Governors Past and Present Aid Rivals for Assembly

Like sports fanatics who like to ponder who would have come out on top if Nolan Ryan had pitched against Ty Cobb, political junkies too sometimes speculate about who would prevail if politicians from different generations had a chance to face off.

So there is a lot of interest in a contest of dueling California governors past and present shaping up in an Assembly race in the Glendale-Burbank-Los Feliz area.

Republican Craig Missakian, an attorney from Glendale, has received major fund-raising help from a fellow Armenian American, former Gov. George Deukmejian, who doesn’t get involved in many races, but was a sort of political mentor for the candidate.

“George Deukmejian is one of the reasons I got into politics,” Missakian said. “I started out working on his first campaign for governor when I was in college.”

In one recent fund-raiser, Deukmejian helped Missakian bring in $140,000.

Democratic candidate Dario Frommer, an attorney from the Los Feliz area, has his own connection to the Capitol.

Before he became a candidate, Frommer was the appointments secretary for Gov. Gray Davis.

There had been rumors of friction when Frommer abruptly quit Davis’ young administration to run for the Assembly. But Frommer says their relationship is good and that the governor has endorsed his campaign and will soon make a trip to the 43rd District to stump on his behalf.

“He wants to come down. He has been very supportive of me,” Frommer said.

“We are working out the details for the governor to attend one of Dario’s fund-raisers,” said Gabriel Sanchez, a spokesman for Davis.

Missakian said Deukmejian is very popular in the district, which has a large concentration of Armenian American voters.

But Frommer believes there is no doubt about which of the two state executives carries more weight in a district where Democrats have an edge in voter registration.

“I think if you look at the polling in the district, Gray Davis is a lot better endorsement to have than George Deukmejian,” Frommer said. “His kind of centrist leadership is popular.”

ROUND TWO: The two candidates from the 43rd Assembly District are also clashing over what to call each other.

Their tiff began when Missakian described himself in campaign materials as a prosecutor/attorney.

Missakian said he had served as a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney from 1994 to 1997. He now has a private practice in business litigation.

A local resident had filed a suit about Missakian’s description, and a Sacramento judge ruled this week that the description was inaccurate.

A spokesman for the California secretary of state, which prepares the ballots, said Wednesday that Missakian’s revised ballot title will be “businessman/attorney.”

Frommer’s beef is that Missakian was misleading voters since he left the D.A.’s office three years ago and is now in private practice.

“Here’s a guy who’s an attorney who knows the law and got caught, caught, caught,” Frommer said. “I stand by the judge’s ruling.”

For his part, Missakian said he won’t stop telling supporters about his work as a prosecutor, when he served at the Kenyon Justice Center and at county courthouses.

“I’m certainly not going to stop talking about being a prosecutor,” Missakian said.

In a return volley, Missakian said he had questions about Frommer’s job designation of “college instructor/attorney.”

“He’s not been a practicing attorney until the last few months,” Missakian said, citing Frommer’s prior job under Davis. “And he only teaches one class at Glendale College.”

In rebuttal, Frommer said he was in private practice before working for Davis for about a year on his campaign and on the transition team. Last October, Frommer returned to his environmental and land-use law practice. He also teaches political science part time at Glendale Community College.

On his campaign materials, Frommer said he didn’t “go around saying I’m an aide to Gov. Davis.” And he said if Missakian truly questions his job titles, “he should challenge it.”

Want more details about the squabble?

Missakian had the classic jurisprudent answer.

“Call my attorney,” he advised politely.

LONG-DISTANCE LOBBYIST: It isn’t often that a California state senator receives a call on a Valley issue from a lobbyist in Eastern Europe, but that is what happened recently to Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar).

The bill at issue was Alarcon’s legislation requiring the city of Los Angeles to provide more public reporting of noise levels caused by aircraft in neighboring communities.

The legislation was approved this week by the state Senate and sent to Davis, but not before it was amended by Alarcon at the request of the lobbyist calling from Yugoslavia.

The long-distance lobbyist was Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, vacationing in Eastern Europe with his wife.

At Riordan’s request, Alarcon agreed to an amendment that requires the noise data to be provided to a database system to be set up and paid for by the state. The change could save the city $500,000 in costs of providing its own reporting mechanism.

Peter Hidalgo, a spokesman for the mayor, said it is not unusual for Riordan to call and lobby officials on important issues while he is traveling on personal time.

“You need to understand the mayor,” Hidalgo said. “Although he was on vacation, he is one of those 24/7 mayors.”

BATTER UP: Who says politicians always have to play hardball?

A group of Democratic lawmakers representing the San Fernando Valley will set out to prove otherwise at the second annual Labor Day Softball Game this weekend at Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks Park.

The fund-raiser for the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley drew a large crowd last year, with state Sen. Tom Hayden and Assemblyman Scott Wildman, both of Los Angeles, and L.A. City Councilman Alex Padilla running the bases.

Padilla, Wildman and maybe Hayden will be back.

Others scheduled to attend this Sunday include Rep. Brad Sherman of Sherman Oaks, state Assemblymen Tony Cardenas of Sylmar and Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, state Sen. Adam Schiff of Burbank, as well as several staffers from the various legislative offices.

“It’s a softball game for a bunch of politicians,” said Asta Criss, one of the organizers. “They try not to bean each other, unlike in Sacramento.”

Sherman, a tax lawyer, has already agreed to serve as umpire.

We can only imagine what positions the other pols will play.

Padilla pitched in high school, so he is likely to take the mound.

Wildman, who has staked out a claim as an environmentalist, could bat cleanup.

And Hayden? We see the liberal legislator playing left field.

Wrong. Hayden spokesman Rocky Rushing said the senator played right field last year.

“Don’t confuse his baseball position with his political position,” Rushing said.