Beam, Roth Close; Longshore Leading Griset : GOP Ahead in Races for Legislature

In his third try for the state Assembly in as many elections, Republican Richard E. Longshore held an early lead over Santa Ana Mayor Dan Griset, a Democrat, in the battle Tuesday for the last legislative seat within Orange County held by a Democrat.

In other legislative races in the county, Republican incumbents were far ahead of challengers in early vote tallies.

Griset, however, was not ready to concede the 72nd Assembly District to Longshore. “I feel real good about our prospects,” he said early in the evening.

Said Longshore: “We ran a very good campaign and it’s paying off for us.”

The Assembly seat is open because Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove), chose to run for Congress against Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) rather than seek reelection.

In the 71st Assembly District, Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) was in front of Democrat Mark Rosen in the early returns. The 71st District was the only state legislative district in which county Democratic leaders expected that their candidate would do well.

Royce in Lead

In the 32nd state Senate District, Sen. Edward R. Royce (R--Anaheim) was leading Democrat Francis Hoffman in initial tallies.

Both parties poured extra money and campaign staff into the Longshore-Griset contest, the county’s hottest state legislative race. Combined spending exceeded $800,000, with massive infusions of money from the Assembly GOP and Democratic caucuses in Sacramento.

In a return to old-fashioned trench warfare, both men walked the district block by block, sometimes covering the same precinct two or three times each.

Griset attempted to break through the mail syndrome by staging a series of neighborhood cleanups to highlight a key campaign theme: restoring neighborhood pride.

Longshore took advantage of a new political action committee created Oct. 6 by 16 law enforcement officers outside Orange County with the cooperation of Assembly Minority Leader Pat Nolan (R-Glendale). He used the group’s endorsement in ads that proved effective, causing many residents to question Griset about them as he walked precincts.

Officials from other, long-established law enforcement groups denounced Longshore and called for tighter state control of political groups that are organized at the last minute.

In the county’s only state Senate contest, Royce never blinked when confronted with Hoffman’s underfunded challenge, which was based almost entirely on precinct walking in the 32nd state Senate District.

Royce stressed his support for Gov. George Deukmejian and his introduction of several anti-crime bills in the Legislature, while Hoffman claimed that the incumbent had failed to cast votes on key issues and had not done enough to aid education.

In the 71st Assembly District, Allen was so confident that she would defeat Rosen that she transferred several thousand dollars of her own campaign money to Longshore and the campaigns of other Republicans statewide who were involved in close races.

However, Rosen campaigned hard, arguing that Allen was a mediocre legislator who had focused on management issues involving the state Department of Fish and Game, even though there are no Fish and Game facilities in her district. Peace and Freedom candidate C.T. Weber also ran but had limited resources.

For a while, it look-ed as though Rosen would get some extra help from the Assembly Democrats in Sacramento, but the Assembly Democratic Caucus decided that there were higher-priority races--such as Griset’s--elsewhere.

The Republican registration margins in the remaining Assembly districts that lie entirely or partly within Orange County are so big that the incumbents barely campaigned.

For example, Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Huntington Beach) diverted some of his own money to Longshore’s campaign, after Democrat Jack H. Baldwin was able to muster only limited resources in the 69th District. Earlier, Democrats had thought Frizzelle might be weakened by a controversy last year over his support of apartheid in South Africa.

Assemblyman Ross Johnson (R-Fullerton), in the 64th District, couldn’t even find out how much money Democrat Jo Marie Lisa was spending because she failed to file mandatory campaign finance reports.

Managed Other Campaigns

In the 67th District, Assemblyman John R. Lewis (R-Orange) was so confident that he spent most of his time managing the campaigns of Longshore and Board of Supervisors candidate Jim Beam. Democrat Ray Anderson raised little money and fielded a weak effort.

In the 70th District, Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) embroiled himself in local city council elections and contests elsewhere because Democrat Geoffrey S. Gray was only a token opponent. Gray was talked into running as a favor to county Democratic Chairman John Hanna.

Assemblyman Dennis Brown (R-Long Beach) put out very little effort against Democrat Peggy Staggs and Peace and Freedom candidate Paul Haak in the 58th District. The only time Brown ever had to face his opposition was during a televised candidate’s forum.

Finally, Assemblyman Robert C. Frazee (R-Carlsbad) in the 74th District was thought to be so secure that the Democrats didn’t even field a candidate against him. Frazee’s only opposition came from Libertarian Don Ellis, who argued that more freeways aren’t necessary because scientists will soon develop a method of transporting people via “force fields.”