Ryan Carter
This is part of an occasional series of profiles on local candidates
running in the March 2 primary election.
PASADENA -- Lynn Gabriel has spent several years raising money and
drumming up support for Pasadena-area Republicans. Now, she wants to
spend the next several years representing them and the 44th Assembly
District.
Assemblywoman Carol Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge) repre- sents the
district and is running unopposed in the Democratic primary for
reelection. The district spans from La Canada Flintridge to Duarte.
Gabriel, a Pasadena optometrist, calls herself a pro-choice
Republican eager to unseat Liu while bringing moderation back to her
party's politics in the area.
Her platform calls for putting spending caps on state spending,
creating pro-business legislation, lowering taxes, peeling away
layers of bureaucracy in education by directing more spending
authority to local schools, and balancing the state budget.
She was less specific on how she would do these things.
"I want to be help people by helping them help themselves," she
said.
Gabriel, 58, has made a name for herself in Pasadena Republican
circles as a prolific fundraiser and party organizer. She has been
chairwoman of the California Republican League; the Lincoln Club,
which raises money for Republican pro-business candidates; and Women
in the House and Senate, which supports pro-choice congressional
candidates. She was also a president of the Pasadena Republican Club
and is a voting member of the California Republican Central
Committee.
Her savvy in raising money came in handy last year when she raised
more than $24,000 in campaign contributions, according to campaign
finance documents filed with the Los Angeles County Registrar. She
also loaned herself $100,000 to battle Liu. Along the way, she has
also compiled a number of endorsements, including Los Angeles County
Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and former La Canada Flintridge mayors
Barbara Pieper and Jim Edwards.
It is Gabriel's ability to raise funds as a more moderate member
of her party that some local Republicans say gives her a better
chance of beating Liu. The incumbent assembly- woman, according to
finance documents, raised almost $160,000 in campaign contri- butions
last year and more than $600,000 in loans, although that money was
carried over from a loan Liu gave herself in a 2002 campaign account,
she said.
Martin Truitt, an unofficial advisor for Gabriel and a member of
the 44th District Republican Committee, said that when Gabriel
entered the race late last year, he and several other Republicans saw
her as the best shot at Liu's seat because she could raise more money
and was more "electable" than the other Republican challenger, La
Canada Flintridge resident Dave Wilcox, who said he is more
conservative.
