OPPONENTS POUNCE ON QUINTERO'S DEBATE SLIP.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer

GLENDALE -- After a long day of campaigning recently for the state Assembly seat he seeks as the capstone to his political career, Democrat Frank Quintero sat down to a debate and, when asked if he supports school vouchers, gave what he later called a ``halting, feeble yes.''

The one-word response and his mention of vouchers later in the evening forced Quintero's campaign for the 43rd Assembly District into damage control. He retracted the comment later that week, saying he opposed vouchers -- government funding to help parents with private school tuition.

But opponents seized on his original statement to portray him either as a waffler or a danger to public education.

The weekend after the May 1 debate, California Teachers Association members stood outside Quintero's campaign office to hold him accountable. A week later, the California branch of the National Organization for Women released a poll suggesting voters took exception to the voucher statement.

Both organizations had already endorsed Paul Krekorian, Quintero's Democratic opponent in the June 6 primary. But the price Quintero paid for what he calls a slip of the tongue reveals the dangers of straying from the message in a campaign.

``Obviously in a Democratic primary, that's not the thing to say, that you support school vouchers,'' said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a Los Angeles-based think tank.

Teachers' unions hold sway over Democratic Party policy, so supporting vouchers is almost like touching the electrified ``third rail'' on a subway track, Stern said.

``In a sense, there's so little that causes controversy,'' he said. ``This is one area that does.''

Three days after the debate, Quintero, a Glendale City Council member, sent a letter to the head of the California Federation of Teachers, a smaller union than the CTA that already had endorsed Quintero.

After writing that if elected, the CFT would be his ``first call'' for ``understanding the needs of public education,'' Quintero explained his answer to the debate's yes-or-no question on school vouchers.

``Without enough thought about the question,'' Quintero wrote, ``I flashed on the issue of intra-district student transfers -- an issue that has been raised in the LAUSD in the past -- and answered with a halting, feeble yes.''

Intra-district transfers allow students to escape overcrowded conditions by going to another school in their district.

With the letter, Quintero included answers to candidate surveys he took before the debate showing he was on the record against school vouchers.

``Four times I answered no and that's the way I feel about it,'' Quintero said in an interview.

Quintero, 60, who is retired from a career helping retrain laid-off workers, said he has more experience in education than his opponent.

``I spent 28 years in career education, and he spent three,'' he said. ``I mean, that's all he has. He spent three years (on the) Burbank school board.''

But Krekorian, 46, said Quintero has flip-flopped on school vouchers.

``For someone who claims to have experience in education, you just can't make a mistake in confusing a voucher system with intra-district transfers,'' said Krekorian, an attorney.

The CTA has given Krekorian's campaign $6,700. The Burbank Teachers Association, a CTA affiliate, mobilized after Quintero's voucher comment to organize the May 6 rally at his campaign office.

``We were stunned by that response because the California Teachers Association has long been opposed to vouchers, which we see as a privatization scheme that drains funds away from public education,'' BTA co- President Kim Allender said.

California voters have rejected proposals to introduce school vouchers statewide. And 73 percent of likely voters in the district's Democratic primary oppose vouchers, according to the poll released by NOW on May 13.

``The controversy is an indication as to how few differences there are between the candidates, plus the amount of personal animosity between them,'' said Web-based columnist Will Rogers, who moderated the debate. ``You put those two together and you see a flap.''

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

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