Cerritos : Knabe in State Senate Bid

Mayor Don Knabe formally announced Tuesday that he will run in a special election early next year for retiring state Sen. Paul Carpenter’s 33rd District seat.

Knabe, chief deputy to Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana, joins Assemblyman Wayne Grisham of Norwalk and Margaret Vineyard of Hawaiian Gardens as the only announced Republicans in the race. On the Democratic side, retired Municipal Judge Leon Emerson of Downey, Norwalk Councilman Cecil Green and former Cypress Mayor Otto Lacayo announced their candidacies for Carpenter’s seat last month.

A special election will be called by Gov. George Deukmejian for late February or early March after Carpenter (D-Cypress) resigns his seat. Carpenter was elected to the state Board of Equalization last month, and has said he will resign from the Senate on Jan. 5, the day he begins his new job.

The 33rd District covers much of southeast Los Angeles County as well as the Orange County cities of Buena Park, Cypress, La Palma, Los Alamitos and a portion of Garden Grove.

Knabe, 43, said he has been endorsed by two of his Cerritos council colleagues, Diana Needham and Barry A. Rabbitt, as well as Artesia Mayor Dennis Fellows and Lakewood Mayor Robert Wagner. He said he has also been endorsed by the Lincoln Club of Orange County, a powerful Republican fund-raising group.