Hopefuls vie for hot seat

Larry Caballero

In a race where his opponents together have already spent nearly $1 million, Democrat Larry Caballero’s bid for the 35th District Senate seat may be the cheapest in history.

Before the April 11 special primary, Caballero plans to spend, in his words, “zero.” But so far, that doesn’t seem to be holding him back.

Caballero, a Democratic activist and school teacher, is one of three candidates seeking the Senate seat that’s been open since former Sen. John Campbell won a House seat in December. The 35th Senate District includes Laguna Beach, and all or part of 12 other Orange County cities.

In a district where Republicans make up 48% of the electorate to the Democrats’ 28%, Caballero is up against challenging odds. But he’s confident that his GOP opponents ? Dana Point City Councilwoman Diane Harkey and Huntington Beach Assemblyman Tom Harman ? have savaged each other so much in their mail campaigns that neither will get the 50%-plus-one vote required to win outright.

That would leave Caballero to square off with the GOP primary winner on the June 6 general election ballot.

Caballero, 60, lives in La Palma, at the northern edge of the district. Now semi-retired, he has taught English, journalism, history and government in public schools for 38 years, most recently at South Gate Community Adult School in Los Angeles. He also serves on policy-making committees for several educational associations.

He’s been a Democratic party activist for years, working on campaigns for Rep. Loretta Sanchez, state Sen. Joe Dunn and Westminster school board member Sergio Contreras.

As an educator and supporter of social programs, Caballero is “a real pillar of his community,” said Jim Moreno, the Orange County director for the California Democratic Party.

On the issues and in the way they’re running their campaigns, Caballero and his GOP opponents are at opposite ends of the spectrum. For now, Caballero is using a no-budget, grass-roots strategy.

“I can’t compete with the funding” that Harkey and Harman have, he said. “The reason I’m running is to give Democrats and independents and like-minded Republicans someone to support.”

Campaign rhetoric hasn’t convinced him that illegal immigration is the most pressing issue facing Orange County.

“I think the problem is that there are laws on the books already that need to be enforced,” he said. “It’s the government that doesn’t want to, [although] they may play to the fears of the people when they want to get elected.”If he is elected, Caballero said he would support pro-environment bills, education and programs to help people who are homeless or poor.

Educators spend too much time on testing, and they need smaller class sizes, he said. For example, one of his adult classes includes 68 students, and it covers pre-history through 1865 in only six weeks.

Caballero thinks the answer is more money for education.

“Just because we’ve spent a lot of money doesn’t mean we’ve spent enough,” he said.

Since next week’s special election is an open primary, Caballero may lose some Democratic votes to Harman. In March a group of Laguna Beach environmentalists ? a number of them registered Democrats ? held a fundraiser for Harman, largely because of his support for the Bolsa Chica wetlands and other environmental projects.

Age: 60

Residence: La Palma

Party: Democrat

Family: Married to Margaret; with two grown sons.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in English and history from Cal State Long Beach, 1967; masters degree in education from Cal State Long Beach, 1973.

Career: Teacher of English, journalism, history and government; taught at Banning Senior High School in Wilmington from 1970 to 2001 and at South Gate Community Adult School from 2001 to 2006; executive board member of the California Democratic Party

Diane Harkey

State Senate candidate Diane Harkey is not afraid of a fight, and in this round, nearly every GOP heavyweight in Orange County is in her corner.

Harkey, a Dana Point City Councilwoman, is one of three candidates ? and two Republicans ? running for the 35th District Senate seat, which represents Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and all or part of 12 other cities in Orange County.

Harkey, Democrat Larry Caballero and Republican Tom Harman will vie for the seat in a special election Tuesday. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the votes, Caballero and the top Republican will face off in a June 6 general election.

Now retired after a three-decade career in banking, Harkey boasts an impressive endorsement list that includes Reps. Dana Rohrabacher and John Campbell, and more than 50 local elected officials.

She’s not entirely new to politics ? she said she’s worked on Dana Point issues and campaigns, and she won a seat on that city’s council in 2004. If she wins this race, Harkey said she will be California’s highest-ranking Republican woman in a state office.

Although she is politically far less experienced than her GOP opponent, Harkey doesn’t see that as a weakness. She knows all about the effects political decisions have on the business community, she said.

“I’m not a career politician,” she said. “If I were a businessman from Newport Beach and had never run for council, I don’t think anybody would be questioning my background with my career experience.”

Harkey started in banking as a clerk, when she began helping support her family at age 17. She worked her way up into corporate banking, taking time off to raise her daughter and eventually putting herself through college.

Immigration has been the campaign’s hot-button issue in the media and in candidate mailers, and Harkey has placed herself on the side of stricter immigration controls, particularly by co-chairing a 2005 ballot campaign to create a state border police force. But some Republicans chose to support Harkey because of fiscal concerns.

“I think probably the issues relative to business are the ones that I care about most, and I see Diane as being someone who’s going to be more friendly toward business interests than Tom Harman would be,” said Dale Dykema, a member of GOP fundraising groups the Lincoln Club and the New Majority.

Harkey has portrayed herself as the conservative choice for Republican voters, and her top issue after immigration is the state budget and taxation.

“I have supported Republican goals and policies and candidates for many, many years,” she said.

“My fiscal philosophy [is] that lower taxes, freer markets, less government intrusion works to create a strong economy every time it’s tried.”

The former banker also has been willing to spend what it takes to win the Senate race, putting at least $500,000 of her own money into the nearly $800,000 campaign.

Much of the money has gone into mailers, and some of those have attacked Harman ? for his backing by some Democrats, and his support for taxes on diapers and day labor centers, for example. Harkey has even cited Harman’s record as one of her reasons for running.

“I don’t think my opponent has made too many friends on the Republican side of the aisle,” she said.

“I am 54, and I’ve been on stage before in the corporate arena, just not in the political arena,” she said.

Age: 54

Residence: Dana Point

Party: Republican

Family: Married to Dan, with one grown daughter

Education: Bachelor’s degree in economics from UC Irvine, 1993

Career: Security Pacific Bank, 1971 to 1987; Bank of America, 1994 to 1999; Guarantee Bank, 2000 to 2003; elected to the Dana Point City Council in 2004

A Republican in the state Senate has a rough job, but Assemblyman Tom Harman thinks nearly six years in the legislature have prepared him for it.

Harman is running against Dana Point City Councilwoman Diane Harkey ? a fellow Republican ? and Democrat Larry Caballero, a teacher from La Palma, in a Tuesday special election for the 35th District Senate seat. The district includes 513,768 voters in Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and all or part of 12 other Orange County cities.

With Republicans making up nearly half of the registered voters in the district, the real battle is between Diane Harkey ? a relative unknown with broad backing from GOP officials ? and Harman ? a three-term assemblyman who will be termed out this fall.

After six years on the Huntington Beach City Council, Harman ? a former attorney ? was elected to the assembly in 2000. “I already know every single one of the senators on both sides of the aisle,” he said. “This is a business of relationships.”

As a state officeholder, Harman also has a record he’s proud of: he said as a councilman he helped streamline city government; in 2004 he wrote a bill to protect buyers from illegal condo conversions after a scandal in his city; and he endeared himself to environmentalists in 2003 by helping the state acquire the Bolsa Chica mesa.

His environmental legislation has won him support from Democrats.

As opposed to Harkey, some Democrats think Harman “offers much more for us, and for the Democratic Party, and for what we think is the best for Laguna Beach,” said Phyllis Sweeney, a Democratic voter who hosted a March fundraising event at her home. “We looked at him as an environmental candidate, and that is why he received our support.”

But that flexibility has left Harman open to charges of being a liberal ? a bad word in this conservative district ? and he’s had to defend some parts of his record even as he’s touted others.

Some of his GOP colleagues have attacked him for supporting a so-called “diaper tax” in 2003 ? it would have charged a fee on diapers to keep them out of landfills; and they accuse him of trying to weaken the protections of Proposition 13, which caps the inflation of property taxes at 2% a year.

“Tom Harman has shown his willingness over the years to be quicker to raise taxes than what we’d expect a Republican from Orange County to be,” said Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who has endorsed Harkey.

DeVore added that voters are likely to question recent mailers supporting Harman that were paid for by employee unions. Political committees can take sides without directly giving candidates money; candidates legally can’t be involved with such independent expenditures.

Harman said independent groups are spending nearly as much on Harkey’s behalf.

In the Senate race Harman has tried to position himself as tough on taxes and on illegal immigration. He said the Orange County Republican establishment has been gunning for him since he won the primary for his assembly seat in 2000.

Harkey’s widespread backing by GOP officials doesn’t concern him, Harman said. He has endorsements from other Republican state legislators, though none from Orange County.

“I don’t think it’ll hurt me,” Harman said. “I don’t think the typical voter is particularly impressed by endorsements one way or the other.”

Age: 64

Residence: Huntington Beach

Party: Republican

Family: Married to Dianne; with a grown son and daughter

Education: Bachelor’s degree in business administration from Kansas State University; law degree from Loyola University Los Angeles.

Career: Practiced law for 27 years; Huntington Beach City Councilman from 1994 to 2000; state assemblyman from 2000 to the present