Strength of County GOP Forced Race Into Runoff

Watching election returns at campaign headquarters Tuesday night, Norwalk Democrat Cecil N. Green said Republican strength in Orange County was all that stood between him and winning the vacant 33rd state Senate District seat without a runoff May 12.

Wednesday, the numbers backed him up.

Green, a Norwalk city councilman, came in first in the special election, outpacing No. 2 finisher Assemblyman Wayne Grisham (R-Norwalk) and falling just 1,646 votes short of winning outright a race that has attracted statewide attention from the leadership of both major political parties.

More Funds Sought

In the Los Angeles County segment of the district, Green took 50.1% of the vote to Grisham’s 42.5%; had those numbers held districtwide, Green would have won outright. But in the Orange County segment, Grisham took 47% to Green’s 41%.

“We weren’t in high gear,” said Orange County Democratic Party Chairman John Hanna, “but wait until the May 12 runoff. We’re going to work very hard.”

Both Green and Grisham launched new fund-raising appeals Wednesday, anticipating what is expected to be one of the state’s most costly Senate campaigns ever.

Senate Minority Leader James W. Nielsen (R-Rohnert Park) expressed disappointment over the outcome Wednesday but said he had already begun soliciting funds for Grisham for the runoff.

So far, Grisham’s campaign has raised about $500,000; Green’s, about $800,000. Both expect to double those amounts before the May election.

Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) said Wednesday that he has begun soliciting more funds for Green.

Viewpoints Clash

Roberti, appearing at a Capitol news conference, said Green’s strong showing demonstrates that “Democrats are returning to the Democratic Party.” He attributed this development in part to President Reagan’s handling of the Iranian arms scandal.

“The President has been most helpful in shooting a hole in the Republican canoe. . . . It’s sinking, and I don’t know what they can do to glue it back together again,” Roberti said.

But Orange County GOP Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes strongly disagreed.

“He’s reaching,” Fuentes said. “We don’t know who voted for whom, and we don’t know why.”

Fuentes cited figures showing that Orange County Republican voters favored Green more heavily than did their Los Angeles County counterparts, even though voter turnout here was lower (it was 18.9% in Orange County, 22% in Los Angeles County).

Fuentes said the lower turnout reflected the fact that Grisham and Green are both from Los Angeles County and that few Orange County voters were familiar with them. Fuentes and Orange County GOP Executive Director Greg Haskin said they encountered many voters who simply did not care about the candidates and did not think the special election was important.

Dale Hardeman, Grisham’s campaign manager, said Republicans failed to recognize Green’s strength. Hardeman said Green threw the Grisham campaign “somewhat of a chilling shower.”

Hardeman said he expects Gov. George Deukmejian, who has strongly supported Grisham, to resume campaigning for him. Deukmejian made two appearances on Grisham’s behalf and helped persuade Grisham’s chief Republican rival to withdraw from the race early on.

Donna Lipper, a spokeswoman for Deukmejian, said, “I’m sure the governor is going to be involved in the general election and do everything he can to help Wayne get elected to the Senate.”

Strategy Failed

Grisham, a man not accustomed to finishing second, acknowledged late on election night that his strategy of relying mostly on telephone calls and slick mailers to win votes in the largely blue-collar suburban district had failed.

The approach, a Grisham trademark, had been privately criticized by GOP leaders in the campaign’s closing days. Party officials bused in hundreds of precinct walkers from around the state on election day, but it was not enough.

“I’ve learned a lesson in this race,” Grisham, 64, said. “. . . In a special election, the most important ingredient is walking the streets. I’ve been in the business long enough to realize that. Obviously, I’ve got to get out more.”

Green, who is 63, and his army of supporters worked the shopping malls and neighborhoods of tract homes from the beginning, ringing doorbells and shaking hands. Green described the strategy as a “people-to-people” push to sell a relatively unknown Norwalk councilman.

“Nobody gave us a chance a few months ago. Now look where we are,” said Larry Morse, Green’s press secretary. “This is an upset, that’s what it is.”

Low Turnout

Districtwide, Green finished with 27,225 votes or 48% of the total 57,741 cast; Grisham had 24,767 votes or 42.9%, according to the unofficial final results. The remaining votes were divided among six other candidates, but none tallied more than 2.8% of the total.

Only 20.2% of the 285,000 voters in the district went to the polls. About 75% of the district, which takes in northwestern Orange County and southeastern Los Angeles County, is in Los Angeles County.

Because none of the candidates received more than 50% of the total number of votes, the top vote-getters in each party will compete in the runoff. Besides Grisham and Green, Libertarian Lee Connelly, 34, of Buena Park and Peace and Freedom Party candidate Ed Evans, 39, of Cypress will be on the May 12 ballot.

The 33rd District seat was vacated by Paul Carpenter (D-Cypress), who was elected to the State Board of Equalization in November.

Grisham told supporters at a Downey country club late Tuesday that he was unable to overcome the Democrats’ big spending, edge in voter registration, and a series of last-minute pro-Green mailers that painted the two-term Assemblyman as an ineffective legislator and a womanizer.

‘Overconfidence’ Cited

Across the district at a church meeting hall in Norwalk, a jubilant Green told supporters that the Republicans had not taken his candidacy seriously, a mistake he hopes they will make again in May. “Look what overconfidence did to them tonight,” he said.

The seat is seen in Sacramento as a key to winning the fight for control of the Senate in the early 1990s, when legislative reapportionment will take place. The Democrats now have a 23-15 edge in the Senate.

“We would have loved to win this thing outright,” Nielsen said. “It would have saved us all a couple of months of hard work. But am I discouraged? Absolutely not. This is a Democratic district, and we had a strong showing tonight.”

Although party registration in the district favors the Democrats, its residents are considered conservative, the main reason many believed Grisham, a former congressman, would do well there. A strong supporter of both the Reagan and Deukmejian administrations, Grisham banked on his legislative experience and name recognition to carry him. But some, like Republican State Party Chairman Robert Naylor, said the GOP may have been overconfident and, as a result, caught short.

“I think there was a tendency to say, ‘Let’s work real hard,’ but in our hearts we know that Wayne will win,” said Naylor, who was at Grisham’s side Tuesday night when it became clear that Green had forced a runoff. “Maybe we took something for granted.”

Times staff writer Mark Gladstone contributed to this story from Sacramento.