West County : Green Plans a ‘Clean Campaign’ for Senate

Democrat Cecil N. Green promised Tuesday to stick to issues and avoid personal attacks in his race against Assemblyman Wayne Grisham (R-Norwalk) for the vacant seat in the 33rd state Senate District, which includes part of northwestern Orange County and part of southern Los Angeles County.

At a news conference at his Norwalk election headquarters, Green, 63, said he would run a “clean campaign” and asked Grisham, 64, to do the same in the final weeks before the May 12 runoff.

Earlier in the campaign, Green said his record was distorted in several Grisham mailers.

Grisham in turn was angered by charges from former state Sen. Paul B. Carpenter of Cypress that Grisham had fired a secretary for rebuffing his advances. Grisham accused Green of privately endorsing Carpenter’s actions.

But Green on Tuesday again denied that and said that he had recently asked Carpenter not to do any “negative campaigning.”

Carpenter was elected last November to the state Board of Equalization, thus creating the opening in the 33rd Senate District. Steve Presson, Grisham’s chief campaign consultant in Sacramento, said Tuesday, “I’m glad to see that Cecil Green is repentant.”