Schiff’s Inroads Shake GOP Grip on 21st District

Inside the softly lighted Tiffany ballroom at the Biltmore Hotel, a political dance was in full swing and Adam Schiff was the most sought-after partner.

Enthused by a poll showing Schiff inching ahead of Paula Boland in the California Senate’s 21st District race, the Democratic leader of the Senate, Bill Lockyer of Hayward, roused the partisan audience with hope that a seat that has been Republican forever is about to change hands.

Since February, Democrats have added 8,000 new voters to the rolls in the 21st, which includes parts of the East Valley, Silver Lake and Los Feliz, plus the cities of Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena. That gives Democrats a four-point registration edge--44% to 40%--the same advantage the GOP enjoyed four years ago.

President Clinton is ahead by 10 points here in polls that also point to voter disenchantment with House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s agenda in the 104th Congress, Democrats say.

But shifting political tides are nothing without the right candidate to exploit them.

That, Lockyer boasts, is where Schiff comes in.

“Part of my job is picking the right candidates,” Lockyer said at the Biltmore fund-raiser last week. “We have an extraordinary candidate in this district.”

Schiff, 36, is a Harvard-educated former federal prosecutor who has run for state office four times. He has wowed the party hierarchy by tireless door-to-door canvassing, his fund-raising prowess and perseverance.

The seat is open because of the impending retirement of Sen. Newt Russell (R-Glendale). The veteran legislator’s relatively poor showing four years ago against an unknown, unfunded opponent was an early warning sign that Republicans’ once-impenetrable hold on the region was in danger.

In this year’s March primary, Russell was worried enough about holding the district that he backed an African American Republican from Pasadena on the theory that he could put together a black-GOP alliance. Russell has since endorsed Boland.

Schiff has made his own inroads with local Republicans, attracting endorsements from local GOP municipal officeholders. He also has won support from local firefighters and most police organizations in the district’s smaller cities.

But Boland, 56, a San Fernando Valley activist turned lawmaker, has considerable strengths of her own to counter the Democrat’s momentum.

Along with endorsements from household-name GOP officeholders who represent the district, Boland has a slew of major law enforcement groups lined up, including the county deputy sheriffs and the Los Angeles Police Protective League.

The Granada Hills Republican also has the name recognition that has been built during her years in the Legislature and most recently led an unsuccessful effort to make it easier for the Valley to secede from Los Angeles.

As chairwoman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee, Boland was front and center during Sacramento’s stormy year of Republican leadership.

Although she is new to most of the Senate district’s voters, endured a bruising Republican primary and got a late start in her campaign, the scrappy Boland has financial resources to combat Schiff’s.

They come courtesy of state Senate Minority Leader Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove), who is putting in $5 for every $1 she raises to hold the seat.

Money is no object for either contender: Boland campaign advisor Scott Wilk says that upwards of $2 million will be spent on the race.

Boland had her own downtown Los Angeles event Tuesday at the Intercontinental Hotel, with Utah’s Sen. Orrin Hatch as the chief draw. Hatch called Boland’s race the most important in the state next to the presidential contest.

State Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine) said holding the seat is a key element in the party’s plan to take over the Senate in two years. If Republicans can retain their slim majority in the Assembly, that would put them in charge of both houses of the Legislature.

It is this battle for control of the Legislature as well as Congress that provides the none-too-subtle subtext for legislative races such as that between Boland and Schiff.

In the same geographical area, two competitive Assembly races and one congressional race have also drawn intense focus and an infusion of resources from the Democratic Party.

“We are absolutely under siege in the district,” said John Geranios, the Republican candidate in the 43rd Assembly District, during a lunch meeting of the Lincoln Club.

Johnson underscored his party’s fears, especially for Boland.

“In three out of four races [in the area], it is close enough it could go either way, and no race is a better illustration of that than the race of Paula Boland,” Johnson said.

For her part, Boland asserts that all she needs to win are the resources to expose Adam Schiff as the liberal he is.

“I’m committed to win,” Boland said. “I feel a burden to win. . . . Bill Lockyer, who’s this man’s mentor, has a thirst for power you cannot believe. . . . They’re going to come into this district with their million or $1.5 million and we’re going to make them spend it.”

Schiff, who defines himself as a law enforcement Democrat, is equally confident of prevailing. He insists that Boland’s views are too right wing to appeal to the district’s voters and that her crusades in her old district don’t translate to the new one.

“They don’t know who she is,” Schiff said.

But partisan voting habits die hard, which is one of Boland’s greatest assets.

Hoping that her Republican credentials will carry her through, Boland has avoided joint appearances with Schiff, making the race seem peculiarly void of oration, though fiercely waged.

Boland insists she is not ducking confrontations with Schiff but is spending campaign time in venues selected by her consultants--places, she adds, where Schiff is neither known nor supported.

“I don’t avoid anybody,” Boland said. “I’m a fighter.”

The relative quiet in the district will no doubt soon be shattered by a barrage of mail. Although mud is likely to be slung, both sides insist they will wage an ideological battle for voters.

“In the next few weeks we’re in for a helluva E-ticket ride,” Johnson said.

The ideological distinctions could not be clearer. Schiff supports abortion rights and gun control and opposes school vouchers.

Boland opposes abortion, with exceptions for the life of the mother and incest victims but not in the case of rape, she said earlier this year.

She is a staunch foe of gun control and an enthusiastic proponent of school vouchers, and may be best known for her legislation to facilitate the breakup of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Both back the death penalty and “three-strikes” crime legislation.

Schiff is portraying Boland as a carpetbagger who moved to the district from Northridge to avoid term limits.

A television ad on the subject shows Boland packing a trunk to move to the district and filling it with an assault rifle, antiabortion signs and tobacco money. Pasted on the trunk is a sticker that reads: “I love Northridge.”

Boland, however, notes that Schiff is not exactly a lifelong Burbank resident himself, but a perennial candidate who moved back and forth into this district--and another--to run for office.