LOCAL ELECTIONS 20TH SENATE DISTRICT : Roberti Tries Hard as He Maneuvers in New Setting

For the past two weeks, San Fernando Valley cable TV viewers have been barraged by commercials touting a politician they may not have seen much of before: state Senate Leader David A. Roberti.

One of California’s most powerful Democrats, Roberti lost his old district, which included Hollywood, to reapportionment. The TV ads are part of his effort to execute the delicate political maneuver of transplanting himself to the north-central Valley district once represented by Alan Robbins.

Roberti, 52, faces nine opponents in a special election Tuesday in the 20th Senate District, a contest being watched as the first test this year of the depth of voters’ anger toward incumbents and the Legislature’s reputed ineffectiveness.

The race also has attracted attention because of allegations that political consultant Marlene Bane, wife of retiring Democratic Assemblyman Tom Bane of Van Nuys, recruited a Republican candidate to run against Roberti after he rebuffed her offer to manage his campaign for $50,000.

The controversy heightened last week after two GOP Assembly members attempted to distance themselves from last-minute anti-Roberti attack mailers sent to Valley voters. The lawmakers said they signed the brochures at Marlene Bane’s behest.

A Sacramento fixture since 1966, the diminutive, rumpled-looking Roberti is a staunch liberal who has championed issues such as gun control and equal pay for women. Whether he wins Robbins’ old seat or not, the race will be his last hurrah as a senator. He must leave the Senate in 1994, the first victim of voter-approved term limits.

Long one of the Legislature’s most prodigious fund-raisers, Roberti expects to spend $300,000 in the race for the heavily Democratic Senate district, which Robbins had represented since 1973. Robbins resigned last year after agreeing to plead guilty to federal corruption charges.

Despite Roberti’s heavy spending, his opponents expect to force him into a June 2 runoff by denying him the vote majority he needs to win outright on Tuesday.

Other candidates have repeatedly charged Roberti with carpet-bagging and being out of step with 20th District voters on issues from legalized abortion to the death penalty, both of which he opposes.

Roberti has acknowledged that the large field of opponents--which includes the first Green Party candidate on a California ballot--makes it likely that he will wind up in a runoff.

But most political analysts believe that he will win handily in June.

“He’s doing all the campaign things he hasn’t had to do in 20 years. . . . It’s not like he’s ignoring the race and treating these Valley voters like little flyspecks,” said Republican political consultant Paul Clarke, who has managed campaigns in the Valley.

Roberti’s strategists are working hard to protect his flanks on two issues: his newness to the district and his longtime opposition to abortion.

Among other things, his campaign launched a $50,000 series of cable TV commercials featuring a smiling, shirt-sleeved Roberti quietly discussing various issues. The spots were designed in part to make Roberti seem a less remote figure to voters, an aide said.

Roberti decided to seek Robbins’ old seat after polling in the 20th District and two adjacent districts in which he would have faced difficult battles with longtime incumbents--Sen. Newton R. Russell (R-Glendale) and Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles).

In late February, Roberti--who for years has lived in a large, Tudor-style home in the upscale Los Feliz area--rented a small clapboard house in Van Nuys in an effort to establish residency.

But that move prompted several opponents to question whether he really lives in the Van Nuys house and to charge that he is trying to “buy” his way into a district he knows little about.

Four opponents joined in a lawsuit seeking to remove Roberti’s name from the ballot, saying the state Constitution requires candidates to live in a district for one year before they can run.

Roberti insisted that “I do live in the Valley” and that he and his wife sleep at the rented home. He added that he has represented portions of the Valley for years and is familiar with its problems.

A Roman Catholic, Roberti has long opposed abortion on moral grounds. His position has earned him the enmity of a number of women’s and abortion rights groups. He has said that although he opposes abortion personally, he has never used his office to undermine legislation sought by abortion rights advocates.

But the issue has been raised repeatedly by one of his chief rivals, Republican Carol Rowen, a veteran abortion rights activist from Tarzana. She has pointed out that, among other activities, Roberti led a Senate floor fight in 1986 against state funding for family planning clinics.

Rowen drew attention last month when it was revealed that Marlene Bane was working on her behalf. Bane’s role raised eyebrows because her husband is a longtime Democratic powerhouse in the Assembly and close ally of Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco).

A memo from Roberti’s campaign indicated that he was willing to hire Marlene Bane as a consultant for $5,000 a month for up to five months. But she wanted a $50,000 fee, sources close to Roberti said.

After being rebuffed, Marlene Bane helped persuade Rowen to run against Roberti, the sources said. Rowen denied that account, saying she decided on her own and later approached the Banes, old friends, for advice.

The Bane connection was underscored again last week when two Republican Assembly members backed away from anti-Roberti direct-mail brochures they said they had signed at Marlene Bane’s request.

One letter, signed by Assemblywoman Tricia Hunter (R-Bonita), criticized Roberti as the “ringleader” of three former senators convicted of federal corruption charges and implied that he might be indicted soon.

Roberti has never been mentioned as a target of the ongoing FBI corruption probe in the state Capitol that led to the conviction of former Sens. Robbins, Joseph B. Montoya and Paul Carpenter.

A Hunter spokesman said Friday that she had never approved of the harsh language in the letter.

But Marlene Bane said Hunter and Assemblyman William J. Filante (R-Greenbrae), who apologized Thursday for another hit letter sent out over his signature to Jewish voters in the Valley, had both signed off on the mailers.

Opponents also have tried to capitalize on Roberti’s receipt of millions of dollars in contributions from special-interest groups.

Roberti has said that he collected much of the money in his role as Senate president and parceled it out to fellow Democrats in order to maintain the party’s majority in the Legislature’s upper house.

Besides Roberti and Rowen, candidates are Republicans David Honda and Dolores White; Democrats Drew M. Angel, Ted Dan August and Bill Dominguez; Libertarian John Vernon; Green Party representative Glenn Bailey, and Peace and Freedom member Gary Kast.

Times staff writer Mark Gladstone contributed to this story.

20th Senate District

State Senate President David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) faces nine opponents in a special election Tuesday in the 20th State Senate District. The contest is being watched as the first test this year of whether California voters will punish incumbents.

BACKGROUND: The district includes communities in the north-central San Fernando Valley. Before reapportionment, Roberti had represented a district that included Hollywood. After conducting polls, he decided to run in the 20th District, which had been represented by Alan Robbins since 1973. Robbins resigned last year after agreeing to plead guilty to federal corruption charges.