DEMOCRAT HOPES TO STAY FACTOR IN ASSEMBLY RACE.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

In the home stretch of the election season, Assembly candidate David Cochran's campaign fund is broke and he faces an uphill fight for an open seat in a district where Republican voters far outnumber his fellow Democrats.

Cochran's campaign treasurer, Marshall Decter, was found dead Wednesday as allegations swirled that he had stolen about $1,000 in political contributions from the legislative hopeful, along with $3,000 from the Democratic Club of the Santa Clarita Valley.

The first-time candidate said Friday that he'll stay in the 36th District race and ``work harder'' to raise money for the campaign expenses that lie ahead: yard signs, bumper stickers and mailers. He likely won't get much financial help from assorted Democratic Party organizations because his bid for office is considered a long shot, party officials said.

``It's not a competitive race. It's considered a safe seat for Republicans,'' said Darry Sragow, director of Assembly Democrats, a nongovernmental organization to which all of the lower house's minority party belong.

Assemblyman W.J. ``Pete'' Knight, R-Palmdale, is giving up his job of the past four years to run for the state Senate - the open 17th District seat. In the race to replace Knight in the 36th District, the GOP nominee is believed to have an advantage: There are 98,685 registered Republicans, compared to 67,656 Democrats.

Sragow said Assembly Democrats have about $2.5 million to spend, and their strategy likely will be to funnel that money into tight races - either defending Democrat incumbents against strong challengers or trying to unseat Republicans.

``We have some very good candidates in some very tough districts. We have to go with the odds. That is not a reflection on the candidate,'' he said, referring to Cochran.

Democrats make up 34.5 percent of the 196,010 registered voters in the 36th Assembly District, said Grace Romero, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder. GOP voters account for 50.3 percent in the district, which covers Palmdale, Lancaster, Santa Clarita, Acton, Agua Dulce, Littlerock, Pearblossom, Gorman and Quartz Hill.

Cochran, a labor union business agent who ran unopposed in the primary, said he'll put some of his own money into his campaign, and will try to woo some of those GOP voters over to his side. ``I spend a lot of time turning Republicans into Democrats,'' he said.

``The message has always been the same thing: that government's first responsibility should be toward the working people,'' Cochran said. ``People like you and me - the forgotten middle class, who are trying to buy a house, raise a family, buy a car.''

Cochran's opponent in the Nov. 5 general election is Lancaster Mayor George Runner, founder and executive director of Desert Christian Schools.

The Republican candidate, who spent $220,000 in the primary, was elected to the Lancaster City Council in 1992 and became the city's mayor in April 1995. Two-thirds of the 36th District's registered voters live in the Antelope Valley; Cochran, 39, lives in Saugus in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Cochran said Republicans in the state Legislature want to end time-and-a-half pay for workers who put in overtime hours. ``What `business friendly' all too often means is `worker unfriendly,' '' he said.

He criticized the state's ``three strikes, you're out'' law, saying legislators didn't anticipate the long-term consequences to already overloaded courts and prisons.

``I agree that career criminals should be put away,'' Cochran said. ``But in writing that law, not enough consideration was given on how that law would affect the system.''

Although making his first bid for elected office, Cochran said he is no stranger to politics.

In high school, he volunteered for George McGovern's ill-fated run for president, working at a Burbank campaign office. In his previous career, as a clerk in Los Angeles Superior Court, he was vice president of the union local that represented 400 clerks, he said.

Since 1990, Cochran has worked for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, District Council 36, whose membership includes Los Angeles city and county clerical workers. He negotiates contracts for the various bargaining units.

In 1992, Santa Clarita residents approached him about starting a local Democratic club and asked him to be its first president, Cochran said.

Meanwhile, authorities and Decter's friends are awaiting results of autopsy tests to determine how the 59-year-old campaign treasurer died. Suicide has not been ruled out. Friends, including Cochran, said they are torn between sadness over his death and betrayal over signs that he took political funds for personal use.