Council race takes strong partisan tone

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press September 19, 2000

By THOMAS FRANCIS
Valley Press Staff Writer

PALMDALE - City Council races are nonpartisan, but you wouldn't know it by examining the early stages of the Palmdale campaign.

There will be a special election on Nov. 7 to fill two vacant seats on the Palmdale council, and the candidates are already lining up their party backers to prepare for the next seven weeks' battle.

Last week's forum, presented by the local chapter of the California Congress of Republicans, barred those candidates who weren't registered with the GOP from speaking.

Democrats Alan Lee and Sandy Corrales were present, but mute. Republicans Jim Root, Rick Norris, John Mayfield and Richard Loa had the floor to themselves. Norris and Loa got the endorsements.

But Lee and Corrales had their chance Sunday at a fund-raiser for Lee, presented jointly by the Antelope Valley Democratic Club and the Democratic Club of the High Desert. The pair are running for different seats on the council and clearly have the support of the party.

"It's the Republicans who have made this such a partisan effort, and as Democrats we've had to respond to that," said Lee, running for the one-year council seat.

"We want to be bigger, better and more mature than them, but at the same time we have to engage in more sophisticated levels of politics, because that is how they've been beating us."

As president of the AV Democratic Club, Lee knows his own club is in the bag. The Democratic Club of the High Desert's assistance will be an advantage, too, as it is the more tenured organization with a wealth of human resources to devote to his campaign and to Corrales'.

Lee has also attracted backing from Democrats in local and federal office, lending his campaign prestige that has been lacking in previous Democratic candidates for local office.

His Sunday fund-raiser was attended by Assemblyman Scott Wildman, D-Glendale, and Assemblyman Herb Wesson, D-Los Angeles, while a Saturday fund-raiser will bring Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, to the Antelope Valley.

Wesson exhorted the audience of roughly 50 to pitch in on behalf of Lee and Corrales.

"I'm just proud to be here today with you, to give my praise to you," said Wesson to Lee. "Whatever glory I can give you, it's yours."

Turning to the crowd, he added, "For those of you guys who live in Palmdale, let's bring these two guys (Corrales and Lee) home."

Corrales is a candidate in the race for the three-year slot.

Wesson presented the AV Democratic Club with a check for $250, presumably to be applied to the Lee council campaign.

Wildman didn't write a check, but he made some bold statements about the future of the Democratic Party in the Antelope Valley. If Wildman wins a seat on the Los Angeles City Council in 2002, as he's aiming, he predicts that Assemblyman George Runner, RLancaster, will have deferred to a Democrat.

"I can see in just a few years I'll be in L.A. and I will look up to Sacramento and see some (Democrat) knocking (Assemblyman) George Runner out, and it's going to do my heart good," Wildman said.

If beating the Republican juggernaut is his task, Lee can bet on some wise counsel from Wildman, whose 43rd District - including Burbank, Glendale and part of Hollywood - had Republican representation in the California Assembly for 52 years before he came along to upset a heavily favored, heavily funded GOP candidate. He sees the same potential for upset in Palmdale.

"You're going to see a lot of working people moving in here, who find that it is the only affordable place to live in L.A. County, and those working people are going to adhere to the basic principles of the Democratic Party," Wildman said.

In his successful campaign, Wildman opposed a GOP proposal that would have eliminated an eight-hour workday and made overtime pay scarce. It resonated with the voters and Lee, Wildman says, only needs to find a similarly salient issue.

The 2000 City Council race, however, is rather short on issues. The debate over where and with whom to build a hospital in Palmdale tops the list, of course, but beyond that the pickings are slim.

Lee thinks that voters will gravitate toward the candidate with the right personality for the job and away from those who have connections to powerful special interests.

"I run as my own man, with my own vision," Lee said. "Come election day, my only obligation will be to those who elected me, as opposed to those powerful political machines who are appointing, by extension, their political friends."

Speaking to the crowd, Lee charged that two of the most powerful Republicans in the Valley - Runner, and Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford - are driving the campaigns of four council candidates.

Runner, he said, is seeking local power through the placement of Loa and Norris on the council for the one-year and three-year seats, respectively, while Ledford is behind the campaigns of Jim Root and John Mayfield, who are running for the same one-year and three-year slots.

All those candidates have denied that they are beholden to any political figure. Each says that as a councilman he would make decisions on his own.

If Lee has a powerful supporter, then he doesn't mind admitting it. Lee's backers, some of whom have written checks for his campaign, consist primarily of unions, whose members are the "working families" that are the stated target of the campaign.

It's for this reason that Lee will oppose the Palmdale ballot initiative that would allow a Wal-Mart to go up on the city's east side. It's not the Wal-Mart building itself to which he objects, though; it's the impact on Valley retail workers.

"I'm not against Wal-Mart," Lee said. "I'm against any measure that rezones people out of jobs."

About 10 of those at the fundraiser, given by Democrat activists Robert and Gamze Davenport at their eastside Palmdale home, were registered Republicans and Lee will court them in his campaign, too.

Though registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 800 in Palmdale, Democrats here generally have worse turnout and vote rather conservatively, often for Republicans.