Election Section

OAKLAND — Audie Bock stunned California’s political establishment last year when she won a special legislative election to become the highest-ranking Green Party officeholder in the country. 

Now Bock hopes to spring another surprise on the Capitol, this time by winning re-election as the Legislature’s only independent and doing it in an Assembly district where nearly two of every three voters are Democrats. 

Her Democratic opponent, Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan, has lots of campaign money, lawn signs, glossy brochures and the backing of her party’s establishment, including Gov. Gray Davis and Assembly leaders. 

Bock has a tight budget, a simple campaign flier and homemade campaign signs lettered by an elderly friend. But she says she can win. 

“When people look at the record I have achieved in such a short period of time, combined with the fact I am not beholden to special interests and big-party agendas, they will vote for the person who gets the people’s job done,” she said. 

Bock’s victory in a March 1999 special election to fill the vacant 16th District seat marked her first foray into politics. 

Bock, who holds degrees in French and East Asian studies, has worked as an interpreter for Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa and taught at several universities, including Harvard, Yale College and the University of California at Berkeley. 

Bock entered the race at the request of Green leaders, who were looking for someone active in the party to run for the open seat. Bock said she really didn’t see herself as a party activist, although she worked on Ralph Nader’s 1996 presidential campaign and for the Green’s 1998 candidate for governor. 

And she was reluctant to run because she was about to start a new job teaching at Hayward State Univ rsity. 

“They assured me that it wouldn’t take up very much of my time,” Bock said of her first campaign. 

Bock defeated Democrat Elihu Harris by 327 votes. She left teaching to work full-time as an assemblywoman. 

Democrats say Bock’s victory was a fluke, that turnout was low and Harris, a former Oakland mayor and ex-assemblyman, had too much political baggage. 

They are determined to reclaim the seat, even though Bock votes with them most of the time. 

Bock’s campaign has raised about $120,000 since the middle of last year, including more than $33,000 in donations and loans from herself and her family. Chan has taken in about three times as much. 

Chan contends Bock has been ineffective and is a “little bit abrasive and arrogant.” 

“I think she tends to take credit for things she’s involved in marginally,” Chan said. 

Bock denies a claim by a former staffer that she called Chan “a big drip” but she says she may have called her a “wuss.” 

As for effectiveness, Bock points to the state spending she landed for her district and the five bills she got signed into law this year. They include measures to aid crime victims, promote low-income housing and study educational opportunities for veterans. 

Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, said Bock has been a “good member in many respects.” But Chan is “fabulous” and Democrats, who hold 46 of the Assembly’s 80 seats, want a bigger majority, he said. 

Bock was once a Democrat. She left the party in 1993 after congressional Democrats failed to implement national health insurance. 

Looking for a party that cared about the issue, she picked the Greens, a liberal third party that has its roots in the European anti-nuclear movement and also supports strong environmental laws and campaign finance limits, among other causes. 

Her March victory made Bock the first third-party candidate to win a California legislative seat since 1917 and the top U.S. Green. 

Then she stunned Greens by leaving the party last October to become an independent. Bock said she hadn’t changed her views but wanted to avoid the March open primary and the stigma that would come if she trailed Chan in the overall vote. 

Green spokeswoman Nancy Marmol said party members were disappointed by Bock’s decision. 

“She had been kind of our star,” Marmol said. “And then people kind of moved on. From the point of view of the development of the party it didn’t make any difference at all.” 

Greens hold at least 71 local offices across the nation, and have about 240 candidates on ballots Nov. 7, from Ralph Nader’s presidential campaign to local school boards. 

Most Greens were further upset when Bock accepted $1,500 in campaign contributions from oil companies, said Greg Jan, an Alameda County Green and Bock’s former campaign manager. Those included $1,000 from Chevron. 

“You will not find a single vote I made that favored anything Chevron is doing,” Bock replied. 

Jan said Greens helped Bock gather the signatures she needed to make the fall ballot, but now “the vast majority” of their efforts are aimed at winning other offices. 

The Greens haven’t endorsed anyone in the Assembly race, which also features Republican Timothy B. McCormick, a title insurance executive, and Libertarian Richard E. Armstrong, a transit system technician. 

Bock said she doesn’t regret her decision to go it alone. 

“Independents are the fastest-growing sector of the voting public and there is a reason. In many ways a party is an advantage,” she said. “It’s a family and a support system. In many ways it’s baggage.” 

On the Net: 

Find Bock at audiebock.org 

Find Chan and McCormick at www.smartvoter.org 

Find Armstrong at http://members.aol.com/nicedad1/questions.html