COUNTY SUPERVISOR : 4th District Candidates Hit the Trail

Candidates for Los Angeles County supervisor in the 4th District are spending millions of dollars on mass mailings, radio commercials and telephone banks to blanket the district of 1.8 million residents with their messages.

But in the end, elections are won and lost one vote at a time. And although the district has a population greater than a dozen individual states, the campaign comes down to skirmishes in 40 communities.

As Election Day grows near--and many voters remain undecided--candidates are hitting the campaign trail hard, shaking hands, handing out literature and buttonholing whomever they can.

From a graffiti paint-off in Whittier to a Halloween parade in Norwalk and a candidates forum in Torrance, incumbent Supervisor Deane Dana is making the case for another four years on the Board of Supervisors. The district snakes along the coast from Marina del Rey to Long Beach and inland to Diamond Bar.

His challenger, Rolling Hills Mayor Gordana Swanson, is walking door to door with volunteers, handing out literature, talking with anyone who’s home and asking for their support. She has assembled a mobile campaign headquarters in a 40-foot motor home and is taking her show on the road to shopping centers across the district.

At the 11th annual mayor’s prayer breakfast in Bellflower on Tuesday, candidates were asked to keep their politicking out of the meeting room. But in the lobby and on the sidewalk, there was more networking than at a computer factory.

“This is the big event in Bellflower,” said Dana, who as an incumbent was a magnet for well-wishers, friends and the curious milling about in the crowd of several hundred.

Swanson, as a challenger and small-town mayor, had to work the field more aggressively, approaching strangers with a standard patter: “I’m running for supervisor. . . . Can I give you one of my cards? . . . Do spread the good word.”

Crisscrossing the district on a day full of events, both supervisorial hopefuls dutifully attended a candidates forum at the Signal Hill Chamber of Commerce. “It’s always great to be in Signal Hill,” Dana told the lunch-hour audience.

Though attended by fewer than 50 businessmen and women, it was considered a good turnout for such an event.

In an attempt to squeeze out every vote, Swanson went table to table, introducing herself to the audience. And when there was a delay in the start of the program, she stopped in at a card game in the next room at the Petroleum Men’s Club to greet more potential voters.

At last weekend’s graffiti paint-off, Dana mingled with the crowd of 35 volunteers, who were reminded that it was the supervisor who made the program possible. Supporters reminded others in the crowd that the supervisor has brought other worthwhile programs to their communities, including increased Sheriff’s Department patrols.

At the Norwalk parade, Dana drove home to the spectators an image that he is in touch with the community. Like the prayer breakfast, Dana has attended such parades for much of his 12 years in office.

“A supervisor has to have a vision for all of Los Angeles County,” said Dana campaign manager Don Knabe. “But each community (within the district) also must have a vision. You need to localize” the message, Knabe said.

Swanson agreed that pressing the flesh is a necessary part of the campaign.

“It’s important,” Swanson said. “Many people say ‘it’s nice to put the name and the face together.’ ”

Tracy Kittenger, a Swanson volunteer who assembles crews to go door to door, said: “We get a nice reaction. There’s been a lot . . . of unpleasant stuff (in campaign ads). It’s turning off the community. They don’t like negative campaigning.” The personal touch is an opportunity to send a more positive message, she said.

The Dana campaign also has crews of volunteers combing neighborhoods, and the campaign is preparing a massive get-out-the-vote effort on Tuesday, utilizing scores of volunteers.

Another plus for community-based campaigning is that candidate forums, speeches and knocking on doors does not cost much. In a race where Dana will spend more than $2 million and Swanson more than $400,000, that is appealing.

But the effectiveness of such personal campaigning is subject to question.

Many citizens seem to voice support for whomever they are speaking with at the time.

While walking door to door in the Belmont Shore area of Long Beach, Swanson stopped at the home of school board member Edward Eveland and asked if she could plant a campaign sign in his yard.

Eveland, who had endorsed Dana, said: “Why not?”

Still, campaign managers put a high price on hitting the streets.

Dana has established five regional campaign offices, in part to make distribution of campaign materials and assembling volunteers more efficient. But it is also a way to show a presence in far-flung communities and to present an image that the campaign is accessible.

But there are also dangers to street-level campaigning. The personal campaign style puts the candidates in touch with one another, and that is not always pretty.

At a recent League of Women Voters forum in Torrance, Dana arrived early and found that he and Swanson were to be seated side by side at a table with five chairs. Dana picked up his name tag and moved it down to one end, and then picked up Swanson’s and moved it to the other. A reporter asked: “Don’t want to sit next to her?” Dana replied: “No, I most certainly do not.”

Later, the audience booed and hissed Dana at several points, and Swanson evoked some belly-laughs at his expense.

At another event, things started out going more Dana’s way.

Dana supporters at the Board of Realtors-sponsored forum in Whittier--including several members of his supervisorial staff--packed a hotel meeting room. One or two of the incumbent’s supporters began heckling Swanson but were soon shushed by a senior citizen in the audience who stood up and said: “I came to hear the candidates, not you!”

After the debate got under way, Dana rattled off specific, fact-filled answers tailored to the Whittier community. Swanson’s responses tended to wander.

It turned out that Dana’s campaign had been given the questions days in advance, while Swanson was assured that no one would have a preview. Dana read his prepared answers while Swanson was caught flatfooted.

The Realtors and Dana’s staff said they could not explain what happened. The night ended with campaign managers calling each other liars in the hotel lobby.