Child of '60s Challenges Mainstream Republican : Assembly: Sheila James Kuehl, of 'Dobie Gillis' fame, faces off against GOP's Michael T. Meehan in 41st District.

By NANCY HILL-HOLTZMAN

Oct. 24, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

No matter how you look at it, voters in the 41st Assembly District have a clear choice on Nov. 8: They can send Democrat Sheila James Kuehl, a child of the ‘60s, to Sacramento, or opt instead for Republican Michael T. Meehan, a member of Generation X.

Kuehl is unapologetically liberal, a feminist and a law professor. She gained early fame as the brainy Zelda on the television sitcom “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” and later acclaim as a nationally known expert on domestic violence.

Meehan is a mainstream, law-and-order Republican who works as a reserve sheriff’s deputy. Though Meehan cannot boast of a hit sitcom, he did serve as student body president at UCLA, where Kuehl also earned her bachelor’s degree.

The shared alma mater is a rare piece of common ground in their campaigns for the open seat in the sprawling 41st, which hugs the coast from the southern border of Santa Monica to the Ventura County line, pairing Westlake Village and Calabasas with Pacific Palisades and Malibu. They are joined in the race by a third candidate--Libertarian Philip W. Baron of Tarzana.

Recent records from the county registrar-recorder’s office show 51% of 41st District voters are Democrats, 36% are Republicans, with the remaining 13% either independents or members of small parties.

Considered a swing district in which either a Republican or Democrat could win, voters two years ago supported liberal Democrat Terry B. Friedman (D-Brentwood) against moderate Republican Christine Reed, a former mayor of Santa Monica, who is directing Meehan’s campaign. Friedman gave up the seat to run for a Los Angeles County Superior Court judgeship.

Kuehl, who steamrollered over her five male opponents in the Democratic primary, is widely considered the favorite over Meehan.

Kuehl has a seasoned consultant, Parke Skelton, and a war chest in the mid-$400,000 range and counting. Meehan has raised only $40,000 overall and lacks the money for a single districtwide mailer.

If elected, Kuehl will be the first openly lesbian or gay member of the state Legislature, a point that does not come up on the campaign trail--nor should it, both candidates say.

“Sexual orientation is not relevant,” Meehan said.

Kuehl agrees, though she has drawn much of her campaign funding from the gay and lesbian community, which provided about 40% of her primary war chest, she says.

“Being a lesbian is not a qualification for office,” she said. “I’m not running as a lesbian candidate.”

Kuehl emphasizes her accomplishments on women’s issues--nearly all California legislation on spousal abuse bears her mark--as well as a slew of endorsements ranging from Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina to Sheriff Sherman Block.

Though Kuehl rejects the label “lesbian candidate,” she says being a lesbian has been a character builder. Her sexual orientation, she says, cut short a booming acting career. And she knows it got her kicked out of her sorority when she was an undergraduate at UCLA.

During one summer vacation, someone rifled through Kuehl’s bureau drawers at the sorority house, finding “incriminating” letters that revealed her sexual orientation. Kuehl says she was summarily booted from the sorority and further humiliated when the stolen letters were spread out on a table for all her “sisters” to read.

“I was devastated,” Kuehl said. “I thought that my life was over.” She was also so scared of further exposure, she pretended to her parents that she still attended weekly sorority meetings.

She was afraid her sexuality would become known to her bosses on the “Dobie Gillis” series, which she acted in during her college years. At the time, Kuehl was poised to get her own show, to be called “Zelda.” The pilot for the show had been a hot commodity, but Kuehl said the phone never rang. Later, Kuehl said, the director “sat me down for a little talk.” She said the director told her: “The president of CBS said you were just too butch.”

Kuehl went on to work at UCLA, eventually becoming an associate dean of students at her alma mater during the turbulent early ‘70s. She enrolled in Harvard Law School, graduating in 1978 at the age of 37. In 1989, she co-founded the California Women’s Law Center, a nonprofit group she left last year.

While Meehan has a decidedly shorter resume, he, too, has law enforcement support, notably the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which speaks for the LAPD rank and file.

Meehan hopes to paint Kuehl as a leftist, pointing out she was quoted in a book describing herself as a “radical.” Kuehl says she never made the statement, but Meehan says he would use it as the centerpiece of a campaign mailer--if only he had the money.

Even if he were to send such a mailer, it would backfire among district voters, responds Kuehl, who refers to her political stance as “progressive.”

“It’s amazing that people call the kinds of issues I work on ‘radical,’ ” she said. “My ideas are not radical. . . . If you’re calling me a ‘lefty,’ you’re saying women’s issues are ‘lefty.’ ”

Kuehl likes to say she wants to make a difference in real people’s lives. Her record features years of lobbying--often successfully--for legislation aimed at helping battered women to obtain protection from the criminal justice system.

Yet Kuehl does not shrink from saying things that might be unpopular with some voters, even when it might be more politic to be silent. At a recent candidates forum, she prefaced comments on illegal immigration and welfare reform with an impassioned plea to resist scapegoating poor women, children and others who, she says, came to California for work, not welfare.

Kuehl opposes both Proposition 187, which would deny state services to illegal immigrants, as well as the “three-strikes” initiative aimed at repeat felons because it is not limited to violent crimes. Meehan is hoping these positions will become her Achilles’ heel.

Meehan, who supports both propositions, is also trying to make an issue of Kuehl’s conflicting statements on Proposition 186, the single-payer health care initiative. In one debate she spoke against it, in another in favor.

Kuehl’s fans include her former cast mates from “Dobie Gillis,” who appeared en masse at a fund-raiser during the primary. Though a Republican, Dobie himself, actor Dwayne Hickman, said he is casting his ballot for the brainy Zelda, er, Kuehl.

Her public identification as Zelda has come in handy, too, she says, by making her sexual orientation less threatening. Says Kuehl: “It jams the homophobic radar.”