2 Grandfathers Lead Field in Crucial State Senate Race

At an age when most people have one eye fixed on retirement, two Norwalk grandfathers--Assemblyman Wayne Grisham and City Councilman Cecil N. Green--have their sights on a new job: state senator.

With a special election on Tuesday to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Paul Carpenter (D-Norwalk), Republican Grisham, 64, and Democrat Green, 63, have emerged from the eight-candidate field as leading contenders in a spirited campaign that is drawing statewide attention.

The contest is regarded as a test of whether the Republicans have the muscle to meet their long-range goal of wresting control of the Senate from the Democrats in time for the next reapportionment in the early 1990s.

Meantime, a Democratic victory in the 33rd District would shore up the leadership of Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles). The district cuts across suburban southeast Los Angeles and northwestern Orange counties.

“This seat fits into the long-term goals we set for ourselves,” said Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), chairman of the Republican Senate caucus, “. . . to have a Republican majority by 1990” and “prepare ourselves for reapportionment.” Legislative redistricting, which occurs early in each decade after the census, tends to be a highly partisan process dominated by the party in control of the Legislature.

“It’s a critical seat any way you look at it,” Seymour said.

In fact, Republican Gov. George Deukmejian, who has maintained a low profile in most legislative races, has exhibited a rare enthusiasm in campaigning for Grisham. U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) also stumped for Grisham in Cypress on Saturday, and Democratic Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy was out ringing doorbells for Green.

The governor has taken a personal interest ever since the campaign began. He met with Grisham and his chief Republican rival, Cerritos Mayor Don Knabe, and sought to pressure one of the candidates to drop out of the race. Later, Knabe bowed out.

Deukmejian, who once represented part of the district as a state senator, also has sent out an endorsement letter and made two appearances for Grisham--first at a Long Beach fund-raiser and last week at a Lakewood press conference.

At the fund-raiser, the governor took a swipe at Roberti, with whom he has been at odds over locating a state prison on Los Angeles’ Eastside. The governor said he could “use a little help over in the Senate . . .,” because, he joked, “I haven’t had too much help” from Roberti.

For Roberti, the election takes place only a month after he put down what he believed was a challenge to his leadership by Seymour and Sen. Daniel E. Boatwright (D-Concord). Boatwright has vowed to make another bid to unseat Roberti after the special election.

But Roberti maintained that results of Tuesday’s election will not affect his leadership. The Senate leader recalled that in 1980, when he won his leadership post, Democrats also held 23 seats. And, he noted, the Senate lineup now stands at 23 Democrats, 15 Republicans, 1 independent and 1 vacancy.

“Win or lose, we’ll have 23 votes,” Roberti said. “With that number I have a certain amount of muscle, so I seriously doubt there will be a challenge.”

Still, Roberti estimated that Green’s campaign will spend about $800,000. So far, Green has reported contributions of money and services valued about $500,000. The bulk of that has come from Roberti, other senators and labor groups such as the California State Council of Service Employees, which chipped in $10,000.

Grisham’s campaign has reported receiving about $300,000 in contributions and loans and Grisham said he expects to spend at least $400,000. Besides contributions from Republican senators, Grisham, a longtime real estate agent, has received hefty donations from apartment owners and other real estate interests, including $10,000 from the California Real Estate Political Action Committee.

If no candidate wins a majority of the votes, the top finishers from each party will square off in a second election on May 12.

Grisham began the campaign as the clear front-runner, but on Saturday he acknowledged that Green has cut into his lead. McCarthy characterized the contest as a “dead heat.”

The Senate seat became vacant in January when Carpenter assumed the post he won last Nov. 4 on the State Board of Equalization. Some political consultants suggested that Carpenter decided to leave the Senate after weathering a strong Republican challenge in 1984.

Carpenter also was the last Democrat to represent any portion of Orange County in the Legislature or in Congress, and his party would like to regain at least this tenuous toehold in the GOP bastion.

Of the district’s 285,000 registered voters, 25% reside in the Orange County communities of Buena Park, La Palma, Cypress and Los Alamitos. The Los Angeles County portion of the district includes Downey, Norwalk, Lakewood, Cerritos, Bellflower, Santa Fe Springs, South Whittier and Hawaiian Gardens. Voter registration is 54% Democratic and 38% Republican. However, it is still regarded as a tough district for Democrats, particularly in a special election when Republicans typically turn out in higher numbers. Both sides predict that the turnout will be low--probably between 20% and 30%.

A decade ago, the district regularly sent Democrats to Sacramento and Washington. But with an aging population and many retirees from blue-collar jobs, the military and small businesses, its politics has grown increasingly conservative and Republican.

Both candidates seem tailor-made for the conservative-leaning district. Republicans are pinning their hopes on the tanned, white-haired Grisham, who never seems to tire of smiling and shaking hands, and who has been known to answer his own office telephone to hear constituents’ complaints.

In Grisham, the GOP offers a conservative who has a track record of wooing Democrats and of loyalty to Deukmejian. A World War II fighter pilot and former La Mirada city councilman, Grisham has represented parts of the district in the Assembly and during two terms in Congress. He was defeated in 1982 and later served as Peace Corps director in Kenya.

In a comeback, he was elected to the 63rd District Assembly seat in 1984 and easily won reelection last year. In Sacramento, he is regarded as a Deukmejian loyalist and a staunch back-bench supporter of Assembly Republican Leader Pat Nolan (R-Glendale).

Green, a Seabee in World War II, formerly owned a chain of muffler shops and portrays himself as an ordinary “guy next door.” In an appeal to the elderly, Green’s campaign has sent voters a homespun endorsement from Green’s 92-year-old mother, Hearthie.

The campaign has also staged a series of old-fashioned pep rallies, where volunteers have been exhorted to walk an extra precinct for Green.

Few local issues have emerged in the campaign. Instead, both top contenders have focused on statewide matters. Grisham’s campaign, for example, mailed voters an endorsement from Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia) that assailed Green for failing to publicly oppose the reconfirmation of then-Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and two other state Supreme Court justices.

But Green’s campaign quickly produced a 1985 press release that listed Green as one of several hundred people working with Davis’ own committee, Californians to Defeat Rose Bird. A Davis aide said the mistake was due to faulty research, and Davis apologized to Green.

Green has criticized Deukmejian for proposing cuts in funds for gifted students in next year’s budget and the elimination of the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA. In contrast, Grisham voices support for Deukmejian’s proposed state budget, although he maintains that he is not a “knee-jerk” vote for the governor’s programs.

At a candidates’ forum, former Sen. Carpenter gave the campaign its most heated moment so far when he accused Grisham of having made sexual advances toward one of Grisham’s secretaries. Carpenter said Grisham fired the woman after she rebuffed him.

Grisham heatedly denied the accusation, and Green, whom Carpenter urged to get into the race, has distanced himself from the charges.

The other candidates for the seat have run low-key campaigns, primarily because of a lack of campaign funds.

They are: Democrat David Hayes, 37, a trustee of the South Whittier School District; Peace and Freedom Party candidate Ed Evans, 39, a court service officer from Cypress; Libertarian Lee Connelly, 34, of Buena Park, a photojournalist; Republican David Shapiro, 18, of Cypress, a political science student; Republican Verner S. Waite, 58, of Cypress, a general surgeon, and Democrat R. O. Davis, 50, of Buena Park, a building contractor.

Times staff writer Steven R. Churm contributed to this story.