Amber Willard
GLENDALE -- In keeping with their school rivalries, Craig Missakian
(R-Glendale), who attended Glendale High School, and Dario Frommer
(D-Glendale), who attended Hoover High, faced off Tuesday night in a
bigger race.
Early ballot returns Tuesday night showed Frommer wiping out
Missakian's lead in absentee balloting in the race for the 43rd Assembly
District seat.
Shortly after 11 p.m., Frommer was leading the district at 20,676
votes, with 38 of the 198 precincts reporting. Missakian was at 19,276
votes at that time, a difference of less than 500 votes.
"I started this morning in Glendale ... made calls in Burbank. It was
right up to the wire," Missakian said Tuesday night at his campaign party
at the Hilton Glendale.
At the hotel, while waiting for candidates to speak to the growing
crowd, children danced on a raised stage, waving Missakian signs, among
others.
"We're all feeling tired and nervous and exhilarated," Missakian said
while working his way through the crowd.
Frommer was encouraged by his standing as of 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, which
was mostly absentee ballot returns and a few precincts.
"We ran a positive campaign and had a lot of people out on the street
today," Frommer said in a telephone interview.
Missakian and Frommer spent Tuesday campaigning in their district,
which covers Glendale, Burbank, Los Feliz, Toluca Lake, Atwater Village
and Silver Lake. One man will fill the seat of Assemblyman Scott Wildman
(D-Glendale), who plans to run for Los Angeles City Council.
Missakian, 40, missed receiving his party's nomination for the seat in
1996, but it was not his first brush with politics -- he ran for class
president while in the sixth grade at Verdugo Woodlands Elementary
School.
After receiving a law degree, Missakian joined the L.A. County
district attorney's office, including one year prosecuting juveniles in
South Central L.A.
When discussing his agenda, Missakian has said he supports, among
other things, the death penalty and limiting gun control legislation.
Missakian and Frommer agreed on several issues, including their
opposition of Proposition 38, the school-voucher initiative, and Oakmont
View V, a proposed 572-home development project in Glendale
Frommer, 37, who also grew up in Glendale, supported Proposition 39, a
school bond initiative, and stronger hate-crime legislation.
