Right down the middle

S.J. CAHN

Last week, we ran a small item as part of the Political Landscape

detailing how 70th Assembly District candidate Cristi Cristich was

the first candidate to shoot out a fax announcing Arnold

Schwarzenegger’s victory (“A fax that was really certain of

victory”).

The item included this final caveat: “By the way, a closer look at

the release offers an explanation why Cristich’s statement was the

first to arrive: It was dated Oct. 1. No doubts in her mind,

apparently.”

I figured the comment was an adequate response to how the

political cycle works by pointing out the date suggested the

announcement was largely planned as a quick hit,

get-my-name-out-there piece.

Not all read it that way. As one writer to our Forum pages put it:

“Is the Daily Pilot a lot more like their parent company the Los

Angeles Times than it confesses? Once again, the Pilot seems to be

promoting Cristi Cristich’s campaign for state Assembly ... .

“Why else would the Pilot continually give positive print to

Cristich, whose political past resembles Arianna Huffington’s?”

As I said, I don’t think that piece was particularly positive. And

I won’t go too deeply into how separate the Pilot and the Times are,

aside from saying that our editorial departments are entirely

divorced from each other. I have yet to hear our editor, Tony Dodero,

speaking with Times Editor John Carroll.

Of course, just days before that item ran, I was at a Rotary Club

meeting where I heard more than once how conservative the Pilot is.

The general consensus seemed to be that we mirror our community.

As far as I can tell, if we’re being called both too liberal and

too conservative in the same week, we’re right where we should be.

Still, in an attempt to play the political scene down the middle,

I’ll point out a few notes from Cristich’s latest release. It touts

her endorsement by Assemblyman Ray Haynes, whom the release notes is

a “nationally recognized leaders in the Conservative Movement.”

(Haynes, it should be noted, also has endorsed two of her opponents:

Irvine businessman Chuck DeVore and Newport’s Marianne Zippi,

probably the most “conservative” of the bunch.)

That use of the word “conservative” is key.

Early on in the race, a story in the Pilot termed Cristich a

“moderate.” It was a shorthand way to describe a woman who identified

herself as for business, for abortion rights and against the creation

of new taxes. She’s gained support from other “moderate Republicans”

such as members of the New Majority.

But “moderate” can also get spun as “liberal” within the

Republican Party. And given that her strongest competition is coming

from the right of her, in the form of DeVore -- whose political

credentials date back to the Reagan Administration and Rep. Chris

Cox’s early House years -- it is no surprise that the race is moving

toward conservatism being a key to success.

Orange County, after all, remains a strongly conservative area.

A Cristich spokesman, Dave Gilliard, said she’s always considered

herself conservative (and suggested that the Pilot reporter writing

the story came to the conclusion that she was a “moderate,” a label I

believe most reporters would use to describe her). DeVore throughout

the race has been questioning Cristich’s core beliefs as not truly

conservative.

In the end, it will be up to voters to decide what the words all

mean -- even how they apply “conservative” to themselves.

* S.J. CAHN is the managing editor. He can be reached at (949)

574-4233 or by e-mail at s.j.cahn@latimes.com.