Two UCLA alumni claim local district seats

By Michael Falcone
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Voters elected two Democrats Tuesday in the district that
encompasses UCLA.

UCLA graduates State Assemblywoman Shelia Kuehl, D-Santa Monica
and West Hollywood city councilman Paul Koretz, won by more than 30
percent margins.

Kuehl trounced UCLA alumnus (’00) Daniel Rego and
Libertarian candidate Charles T. Black to win a seat in the
California State Senate in the 23rd district.

Kuehl won the election with a 45.2 percentage point margin over
Rego ““ her closest challenger ““ who received 25.1
percent of the vote with just over 92 percent of precincts
reporting early this morning.

In the race for State Assembly in the 42nd district, Paul
Koretz, who faced a tough race against Democratic challenger Amanda
Susskind in the March 2000 primary, said his race against
Republican Douglas C. Taylor was a “cakewalk” in
comparison.

“In the primary it was almost a dead heat election, we did
a tracking poll the night before and found that I was half a
percent behind,” Koretz said.

Kuehl received the endorsements of a number of politicians
including U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer and Gov. Gray Davis.

In an interview Monday Koretz said he was running an essentially
inactive campaign, and he used money he raised in the general
election to pay back debts incurred during the primary.

Koretz cited his legislative track record on issues ranging from
supporting stiffer gun control laws to his commitment to the
environment as reasons why voters picked him over Taylor in the
election.

Ivka Adam, a third-year UCLA economics student who is studying
abroad in Singapore this quarter finished fourth in a line of
candidates for the assembly seat with 1,098 votes.

On election day Republicans lost two seats in the State
Assembly, and Democrats retained a majority in that body.

In the senate, Republicans also gained one seat, and are still
outnumbed by Democrats, 26 to 14.