News Scrapbook 1984

SCHENK:,~ She's Used to Beating Odds Centl • ~lNbl Pa1e l ' unllke)7 In this race, the top two finlllhen will compete In a runoff In the November general election.) '1111!re are 110me 110ft l!J)Ols tn the Schenk campaign, and In a race aJre11<1y marked by personal hostili- ties, Golding and Pent are certain to atla'.ck them. Schenk concedes her namf' rec- ognition Is not as strong aa Golding's In the 11prawllng and atnuent dis- trict once represented hy Roger Hedgecock:. Patrick Boarman was appointed by the board as e care- taker erter Hedgecock's election as mayor of San Diego and will bow out In January. And. like 110 many Democrats before her, Schenk must carry around her neck the albatross of her Involvement with Brown, often a political liability in conservative San Diego County. "That's why I'm out campaign- ing." she said. "There's a certain stereotype people have about the Brown Administration that is tough to crack. I guess they expect me to he sort of bizarre or offbeal But I have found that breaks down once I meet people. They react po~itivcly tome." "We're really afraid people won't look past the Brown identincation," acknowledged Tom Stickel, a Re- pCJbllcan and loyal supporter of Deuk.mejian. Stickel ts managing the campaign for Schenk. who also is using the services of political consultant Ken Rielz. "We could face a tough situation tr el'le is dragged through that mud and none of her many attributes comes across." Golding has already ststed her intention to make Schenk's in- volvement with Brown a corner- stone or her campaign, but Schrnk will not attempt to dlsas~ociatP henielf from her former bo~~ or his polities. "Political loyalty. unfortunately, has taken on a negative connotation since Watergate," Schenk said. "The governor had the guts to give m a tremendous career opportuni - ' and I'm forever Cul him for that. I don't feel I have anything to apologize for on that score. At that point In my career. I don't think anyone tltt would have taken a chance on me." Schenk also lack Pent's local contact8 and t'e('Ord or Involvement with lssuet1 and organl~tlons in the district. "lssues change, and what Is a hot

\ Brings Intensity toRace,

Candidate il"ed to Beating Odds

MIIIAMAII

1 S.D.County lections

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SAN DIEGO

CtTS KEI.L~;I\ I I"" An.,1,. T,m Schenk is vying with Susan Golding and Michael Pent for the seet.

a prominent Democrat and chair- man or the Hotel Del Coronado Corp. "She's bright. pl'rt10n11ble, at- tractive and work~ well with peo- ple. A fol or (political) people have their r,yes on ht>r." Sch<'nk has alrf'lldy taken advan- tage of her political contscL~. re- c<'ivlng endorsemenlll and contribu- tions from a number of locRI Judges appointed by Brown. She al8o met Stickel while ~erving in th cnbln t, where she ruled favorably on poli- cies affecting hlR s:iving~ Rnd loan. Her critfC!I say lhos declslonR and olht-rs were influenred by a dcalrc lO 1111tlsfy thoRe who would help build a coalition for a nm for local office, a charge Schenk and her ~upporters here and in Sacramento vehl!'mcntly deny. At the same time. Schenk sees nothing wrong in cashing in politi- cal IOU's. "I remembf'r the people I have helped in the past. and I expect them to do the same," she said. Schenk has resisted pressure to reveal Cinanciai information about her huRband, attorney Hugh Fried- man , R Republican who once worked as corporate attorr\cy for C. Arnholt Smith and was appointed by Brown in 1982 to the st.ale Board of Education. He it' now ti.II presi- dent. ''I've complied with all the re - quirements aR rar as nnanclal dts- Pleaae ,ee SCHE~,.. Pace

one today might have receded alto- gether by .January," she AA!d. "It's how a J)(>r~on comes to his or her decisions that Ill Important. Too many politicians take strong st.ands during ell'tllons and then find themselve~ backpedaling later. I won't rall in o that trap.'' Then. lhrrc is the possibility that she might ""1n no betlPr than e ~plit or two crltfcnl voling bloca-women and D<-mocraLq Only one woman (Lucille Moore) has ever b<-cn elected county super• vi~or, and &henk and Golding both fear that a CE'rlain, albeit unknown, percent.age of the voters will sup- port Pent Rimply because of his sex. Party Politics Although the Board or Supervl- ~ors is technically nonpartisan, par- ty politic~ inevitably is a fact.or. Pent is al~o a Democrat, and Schenk must hop

