Bob Hope’s Son Loses in House Bid; Polanco Victorious

Simi Valley Mayor Elton Gallegly soundly defeated Tony Hope in the hard-fought race for the 21st Congressional District Republican nomination Tuesday, while Richard Polanco won both halves of an unusual electoral double-header in the Eastside’s 55th Assembly District.

In another heated battle in the 54th Assembly District in Southeastern Los Angeles County, Edward K. Waters, son of Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), defeated eight other Democrats competing to replace retiring Assemblyman Frank Vicencia (D-Bellflower). If he defeats Republican Paul Zeltner in November, Waters and his mother would be the Legislature’s first mother-son team.

Meanwhile, all incumbents running for reelection to the California Legislature won handily. In the most widely watched of those races, Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach) fended off a spirited but long-shot primary challenge in the 40th Congressional District from management consultant Nathan Rosenberg, whose brother founded the self-awareness group est.

On the Democratic side of the heavily Republican 40th District, write-in candidate Bruce Sumner, the Orange County Democratic chairman, appeared to have beaten Art Hoffmann, a follower of right-wing conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche. Sumner entered the campaign as a write-in candidate in April when Democrats discovered to their embarrassment that the LaRouche adherent was the only candidate who had filed for the nomination.

In another contested primary in Orange County, Assemblyman Richard Robinson defeated Superior Court Judge David O. Carter in the 38th Congressional District, thereby gaining the right to take on flamboyant incumbent Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) in November.

In the 21st Congressional District, Hope and Gallegly were competing for the seat being vacated by Rep. Bobbi Fiedler (R-Northridge), who was running--unsuccessfully, it turned out--for the Senate. Heavy Republican registration in the district virtually assures the party’s nominee election in November.

Final but unofficial returns showed Gallegly with 50% of the vote and Hope with 34%. Several other candidates split the remainder.

The race was a bitter one. Gallegly, noting that his opponent, the adopted son of entertainer Bob Hope, moved to Northridge from Washington just in time to declare his candidacy, repeatedly questioned Hope’s commitment to the district. Gallegly has also revealed that Hope had not registered to vote in Washington for more than a decade.

Draw Attention

Meanwhile, Hope attempted in his campaign to draw attention to questions that had arisen over the fact that a large share of Gallegly’s campaign contributions came from real estate developers, many of whose investments have been tied to decisions made by the Simi Valley City Council. In some crucial instances, Gallegly’s had been the swing vote.

In the Eastside 55th Assembly District, Polanco won two races. He easily defeated Republican Loren Lutz and two minor-party candidates in a special election to fill out the unexpired term of the district’s most recent incumbent, Richard Alatorre (D-Los Angeles), who resigned when he was elected to the Los Angeles City Council last December.

More important, however, he won the Democratic primary for a full two-year term. In the heavily Democratic district, the nomination makes him a very heavy favorite for election in November.

“We brought them both home,” Polanco said, referring to both elections. “I’m declaring victory.”

Polanco had been supported by both Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and Alatorre over Mike Hernandez, a bail bondsman and insurance agent. Hernandez attracted wide support from the district’s Latino community, but Polanco prevailed with about 52% of the vote to Hernandez’s 38%.

In Orange County’s 40th Congressional District, Rosenberg gave Badham his most serious primary challenge in 10 years, during which he criticized the congressman’s extensive world travel at government expense. Badham, who defended the travel as necessary because of his Armed Services Committee membership, nonetheless defeated his challenger by a ratio of nearly 2 to 1.

The success of Sumner’s write-in candidacy on the Democratic side in the district will not be assured for several days because the votes have to be validated manually. Nonetheless, unofficial final returns showed that write-in candidates received 52.3% of the vote, while Hoffmann, the LaRouche supporter, received 47.7%. Whoever wins will face a tough uphill battle against Badham in the affluent, heavily Republican district.

Democrats will be offering better odds and strong financial backing to Robinson, whose challenge to Dornan figures to be a hot one. A marginally Democratic district, the 38th was the only California congressional district to fall into Republican hands during President Reagan’s 1984 landslide victory.

In the district’s Democratic primary this year, name identification made six-term Assemblyman Robinson of Garden Grove a favorite over the politically inexperienced Carter.

Strong Challenger

Democrats insisted that either would be a strong challenger against the conservative and anti-Communist Dornan, in part because each can boast a Vietnam War record, while Dornan’s combat experience has been limited to the House floor.

In the 54th Assembly District, Edward Waters, who has no previous political experience, benefited considerably from endorsements and financial support from both his mother and Assembly Speaker Brown. Waters led the field of nine candidates with 25% of the vote in unofficial final returns. Second in the race with 20% was Willard Murray, on leave as an aide to Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton), who was supported by the political organization of Democratic Reps. Howard L. Berman of Studio City and Henry Waxman of Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, the prestige of Assembly Minority Leader Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) was on the line, because Nolan lieutenants had poured more than $700,000 into the campaign coffers of five conservative candidates in contested GOP primaries in Northern California--three of whom ended up losing.

Nolan’s taking of sides did not sit very well with some legislators.

“So much Republican money has been wasted, and the races have gotten so nasty, that the only thing the Democrats will need to fight us in November is a Xerox machine to copy Republican primary mailers,” complained Assemblyman Richard L. Mountjoy (R-Monrovia).

In the state Senate, much of the attention was focused on the race in the 16th District, which stretches from Bakersfield south to Pasadena, to replace retiring Sen. Walter W. Stiern (D-Bakersfield), the dean of the Legislature who was first elected in 1958.

Jim Young, chancellor of the Kern Community College District, defeated physician George Albin in the Democratic primary. Assemblyman Don Rogers (R-Bakersfield), considered to be the favorite to replace Stiern, held a substantial lead in early returns over agricultural consultant Paul Young in the GOP primary.

Seats Vacated

There were only two other districts in the state where seats will be vacated by incumbent congressmen, but lopsided Republican registration in both made it almost certain that that party’s nominees will be elected in November. Assemblyman Wally Herger of Rio Oso appeared headed for the Republican nomination for the 2nd District seat opened by the retirement of GOP Rep. Gene Chappie of Roseville.