40th District

Questions were sent to candidates in September. Answers have been edited to fit the space. State Spending Q. What do you believe is the single most wasteful program in state government? Bailey: The state Legislature. Instead of solving the problems of average Californians, such as jobs, health care and education, their incompetence has made the suffering worse. What a waste of $140 million they are. Friedman: The workers' compensation system is in dire need of comprehensive reforms.

Questionnaires were distributed to candidates in March. Answers have been edited to fit the available space. The answers of the four Democrats vying for their party's nomination are listed first in alphabetical order; then those of the three Republicans. Green, Libertarian and Peace and Freedom party candidates are unopposed in the primary. Business Environment Q: Do you believe businesses are leaving California due to a hostile business environment?

Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman (D-Los Angeles) raised nearly $500,000 last year to win election to a 15-month term representing the 46th District, which in December will be wiped out by a redrawing of district boundaries. Now the freshman is once again raising money, but this time for a more secure job: representing the 40th Assembly District, a Democratic stronghold in the San Fernando Valley represented by Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana).

Family Sick Leave Q. Gov. Deukmejian recently vetoed legislation that would have granted workers as much as four months of unpaid leave every two years to care for sick children, spouses and other family members without fear of losing their jobs. Do you favor this type of legislation? Bane: Yes. This legislation should be phased in as unpaid leave. Every progressive nation has such an allowance and it is time we do. Gabriel: No. It would be too costly to the taxpayers. Vernon: No.

Lida Campbell Lenney was in her element, talking to a classroom of students. But this time, the former schoolteacher's subject matter was heresy, or at least what amounts to heresy in Orange County's politically conservative 40th Congressional District. "I'm a card-carrying member of the ACLU," she told the civics class at Tustin High School. "George Bush seems to think that's unpatriotic. I think that's very patriotic."

C. Christopher Cox, a virtual unknown in Orange County before he left his job as a lawyer in the White House to run for Congress, took a decisive early lead Tuesday night in the bitterly contested race for the Republican nomination in the heavily GOP 40th District. In early returns, Cox, 35, of Newport Beach, was outpolling the two other leading candidates in the race--Irvine Councilman C. David Baker, 35, and Newport Beach businessman Nathan Rosenberg, 36.

Occupation C. David Baker: Attorney Roger Bloxham: Business Consultant C. Christopher Cox: Lawyer, White House John Hylton: Airline Pilot John Kelly: Businessman Patricia G. Kishel: Management consultant Lida P. Lenney: Councilwoman George Margolis: Hospital Administrator Nathan Rosenberg: Businessman Larry F.