l!AllUAltA MARTIN / Loo Alli

once directed. Her other opponent LS Deputy Dist. Alty. Michael Pent. But despite her carefully recruit - ed bipartisan support and ability to raJse money-along with the intel- ligence, attractive appearance and , social elan pI'au;ed even by her most severe criltcs-nobody outaide the Schenk camp 18 cert.am her candi- dacy Wlil survwe the June primary. (Unless one or the three candidates receives more than of the prunary vote, which iB nsidered Plea • eueSCHE K,P•c•J

h lped found the Women's Bank m San O1ego .ind was appointed a Wh1w House f'ellow by Pr sldenl Ceruld ord, serving as a ~pec1al a l11s1.11nt Lo Vice President Nel~on 'nuckefl:H r. With such impre 1ve credent1Jl11, ~henk could hardly be caUed a rk hors 1n her race again~t !cmner San Diego Clly Counc1l - worn.in Su. an Colding, who, uJ\lil rett-,ntly, worked In the DeukmeJian dmln~ lfjlllOO a deputy secre- Lary h. li&11e g ncy Schenk

up.!r or. All r being r •jcctcd by UCLA's law hool 111 I ml being l.Qld by i de<111 th.it h h d nol qu.i.hf1ed Uli th univ r llY hud ftllcd ,u quotas for worn n and J wa, ah w on or only thr e worne11 in h r USO gradu111.lfli cl . 'l'o p.iy her fir t y •ar u! h1w chool twuon, he borrowed ll e 11,500 that had JI.lit b n g1 ven to her brother for h bar m1uvuh. La~r. Schenk worked u an u- lOl'n y for San Otego Ou•' l:~lj!l'trlc,

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how she thought they might help her get to her next ,ob." St.Jekel and Schenk readily discuss the controversy and vehemently deny that any pohtical deal was cut. "That was two years ago," Schenk sa1d. "I had no idea rd be running for office then, and I had never heard of Tom Stickel. My decision was made purely on legal grounds." Scbenk Defended Fonner Brown Administration officials defended Schenk 's actions. "Remember, tt-e governor was running for the u,.s. Senate at the time, and Linda Yang made a lot of n_otSe about causing him problems in the Chin~e-Amen.can community if she didn't get her way,'' said one cabinet member who requested anonymity. "Lynn was caught . in the middle-politic.ally, Linda couldn't be fired (Brown was already embroiled in a controversy because of earlier dismissals of three Orienlal state officials), but "Lynn has

"I know that's not the most effective use of a Cabine.~ member's time. and I' ve learned from th~t expenence, Schenk says now. "But I have a hard ume _tolerating incompetence and laziness and people who JU.St make .. she had the time anq patience to listen to people_more, said Lind.a yang. the savings and loan co~1oner under Brown who consistently feuded with Schenk during their years in Sacramento. . •·she did not use her lime and resources effecU_vely, and she didn't have the self-confiden~e :ind humility to take advice and admit when she didn t have aU the answen. There was no room in t~e ~;parunent for disagreement or reasonable compronuse. excuses." lished if "Lynn would have gotten far more accomp Campaign manager Stickel 3:11d Sche_nk became acquainted during Schenk's moat mtense with Yang, whlc~ stemmed fro1;1 her support O conversion of Pomt Loma SaV1ngs and Loan, whic e Yang thought the _precedent would cause a financially ailing sa~ and loans to convert because, with money tight and interest ral:'5 soaring, they could 00 longer earn significant profits by offermg home mortgages in a depressed housing market. . Schenk, maintaining the state had no legal basis for opposing the conversion, eventually prevailed. . Stickel's one-office establishment was the ftrSt In California and the third in tbe n_ation_ lO be allowed to convert (It is now Southern California Bank). Shortly aft.er the conversion , Stickel sold his interest in the bank and. with his profits, found~~cial Inc. Yang publicly opposed the conversion and, armed ..,>ith a legal opinion from her department's head counsel, threatened to sue the st.ate in a letter to the U.S. tomptroUer of currency, which ultimately approved Schenk was Yangs supenor-the Savmgs and Loan Departmtmt fell under her agency's con_trol-and in a stormy meeting of lf1e two women, Stickel and :S,T. Collins, the governors chief of staff, Yang was off1c1aUy censured for writing the letter and forbidden to leave Sacramento on state business. Schenk repeatedly asked for , but never received, Yang's resignation. . _ Yang s'!.id it was outrageous that Stickel, with his conversion application pending, was allowed to attend a meeting concerning what she thought should have been a personnel matter handled internally withm the Administrat.lon. "The meeting was controversial," Stickel said. "But I wanted my day in court, and the state had no right to interfere with our plans. The issue was clearly one of freedom for a business to do what it had to do to survive. And I felt. and the governor apparently agreed, that as a citizen and buslnes.~man. [ had the right to express my opinion on a critic.al issue for my industry." To Stickel, Schenk was "the knight in shining armor of the Brown AdrrunistraUon." - He said he found it "refreshing that someone there would listen to me and other members of the busmess committee. She was the exception to the rule in I.he Administration-pragmatic, with a businesslike reaol~e. who would listen to the more traditional. conservative Viewpoints in regard to business, transportation and law enforcement," he said. Yang, however. said Schenk was motivated only by her political ambitions. "The welfare of the people of this state is too Important for an official to use poli~)es such ~~se purely as a political steppingstone, Yang said. To Lynn, politics_ is king. Her decisions were swayed by lnleMeI>ua,reement . founded. to a natianal bank. flood Suckel's application.. _ .

