ELECTIONS / 20TH STATE SENATE DISTRICT : Former Republican Candidate Backs Democrat Roberti

In a highly unusual political snub, a former Republican state Senate candidate said Saturday he is endorsing Democratic Senate leader David A. Roberti instead of GOP contender Carol Rowen in their June 2 runoff battle.

David Honda, a Van Nuys construction firm owner who unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination in the April 7 primary, said he is not backing Rowen, a Tarzana pension consultant, because she “doesn’t really understand what the issues are.”

Honda’s crossover endorsement of Roberti was seen by local political observers as an embarrassing setback for Rowen, who has been dogged throughout the campaign by questions of party allegiance.

Meanwhile, a second former GOP candidate, Dolores White, said she too will not back Rowen, who is competing with Roberti for the San Fernando Valley seat vacated by former Sen. Alan Robbins.

Honda and White were knocked out of the race after they finished behind Roberti and Rowen in the primary for the 20th Senate District, which encompasses the south-central Valley. Together, Honda and White garnered 12,100 votes--or about 2,100 more than Rowen. Roberti led the field with 16,100 votes.

Republican political consultant Paul Clarke said Honda’s endorsement of Roberti is “devastating” for Rowen’s campaign. Unsuccessful GOP candidates, Clarke said, rarely fail to get behind the party’s nominee in order to present a united front against the Democratic standard-bearer.

“Even if they don’t like the candidate, they stay lukewarm or silent,” he said. “But to go to the other party and support that candidate--I can’t remember an instance in the Valley where that’s occurred.”

Clarke said Honda and White’s rejection of Rowen damages her among GOP voters and might also cost her votes among more conservative Democrats who viewed her as an alternative to Roberti, a longtime liberal who holds the powerful job of Senate president pro tem.

But Rowen, an abortion rights activist making her first run for public office, said Roberti’s opposition to legalized abortion will hurt him more among voters than Honda and White’s lack of support will hurt her.

“Look, there are Republicans who won’t vote for me on pro-choice issues,” she said. “But there are going to be thousands of Democrats who are going to vote for me because of pro-choice issues.”

Honda, who said he was courted “exhaustively” by Rowen, said another reason he is not endorsing Rowen is her emphasis on abortion rights. He said he believes joblessness and other economic issues are far more important.

Honda also said he was upset with Rowen’s campaign tactics, including brochures she sent voters that contained scorching anti-Roberti remarks from two Republican Assembly members who later apologized to him, saying they hadn’t approved the wording of the mailers.

Honda said he told Rowen in a recent meeting that she “ran a very bad campaign” and had used the mailers to try to “dupe the voters.”

In a recent interview, White said Rowen “doesn’t really represent” Republican Party values, citing Rowen’s ties to Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana) and Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown of San Francisco. Rowen raised GOP eyebrows early in her campaign by hiring Bane’s wife, Marlene, as her campaign manager. The Banes are prodigious fund-raisers for Democratic causes who have collected large amounts of money in Southern California for Brown, long a target of Republican ire.

White said she wrestled with her decision not to endorse Rowen, but said she believed that Rowen should be penalized for turning to a high-powered Democratic operative such as Marlene Bane to assist her campaign.

“When Democrats like Marlene Bane are brought in here, then that should blow up in the faces of Republicans who do it,” she said.

Honda said he realized his endorsement of a high-profile Democrat could ruin him within the GOP, but said party loyalty should be subordinate to “selecting the very best person who will represent our overall interests.”

Honda said he decided to back Roberti in exchange for the lawmaker’s pledge to support efforts to make it more difficult to file disability claims based on job stress, to back legislation benefiting small business and to obtain funds for mass transit in the Valley.

“If I get these . . . things for the Valley, I think that’s more important than saying, ‘Gee, he crossed party lines,’ ” Honda said of his decision.

Asked if he thought backing Roberti undermines the credibility of his endorsement among GOP voters, Honda said strict adherence to partisan positions is one reason that government has become gridlocked and ineffective.

Rowen said that in a meeting with Honda after the primary, he expressed general agreement with her position on workers’ compensation reform and other issues.

She also questioned Roberti’s commitment to help change the workers’ compensation system, saying that Roberti has long been supported by special-interest groups, such as trial lawyers, opposed to reform.

Stephen Frank, a GOP political consultant who is an unpaid Rowen adviser, said Honda’s backing of a liberal Democrat “flies in the face of” Honda’s own conservative Republican philosophy.

But Frank denied that the lack of endorsements from Honda and White will harm Rowen politically.

The votes Honda and White received during the primary, he said, “are anti-Roberti votes that will go to Carol Rowen anyway, regardless of what David Honda or Dolores White have to say.”