Election ’94 : 40TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT

Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman (D-Van Nuys), 45, was first elected to this seat in 1991. A former aide to Los Angeles City Controller Rick Tuttle, Friedman is single and has one child.

Republican challenger Noel DeGaetano, 51, of Van Nuys, owns moving company franchises in Van Nuys and Santa Clarita. He is married and has six children.

Friedman has established herself in Sacramento as one of the capitol’s most aggressive champions of women’s causes.

Her biggest victories were a measure inspired by the O.J. Simpson case to earmark $30 million for various services to battered women and children; a proposal for a 2 cent-per-pack cigarette tax to raise an estimated $38 million-a-year for an ambitious breast cancer program; and a law that permits the governor to consider granting clemency to women prisoners who are themselves the victims of battered women’s syndrome.

Gov. Pete Wilson signed all three measures but passage of the cigarette tax - hotly opposed by Sacramento’s tobacco lobby - was seen most as a feather in Friedman’s bonnet.

Aligned with the powerful political machine of U.S. Reps. Howard Berman (D-Mission Hills) and Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), Friedman reportedly is being prepped to run eventually for the 20th Senate District seat. That seat encompasses her Assembly district and that of Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar).

Friedman got her start in Sacramento in 1990 when she was won a special election to fill Mike Roos’ Hollywood-based seat. By 1992, reapportionment had collapsed that seat and forced Friedman to search about for another place to call home. It wasn’t long before the San Fernando Valley - where Friedman had attended school - beckoned as Democratic Assemblyman Tom Bane decided not to seek reelection.

“I’m running because I believe in less government and lower taxes,” said DeGaetano, a member of the fundamentalist Church on the Way and a former supporter of Pat Robertson’s 1988 presidential bid. He said he does not expect to spend more than $1,000.

The 40th District ranges from Studio City and Van Nuys to Sherman Oaks and Canoga Park. Voter registration is 56% Democratic and 30% Republican.

Also running is Libertarian Kelley L. Ross, a college philosophy instructor from Van Nuys.