"J'!l• l'f•tanl Thlac' "There w33 nothing unusual about that then: all of the people around •JS did the ·ame thing. 1r they were lucky enough to have work," Elsa said. "It was JUSl the natural thing, and we didn't think anything about it." It was mto this environment that Lynn, the first of the couple's two children, was bom in 1945. f'red Schenk, now a San Diego attorney. was bom in 1954. Lynn i3 remembered. by her parents as fiercely ambitious from her earliest days, one who was never much attracted to lh.tngs that sidetrack most children. Nit used to worry me to see her study as hard as she did in school." her father said. "I'd go into her room and find her a.sleep on top of her books, but if l turned off the light, she'd wake up right away and start in again. We would have worried more, but she never seemed 111terested m much except her work, so it wasn't as if she was unhappy." ""When other girls were out on dates, Lynn was studying or workmg,'' her mother said. "But that was the way she always was-by the time she was in high school and college, l didn't consider it unusual." To this day, Schenk is hard pressed to list her hobbies, _aying they are limited to spending time with her farruly, walks on the beach each morning and reading about the Kennedys. When she was 8 years old, she developed a crush on an older cousin living in Allentown, Pa., who had become a lawyer and was something of a family hero. ·'That's when she decided she was going to be a lawyer, too, and she told everybody so." Elsa Schenk recalled. Six years later, as Lynn prepared to enroll in high school shortly after the family's move to Los Angeles, her tnother stubbornly refused to leave the principal's office unW Lynn was allowed to take algebra and other college preparatory courses in addition to typmg and I:. me econorrucs. "They had the nerve to tell me she couldn't handle those cOUI'5CS," Elsa says now Wlth a lingering trace of anger and resentment. "They thought it was silly that she wanted to be a lawyer." A.ulmilatioa From their first days in the Bronx. the Schenks recogruzed the importance of assimilating into their new society-both parents immediately enrolled in night school to improve their English. But at Schenk family reunioM, Lynn and Fred are the only members of their generation who converse in Hungar..an (although a UCLA professor once told Lynn, much to her chagrin aod her father's amusement, that she spoke the Language with a "peasant dialect.") Thal assimilalton mduded involvement in Democrat- H: Party ward politics and the party bosses, who he1ped countless ~grants settle, ~ting votes and loyalty in return. "Our whole neighborhood in New York was Demo- crats:· Lynn Schenk said 'Nith a smile. "The first official who met the people coming off the boats at Ellis Island -.vas from the immigration service, the second was from the Democratic Party."• For the Schenk.s, that loyalty has never wavered and was ingrained in the children when they were toddlers. Elsa still takes "little old JeW\Sh ladies to the market" on theu- way to the polls on election days in Los Angeles and is anxious to waik San Diego precinct.3 m support of her daughter. A favori~ family 5tory ste= from the 1960presiden- llal election, when Else too\c 6-year-old Fred to the polling place and listened with a mixture of embarras:i- ment and amusement as the young boy asked officials in

