IT'S GORE IN CLOSE SHAVE, BARBER SAYS.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

CHATSWORTH - ``So goes Giuseppe's Barber Shop, so goes the country.''

For the last five presidential elections, barber Giuseppe Casalenuovo has called the winner - or at least his customers have.

Ronald Reagan both times. George Bush once. Then Bill Clinton twice. Two Republicans, one Democrat.

Make that two Democrats after today, Giuseppe said Monday at his shop sandwiched between a Subway and a fast food Mexican restaurant in a Chatsworth strip mall.

People may hedge or fib to a pollster on the phone wanting to know how they're going to vote or to some nosy person with a clipboard taking an exit poll, but they never, ever lie to their barber.

Not when the barber is holding a pair of scissors, which can be more powerful than a Bible when it comes to telling the truth.

In two weeks of polling the 25 to 30 heads he cuts a day, six days a week, Giuseppe says they've gone about three to one for Al Gore.

Heads like David Lovi of West Hills, normally a Republican, and Frank Scardina and Rick Broward, both Democrats from Chatsworth.

Granted, Giuseppe's head count is a little biased, since it only tallies men's heads, not women's, but he's still pretty confident.

Giuseppe stopped cutting women's hair about 19 years ago when he moved his professional skills from Beverly Hills to the Valley to get back in touch with real, working people, he says.

``I had a beauty shop for women, now I have a barber shop for men,'' Giuseppe says. ``I like the barber shop better. I like talking to the guys. They don't complain as much.''

Politically, this is an important distinction, Giuseppe has found in taking his poll.

Complaining tends to lead to change, and right now most of his customers have been smiling, not complaining, when they walk through his front door for a haircut.

They weren't smiling when Jimmy Carter or George Bush was up for re-election, and look what happened to those guys.

``My customers are happy,'' he says. ``Most of them have never had it so good, so they say why change parties in the White House?

``Even my father who's been here from Italy for 45 years and knows very little about politics thinks Gore's going to win.

``I asked him how he knows since the only thing I've ever heard him say to people is `Hello, how are you, shut up, and goodbye,' '' Giuseppe says, laughing.

Sitting in the barber's chair Saturday, Lovi, who owns Country Deli, across the street on Topanga Canyon Boulevard, says he's changing parties this election.

``I'm a Republican, but I'm switching because that adult drunk driving arrest Bush didn't own up to threw me off,'' Lovi said. ``What else does he have up his sleeve he's hiding?''

But for customers like Frank Scardina, retired from the trucking business, the choice has more to do with the status quo than with George W. Bush.

Scardina likes the way things are going in the country and figures Gore must have had at least a little something to do with it as Clinton's vice president.

``It's going to be close, but I think it's going to be Gore,'' Scardina said.

Yeah, it is going to be close, Giuseppe agrees, but he's sticking with the Giuseppe Barber Shop poll over CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and all those other polls that give Bush the edge.

His customers - Republican and Democrat - haven't let him down yet.

``If I'm right this time, I'll be very happy,'' Giuseppe said Monday as his first customer of the morning, Rick Broward, sat in his barber chair.

``If I'm wrong, I'll have a heart attack because this is going to be in the newspaper.''

Broward smiled nervously as Giuseppe picked up his scissors and asked him how he was planning to vote.

``Gore,'' Broward said to a smiling Giuseppe.

Better than a Bible when it comes to telling the truth.

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Photo:

Chatsworth barber Giuseppe Casalenuovo polls Frank Scardina of Chatsworth, left, and David Lovi of West Hills.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer