Pace Picks Up in Quest for Dixon’s House Seat

Congressional candidates juggled back-to-back debates Wednesday in View Park and Culver City--a sudden burst of energy in a week of campaigning designed to get out the vote in the April 10 special election for the 32nd District seat.

With 18 candidates competing, the race to fill the post left vacant by the death of Julian Dixon has accelerated. Candidates are making greater efforts to reach voters: posting lawn signs, buying radio time and attending forums.

Dixon, a well-respected, 66-year-old Democrat who died in December of a heart attack after surgery, represented an area that includes the Crenshaw district, Koreatown, the neighborhoods around USC, Culver City, Baldwin Hills, Mar Vista, Ladera Heights, Leimert Park and Cheviot Hills.

On Monday, candidates took their campaigns before the Baptist Ministers Conference in South-Central Los Angeles, and the next day they met before a community group in Ladera Heights.

“More and more groups are asking these candidates to come before them, because there are pressing issues in the district and they want to know where the candidates stand,” said Tony Nicholas, president of United Homeowners, which sponsored Wednesday night’s debate in View Park. “The communities are more focused now, and with so many candidates out there it’s clear there is a big undecided vote.”

Less than an hour after that gathering was gaveled to order, the Culver City Democratic Club held its forum.

“It could be anybody’s race,” said Robert Neff, club vice president.

But in the 32nd District, which has one of the highest percentages of Democratic voters in the state, a Democrat is expected to be the winner.

The likely front-runners are considered to be former state Sen. Diane Watson, who recently resigned as ambassador to Micronesia; state Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City); and Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden.

All candidates will appear on all April 10 ballots in the primaries, regardless of party. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, runoffs will be held June 5 for Dixon’s seat among the top vote-getters in each party.

The other candidates represent a grab bag of issues and affiliations.

Democrats include Kirsten Wonder Albrecht, an entertainment attorney; Jules Bagneris, a pastor; Frank Evans III, a corporate manager; Ted Daley, former vice chairman of the Global Security Institute (an organization founded by the late Sen. Alan Cranston); Wanda James, a senior care executive; Philip Lowe, a businessman; Blair Hamilton Taylor, a businessman, and Leo James Terrell, a civil rights attorney.

Republicans are Mike Cyrus, a businessman; Noel Irwin Hentschel, a 1998 candidate for lieutenant governor; and Las Vegas resident Mike Schaefer, an attorney.

The Reform Party candidate is Ezola Foster, who ran for vice president on the Pat Buchanan ticket, and the Green Party candidate is Donna J. Warren, an auditor. Wendell Banks and Linda Schexnayder are mounting write-in campaigns.