Clash of Styles, Views Evident in Quiet Contest

Susan Carpenter McMillan, best known as the spokeswoman for President Clinton accuser Paula Jones, bounds up to the podium, throws her hands into the air and launches into yet another campaign speech.

“I feel like a little cheerleader up here--a Republican cheerleader,” she gushes to a roomful of GOP members of the conservative Lincoln Club, in her bid to win a state Assembly seat. “I’ve never identified with a candidate so much as I have with George Bush. You know, compassionate conservatism, someone who speaks from the heart.”

Despite her enthusiasm, Carpenter McMillan’s race against Democrat Carol Liu for the 44th Assembly District seat is one of the quietest in an otherwise raucous corner of the state, the contested swing districts of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena area.

Rep. James E. Rogan, the Republican congressman who helped lead the House impeachment drive against President Clinton, is fighting ferociously to defend his seat against Democratic state Sen. Adam Schiff. Battles are also raging in two other Assembly and state Senate races here.

But whatever the Liu-Carpenter McMillan contest lacks in fireworks, it makes up for with a striking clash of personal styles and political views. Both women have careers involving politics and are mothers in their 50s--Liu has three children, Carpenter McMillan two--but the similarities stop there.

Liu, a former history teacher and La Canada Flintridge councilwoman who has poured her own money into the campaign, is a little-known politician who emphasizes her practical experience in the classroom and the council chambers.

Carpenter McMillan is an outspoken television commentator who savors the public eye, a self-styled “conservative feminist” who spent years crusading against abortion and the sexual abuse of women and children.

It’s the small-town, if uncommonly wealthy, lawmaker vs. the media-savvy, big-city TV personality. The candidates have staked out opposing positions on issues from education reform to gas tax relief, often along party lines.

Libertarian Jerry Douglas, a Montrose software engineer, is also on the ballot.

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Months ago, worried Democrats publicly fretted that Carpenter McMillan might rake in cash from donors disgusted with the president.

But trading on her anti-Clinton credentials has apparently proved a tough sell in this district, a suburban swath nuzzled into the foothills of the Verdugo and San Gabriel mountains where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans 45% to 37%.

Liu has contributed more than $600,000 to her campaign, amassing five times as much as Carpenter McMillan. As of Sept. 30, Liu had $75,000 in cash, more than twice as much as her rival.

In total, Liu has raised $887,000, compared with Carpenter McMillan’s $169,000.

Though some Republican strategists insist the seat is winnable, the GOP’s Assembly caucus has avoided the race.

“We were not prepared to stretch ourselves anywhere that wasn’t comfortable for us,” said James Fisfis, political director for the Assembly Republican Caucus. He said the group may reconsider helping Carpenter McMillan if the race tightens.

For now, though, Carpenter McMillan is prepared to go it alone.

“I am clearly the underdog,” she said, dismissing any hope of a last-minute GOP cash infusion. “I have this moral repugnancy to raising all this money. . . . It’s just evil.”

Liu has been a formidable presence in local mailboxes, inundating voters with colorful brochures touting her record on education, balancing city budgets, bipartisan cooperation and minority hiring.

The winner of the Nov. 7 election will claim the distinction of being the first woman to represent the district, which includes Pasadena, Altadena, La Canada Flintridge, Sunland-Tujunga and parts of Glendale. The seat is open because Assemblyman Jack Scott (D-Altadena) is running for the state Senate.

Until Scott’s election in 1996, the area was a Republican stronghold. But an influx of Latinos, Asian Americans and Armenian Americans, as well as a growing number of young, liberal workers in the entertainment business, have tilted the political landscape toward the Democrats.

Liu, 59, the Chinese American daughter of a fourth-generation Californian and an immigrant father, has financed the bulk of her campaign with the help of her husband, Mike Peevey, a former president of Southern California Edison.

She spends much of her time these days calling campaign donors and attending small coffee gatherings in private homes, listening to people complain about frustrated teachers, illiterate children and rundown schools.

At one recent event, she told listeners: “It’s time to pull up our sleeves, put our elbows together, get in that boat and pull deeply on those oars to fix public education.”

Carpenter McMillan, 51, separated three years ago from her husband, Pasadena attorney William McMillan. Once a regular on the talk-show circuit, she now marches door to door almost every day, introducing herself to voters who don’t recognize her signature puffy blond hair. She peppers her speech with homey anecdotes, often referring to herself as Suzie and emphasizing her personal touch.

“The most important thing is not your, quote, issues like abortion and gun control, but what you’re like as a person,” she told the Lincoln Club. “So many people tell me, ‘We may not agree with you on everything, Suzie, but we like that you’re there for us, that you’re honest.’ ”

Both candidates rate education as their top priority. Liu favors reducing class sizes and using incentives to attract qualified teachers to understaffed school districts. Carpenter McMillan, who supports school choice for parents, charter schools and merit pay for teachers, proposes sending 90% of education dollars directly to classrooms.

Liu promises to fight for affordable health care for all Californians. Carpenter McMillan supports drug prescription benefits for the elderly and tax breaks to help poor people buy health insurance.

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In some areas, their approaches diverge sharply. Carpenter McMillan has crusaded for tougher laws against criminals, particularly rapists and child molesters. In 1995, she held a rally to protest the release of Reginald Muldrew, the so-called “pillowcase rapist.” She also helped create the state’s chemical castration bill, which mandates that twice-convicted child molesters be injected with drugs to suppress their sex drive.

Liu, who favors abortion rights, supports prison reform. She said prisons should be reserved for violent criminals, advocating less expensive alternatives for nonviolent offenders and more drug treatment, education, and job training for those in prison.

The candidates disagree on Proposition 39, which would reduce the margin needed to pass school bonds from the current two-thirds majority to 55%. Liu supports the measure and Carpenter McMillan opposes it, warning it could lead to a rapid rise in property taxes.

The state’s 18-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax is another point of contention. Carpenter McMillan wants to repeal it and favors oil drilling off the California coast, while Liu argues that the tax pays for vital transportation improvements. She opposes new oil drilling, saying the state should instead encourage development of zero-emission vehicles.

But even as the race hits its final lap, there are signs indicating that Carpenter McMillan may be slowing down. She recently paid herself back the $86,000 she earlier loaned her campaign. The loan amounted to more than half the money she had raised through September.

Even more unusual for a candidate in a contested race, Carpenter McMillan loaned $50,000 last month to Dennis Mountjoy, a businessman and son of state Sen. Richard Mountjoy, who is running for the 59th Assembly District seat in the Arcadia area.

“It’s either a kind of otherworldly confidence or else she’s conceding the race,” Democratic consultant Parke Skelton said. “For her to be giving money to Dennis Mountjoy, for what should be a safe Republican seat, is absurd. Dennis Mountjoy should be giving her money.”

Carpenter McMillan disputes the notion that she has given up. She repaid her loan, she said, because the money really belonged to her 85-year-old mother.

As for the Mountjoy money, “it’s going to help him more than it’s going to help me. . . . When I look at $50,000, that buys two mailings. If I send out two, [Liu] is going to send out 20.”