a loud voice, "Is this the place where the Democrats come to vote?" Years later, Lynn Schenk would be praised for her unwavering public support or Jerry Brown. "This was not an administration that was high on that sort of thing -you had a Jot of people doing their own thill8:" sai_d .Adriana Gianturco, who as head of the Califorrua Department of Transportation (Caltrans) worked under Schenk in the Brown Ad.ministration. "But even If Lynn disagreed with the governor privately, she stuck by him She knew who, her boss was. The Administration would have accomplished a lot more if other people would have shared that attitude." "She certainly was one or the governor's most valuable cabinet members,'' &ald Don Vial, Brown's secretary of labor. "Her agency was efficiently run and ahe brought in good people. . . . She really helped sharpen the focus of the debate on industrial relations and economic growth in this state." Spedal Interest Her mother first realized in 1956 that her daughter had a special interest in politics. That was a transition year for the Schenks- the family's doctor had ordered a move to a warm climate 1dney's arthril.!S could be more easily treated, and they stayed in the interim with relallves in Allentown before settling in Los Angeles. "One day Lynn came borne from school and was aU · ed about Adlai Stevenson coming to speak," Elsa said. "She said, 'Mother, he's a Democrat and you're going to vote for him (Stevenson was the Democ uc Party's nominee for president that year). don't you want to know what he has to say?' When your 11 -year- old daughter drags you out the door for a political speech, you know something unusual is going n." There was one notable political schism among the · Schenks-Lynn, in what she describes as her "rebel- lious period," supported Eugene McCarthy over Robert Kennedy, the family's choice in the 1968 California presidential primary. "I can still see her in thaL McCarthy jumper," her mother said. Elsa took Fred, then 14, lO the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on that fateful election night and, as was her custom, made sure her son was introduced to Rosey Grier and other members of the Kennedy entourage. Mother and son were close enough to touch Kennedy when he was felled by Sirhan Sirhan's bullets and can be seen in Life magazine pictures of the tragedy. "I was scared to death that night," Lynn Schenk recalled. "The first news reports said a middle-aged woman and a teen-age boy had been killed as weU, and I just knew it was Mom. because of course she would put herself right L--t the middle of everything_ They didn't let anybody out of that hotel unW 4 a.m., so Dad and 1 had no way of knowing if they were safe. It was a scary night for all of us, but it reminded us o! the bottom line -how important the family is compared to politics and other things." • Schenk's critics say she needs that reminder more regularly. Some have called her :z.eal for work coun- terproductive and say she did not effectively delegate authority when she served in Brown's Cabinet, directing an agency with 32,000 employees and a $2-billion budget. Officials in Sacramento still joke about the problem with the receptiorusts in her office-after flnng a string of them, she spent an enti.re day interviewing candidates and filling the position herselJ.

SCE ENK: Zeal for Campaigning ~'\t ~!osure Is concerned.'' she &ald. "Bul he's entitled to his r; n tacy " :~, h r statement of economic Interests filed upon ' : ng l.d Lt government. Schenk said she was "unable • ~, lo ,. income to my husband'i law practice from • tfic cuents." · " ·, h1I the income from the business (Friedman', law !I .a, t1ce) is community property .. . my husband has :',1e management and control of the business." she .l!'ute on the IUltemenL "After making a good -faith fort . u.qng reasonable diligence. to 11.!certam reporta- !, mtereru, I as unable to obt.am that mfonnation. To Lh best of my knowledge, I have not participated m " ng or iD any way used my official position to u1fluence a government decision in violation of the government code." To the tireless Schenk, the dawn-to-midnight pres- sures of the campaign are an invigorating tonic. "Wmning a tough election will make me a better supervw>r,'' 1he said. "Nothing is worth having if it's handed to you. Some people say my Inner drive is too int , but coming from the environment in which l was "a.Ised, It's the only way I know how to acL" D Although Schenk would be the last person to call her childhood underpnvileged, the history of her family' • migration from Eastern Europe during World War Il and their fierce determination to build a better hfe here is the quintes nlial American success story. Her father, Sidney, who had been raised in Hungary, went first to Canada and then came to this country m 1937 alter beill8 interned by the Russians In labor camps In Yugo lav,a. He escaped after Marshal Tito's forces liberated that country. Schenk's mother, Elsa, raised in Czechoslovakia and the youngest or 10 children, reached American soil in 1938 In 1940, Elsa's parents were on the last Amencan passenger boat to bnng European immigrant. across the Atlanltc. Elsa and Sidney 1etUed into a crowded Brorur apartment building that became home to a cloee-lrnlt colony, predominantly of Hungarian immigrants. The prospects could not have aeemed promising for either of them-El. a had no marketable job skills, and Sidney, a tailor, was only beginning lO learn English. And there w no nest egg to fall back on, no social groups to call on !or help • "It wu tough. but we never had any doubt.s, because we lcnew that in thi. country, If you worked hard, eventually you would get ahead," Elsa recaUed in a recent Int rview at the couple's Lo& Angeles apartment. S1dn y plied h18 lnlde 118 a tailor, Elsa worked m 1 dehcate en, nd. for each, 70- and 80-hour work w ks w re l.h norm. CA>nthu1eil from Pare5

tic h\ s Lynn couldn't let her dictate policy, either."

Pleau sff SCHl:N'tt.'\'•1• 8

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