PLAMBECK SAYS RACE AFFECTED BY FUNDING IMBALANCE.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Lynne Plambeck, the activist who has led the fight against the 21,000-home Newhall Ranch project, blamed her defeat this week in the race for the 5th District county supervisorial seat on a lack of campaign funding.

In Tuesday's election, Plambeck lost by a landslide against six-term incumbent Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

Although Plambeck says she realized her candidacy was a long shot to begin with, her loss reiterated her belief that the American political system has turned into ``an oligarchy.''

``Two areas discourage me: People don't take the time to vote, and you need to be rich to run for office,'' Plambeck said. ``Even if I went and did fund-raising, I'll never get the kind of money that Antonovich has.''

Antonovich received 75 percent of the county's votes, and Plambeck garnered about 16 percent. Another challenger, Linda Jordan, received 9 percent.

In all, Plambeck got 41,848 votes to Antonovich's 187,194, with about 28 percent of the registered voters in the district turning out.

Antonovich's supporters celebrated victory Tuesday night at the Westin Hotel in Pasadena.

``Supervisor Antonovich is very appreciative of the vote of confidence from the people of the 5th District. It's a privilege to serve Los Angeles County and he will continue to fight for the issues that are important to all of our communities,'' said Antonovich spokesman Tony Bell.

Plambeck estimates she spent about $17,000 on her campaign, while Antonovich spent close to $100,000 through Feb. 14, based on campaign finance documents.

But despite her poor showing at the polls, Plambeck feels her candidacy still had merit. Plambeck is head of the Santa Clarita Organization of Planning and the Environment and president of the board of the Newhall County Water District, and her campaign focused heavily on environmental issues.

She believes that her persistence on issues related to water supply, development and transportation - and her willingness to air them in the political process - has forced Antonovich to take note, despite her disappointing loss.

``I knew all the stuff about the process before I went into it, except I was slapped in the face by it one more time,'' she said. ``I did what I could - I went around and met people and talked to people.''

Plambeck is not the first candidate to argue that campaign finance issues have undermined American democracy, nor is she the first to run an election for the sole purpose of airing ideas and sparking debate.

Presidential candidate Ralph Nader - often blamed for George W. Bush's defeat of Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election - has argued both of these points.

Nader recently announced his candidacy for the 2004 race despite the fact that he does not stand a chance of winning and could actually help Bush's re-election by taking votes away from presumptive Democratic candidate John Kerry.

``Our democracy is in a descending crisis,'' according to a message on Nader's Web site, www.votenader.com. ``Money dominates expensive campaigns, mainly waged on television in sound bite format. The cost of campaigns creates a stranglehold making politics a game for only the rich or richly funded.''

Antonovich spokesman Bell said that despite Plambeck's lack of funding, Antonovich always took her opposition seriously.

``You never take anything for granted in the political world,'' Bell said. ``(But) we were confident that the voters would look at (Antonovich's) record of public service and return him to the board.''

Nicholas Grudin, [phone]

nicholas.grudin(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) County supervisor candidate Lynne Plambeck says she was discouraged by the amount of money raised by incumbent Michael Antonovich.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer