CANDIDATES AWAIT COUNT
By Fred Ortega, The Leader
Tammy Abbott / News-Press

Burbank Leader,CA
June 6 2006

Early results had school board member Paul Krekorian in the lead.

Schiff also led his races.

Paul Krekorian and son Andrew greet supporters at Milano’s Italian
Kitchen in Glendale.

GLENDALE — Moods were eager and optimistic as the Frank Quintero and
Paul Krekorian camps waited Tuesday night for election results that
trickled in following a contentious election that drew recriminations
from both sides.

With 96.7% of the precincts counted, Krekorian, a Burbank Unified
School Board member, led the race for the Democratic nomination to
the 43rd Assembly District with 56.7%, to Quintero’s 43.3%.

“I feel terrific,” said Krekorian, who joined his supporters at
Milano’s Italian Kitchen in downtown Glendale to await the final
results. He added it was still too early to assess the final results.

“But I am incredibly proud of the positive campaign we ran in sharing
my vision for California with the voters,” he said. “Win or lose, I
am immensely proud of everyone who volunteered, surmounted challenging
obstacles and still kept their head up and fought right until the end.”

Krekorian and Quintero, a Glendale councilman, were vying for the
seat held by Assembly Majority Leader Dario Frommer, who is being
termed out. The heavily Democratic district includes the communities
of Burbank, Glendale, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, North Hollywood and
Toluca Lake.

It is generally accepted that whoever wins the Democratic nomination
to the district will waltz into Sacramento come November.

Scores of supporters joined Quintero at his campaign headquarters
on Broadway in Glendale, where volunteers checked results on the
registrar’s website every few minutes.

“I feel pretty good about our campaign; it was a wonderful experience,”
Quintero said, adding he expected Krekorian to have a lead in absentee
ballots because of what he described as an aggressive effort to sign
up voters.

“We’ll see how things go as more of the votes come in,” he added. “I
think I certainly took the issues to the voters and am confident with
my plan for a better California.”

The campaign for the nomination has been a rough one, with both sides
jumping on the missteps of the other. A Quintero statement on May 1 in
support of school vouchers drew fire from the Krekorian campaign —
as well as condemnation from local teachers’ unions. Quintero later
retracted the statement, blaming it on fatigue.

Quintero’s campaign was just as quick at exploiting a Los Angeles
County District Attorney’s Office investigation into allegedly
fraudulent signatures on absentee ballot applications submitted by
Krekorian staffers, an inquiry which is ongoing. Quintero’s operatives
organized a press conference on May 23 to announce the investigation
and to ask the county registrar’s office to segregate all absentee
ballots in the district; the county complied.

Most recently, a campaign mailer and phone operation that alleges that
Krekorian and the Armenian National Committee — whose endorsement
he held — are linked to a terrorism suspect and former committee
chairman convicted of weapons possession in 2000. Krekorian supporters
accused Quintero and Frommer of being behind the mailer — sent by
the independent California Latino Leadership Fund in the days leading
up to Tuesday’s election — though they denied any knowledge of or
involvement with the attack piece.

In the 29th Congressional District, incumbent Adam Schiff had a handy
lead over lone Democratic challenger Bob McCloskey, a retired union
representative from Monterey Park. With 99.2% of the precincts counted,
Schiff was leading with 82.5% of the vote.

“I am very pleased with the absentee results, although it is still
very early,” Schiff said from Washington, D.C., where he traveled
earlier Tuesday to cast votes on the House floor. “I have always
believed the best campaign is doing a good job and that is what I
have tried to do in Washington.”