2 Reach for the Middle Ground in Pasadena Runoff : Politics: Isaac Richard and Nicholas Conway moderate their style in their campaigns to clinch the Board of Directors seat for District 1.

PASADENA — The six-week runoff race for the vacant District 1 Board of Directors seat finds both candidates scrambling for the middle ground before Election Day on Tuesday.

Fiery candidate Isaac Richard seems to be trying to cool down, while cool candidate Nicholas T. Conway appears to be warming up as they compete for the seat to be vacated by 12-year incumbent John Crowley.

Richard got 39.6% of the vote and Conway 33% among five candidates in the March 5 primary. District 1 includes the Rose Bowl, the exclusive Linda Vista Annandale neighborhood and heavily minority Northwest Pasadena.

The primary campaign of Richard, 33, who lives in Northwest Pasadena and who is black, featured a spirited message that blacks must be included in city politics. But during the runoff campaign he has been calling himself the candidate of unity and has pointed to endorsements from Democrats and Republicans, whites and blacks, conservatives and liberals.

“If I had won in the primary, I would have won as a black candidate and I would have had to live that down,” Richard said. “I consider the runoff an opportunity and a blessing.”

Meanwhile, Conway, 39, who lives in Linda Vista and who is white, in the primary stressed professionalism and the ability to improve Northwest Pasadena’s economy, and is presenting himself in the runoff as a man of warmth.

“Most people have indicated that I treat voters like clients,” said Conway, a municipal auditor. “I’m quiet. I don’t smile. . . . I’ve been told to get out there and show a little more of my personal side.”

Richard said Northwest Pasadena must be involved in the city’s political process. Also, he said, Latinos, who constitute 27% of the city’s population, are under-represented since most live along the Foothill Freeway, and the city’s districts run north-south.

Richard also backs more children’s services and economic development and a hospital in Northwest Pasadena.

He has been endorsed by former state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp; former Pasadena mayors Loretta Thompson Glickman and Tim Matthews; City Directors William Paparian and Chris Holden; primary opponents Sally Mosher and Nina Chomsky; the liberal political group ACT; the Pasadena Black Municipal Employees Assn.; Local 858 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the California Democratic Party.

Richard is married and works as an affordable-housing consultant for Dukes-Dukes & Associates.

Conway has promised to put a shopping center in Northwest Pasadena and vows not to run for reelection if he hasn’t accomplished that in a first term.

He also wants to protect the quality of life in District 1 by strengthening neighborhood groups and enforcing zoning and city codes. Youth services are also a high priority for him.

His endorsements include Audrey Brantley, a member of the city’s Northwest Commission; primary opponent Millie Lee White; Stephen Mack, former president of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People; Alex Thompson, co-founder of the Northwest Citizens Assn., and Dale Beland, president of the East Arroyo Homeowners Assn.

Conway is married and has two children. A management consultant for 11 years, he operates his own business, Arroyo Seco Associates.

Both Conway and Richard have battled against considerable negative publicity.

Conway, a board member on the Amateur Athletic Foundation Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, which last year opened a new pool at Brookside Park, has had to defend the center against charges that it discriminated against minorities. He said minorities are being served at the pool, not only in Olympic sports programs but with reduced fees for recreational swimming.

When the center paid the city only half of a $700,000 loan payment Dec. 31, Conway again defended the center and explained that it sought to renegotiate the loan.

Meanwhile, a suit filed six days before the primary election in Pasadena Municipal Court by former Conway business partner Edie Lopez-Lusk accused Conway of using Lopez-Lusk, a Latina, to get Los Angeles city and county government consulting contracts available for minority and women-owned businesses.

Conway said both the lawsuit and criticism of the aquatic center were politically motivated, meant to harm his campaign. “Most people see it as a smear campaign, one of the lowest smear tactics,” he said of the lawsuit.

City and county officials familiar with the contracts said minority representation was not a factor in the selection of Conway’s firm.

Richard, similarly, has had to face down negative publicity stemming from an impassioned appearance before the Pasadena Board of Directors last year. Richard vowed then that minorities would not accept the hiring of City Manager Philip Hawkey over two black city manager finalists. He promised to lobby constantly against Hawkey.

The remarks have since been transcribed and have shown up on car windshields in Linda Vista Annandale, with an unsigned note reading, “Do you really want to vote for this man? Are you in favor of racism?”

Richard said references to the speech are an attempt to portray him as abrasive in general when his words were an expression of justifiable outrage at the board’s action. “Using that speech to characterize my personality is tantamount to taking a picture of me getting out of the bathtub and calling me a nudist,” he said.

In addition, Conway has criticized Richard for failing to vote in the primary. But Richard explained that he forgot to vote in the crush of campaigning.

PASADENA DIRECTORS * Isaac Richard, 33 Housing consultant, Dukes-Dukes & Associates, San Bernardino Richard served on the city’s Northwest task Force and is on the Resource Allocation Commission. He belongs to the NAACP, the King’s Villages Tenants Union Organization and the Fair Housing COuncil of San Gabriel Valley.

* Nicholas T. Conway, 39 Municipal auditor with his Pasadena company, Arroyo Seco Associates Conway is former president of the Linda Vista Annandale Homeowners’ Assn. and is on the board of directors of the Amateur Athletic Foundation Rose Bowl Aquatics Center.