. “Frankly, I’m surprised it’s even an issue.”

If there is one current issue that sets Mikels apart from McClintock, it is Prop. 22--the hot-button measure of this political season in California.

But it’s not the only debate in this bitter 19th state Senate District primary race, marked by the same ideological split that divides Republicans throughout the state and nation. And the winner is likely to move on to Sacramento, because a Republican--currently Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley)--has held the seat since 1972.

“The voters have a clear choice,” Mikels said of the March 7 election.

She supports abortion rights. McClintock opposes abortion, except when it is necessary to save a woman’s life or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

She favors a ban on assault weapons, a waiting period on gun purchases and trigger locks. He opposes any limits on the constitutional rights of citizens to defend themselves.

She opposes taxpayer-funded vouchers that students can use in private schools, except as a stop-gap measure until the public system can be fixed. He favors them.

Mikels is supported by labor unions; McClintock is not. Large taxpayer groups endorse McClintock for his tax-cutting crusades, but not Mikels. Law enforcement agencies back Mikels. McClintock is backed by a host of large corporations and conservative business interests, including religious broadcaster Edward Atsinger III of Camarillo, who loaned the campaign $100,000.

“This campaign points up our struggle to return to original, clear Republican ideals and get away from this social conservatism,” Mikels said. She says McClintock is an ideologue backed by the religious right and the National Rifle Assn.

“Yes, it is true,” McClintock responded. “I support pro-life and I believe people have a right to defend themselves from violent predators. But I’ve always viewed the social issues as ancillary.”

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McClintock said he sees the voters’ choice differently. He sees it as choice primarily based on the candidates’ records of public service, not ideology.

“I can’t imagine a stronger contrast than between my record on financial issues and hers,” McClintock said. The former state treasurer candidate blames Mikels for Ventura County’s recent budget problems and a Medicare billing fiasco that will cost at least $23 million to resolve.

Versions of these themes are sure to confront--even inundate--voters over the next nine days, as the candidates spend the money they have left to sell themselves or answer the attacks of opponents.

After raising $83,000 over the last month, the underfunded Mikels is now in better shape to spread the word. She hopes to raise much more at a $500-a-plate fund-raiser Wednesday at Oxnard’s Tower Club.

McClintock still has $183,000 in the bank, after spending $129,000 on his first round of mailers in recent days.

His consultants say he has already peppered 14,500 absentee voters with mailers and sent 180,000 more fliers in three mailings over the last two weeks. At least half a dozen additional mailers are scheduled before the election, they said.

Mikels plans three large mailings, and perhaps two letters, to selected voters over the next nine days.

“We have enough money now to finish our campaign,” she said.

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McClintock, 43, a state legislator for 14 years, has already hammered Mikels for her purported county government shortcomings in a mailer titled: “The Wrong Kind of Experience.”

“Judy Mikels’ sad attempt to shift blame to others does little to inspire either confidence or respect,” the mailer says.

What it did not say was that Mikels voted against the 1998 merger of the county’s welfare and mental health agencies that indirectly triggered federal audits leading to the county’s fiscal problems.

McClintock said he plans to emphasize his role in gaining a 35% cut in the the state vehicle license tax and his support of a San Fernando Valley effort to secede from Los Angeles. One-third of the 19th District is in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, and the rest is in Ventura County.

Mikels, 54, a Simi Valley councilwoman or county supervisor for 14 years, said her mailers will be largely positive and will hardly mention McClintock. “If I mention him, it’s just free advertising.”

A flier paid for by Wright, who has spent $24,000 to back Mikels, touts the supervisor as an “honest, experienced public servant.”

It also notes her impressive list of Ventura County endorsements, including Wright, Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury, Sheriff Bob Brooks, former Rep. Robert Lagomarsino, former Assemblyman Nao Takasugi, Supervisor Frank Schillo and 19 city council members in Ventura County.

Mikels’ ads are also expected to stress the importance of lawmakers working together. In fact, she has taken to calling her opponent “Dr. No,” a nickname McClintock received in Sacramento for his many votes against bills supported by other Assembly members, including those in his own party.

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McClintock’s response: “I am probably the hardest sell in the Legislature in spending taxpayers’ money. I make no apologies for that.”

But Mikels says McClintock is a hypocrite who says he is a taxpayer advocate but actually is a spendthrift of public money. She has accused him of allowing his state staff to improperly travel to what were essentially campaign events. She accused him of voting himself a pay raise and of using state mailing privileges to send a political flier to potential voters.

And she has called him a carpetbagger, because he lives with his family in a Sacramento suburb--not the one-bedroom apartment in his San Fernando Valley district he claims as a legal residence--and then collects $25,000 a year in taxpayer subsidies for room and board.

McClintock mailed voters a response last week. It featured a picture of him smiling broadly, with his wife and two sons. He explained that his family lives in Sacramento so they could be together as much as possible.

“I want you to know why Lori and I want our family to stay together,” it says, “close to where I must spend the majority of my time.”

Beyond the polls--which both sides say favor McClintock--there have been only hints of how all this will play with the voters.

Veteran political consultant Harvey Englander is impressed with McClintock. Englander is running the campaign for moderate Republican Keith Richman, who hopes to replace McClintock in the 38th Assembly District.

“McClintock is a hard-right conservative, and Mikels is more moderate,” Englander said. “But I think that’s less of an issue than their records. And McClintock’s mailer about the difficulties of Ventura County was very effective. Plus, Mikels is really unknown in Los Angeles County.”

At a recent candidate forum in Sherman Oaks, members of two large Los Angeles-area business groups took their measure of the candidates.

Several said in interviews that McClintock came off better--more polished and articulate and highly personable--for a policy wonk. But they said they like Mikels’ message more than Mikels herself.

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Lawyer Lee Alpert, an appointed commissioner at the city, county and state levels, said his politics are closer to Mikels, but he enjoyed McClintock.

“I think Judy Mikels has some very good positions, and she is an attractive candidate,” he said. “But I don’t think she presents them with the same effectiveness as Tom. She’s more rigid in her approach, more harsh.”

In particular, Alpert said, Mikels did not work the banquet hall after arriving for the luncheon. “I did not even see her until she went up to speak,” he said. “She has some very thoughtful positions on issues that I fear she is not given credit for.”

Mikels said it’s not her style to shake hands and back slap like a typical politician.

“Most everybody feels compelled to do the grip-and-grin, but I’ve just never felt that was an honest way to approach campaigning. I don’t try to act like everybody is my best friend,” she said. “There’s not a shy bone in my body, but that’s just not me.”

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Q&A;

Interviews with both candidates. B15