Son of Supervisor Dana to Run for Assembly Seat

With candidates rushing to meet Friday’s filing deadline, a slew of hopefuls lined up to run for the seat held by retiring Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach), and one Assembly aspirant emerged with instant name identification:Deane Dana III, son and namesake of the Los Angeles County supervisor.

Candidates for Congress, the Legislature, the Board of Supervisors, district attorney and a host of judgeships had until 5 p.m. Friday to file nomination papers with county election officials. Most incumbents filed for reelection.

With reapportionment of legislative district lines scheduled after the 1990 election, Democrats and Republicans are attempting to hold gains from past years and make inroads, especially in swing districts in the southeast corner of the county. The process of mapping the lines, which are redrawn every 10 years, is controlled by the Legislature, where Democrats now hold a majority in both houses.

Waging Legal Fight

Lungren has said that he will bow out of the contest for his congressional seat to wage a legal fight to become state treasurer. Would-be candidates have been planning campaigns for the seat since Gov. George Deukmejian last year appointed Lungren to succeed the late Jesse M. Unruh as state treasurer. Lungren was confirmed by the Assembly but rejected by the Senate, sparking a court fight over whether Lungren can assume the treasurer’s office.

Lungren has represented the heavily Republican 42nd District, which runs from Torrance and the Palos Verdes Peninsula south to Huntington Beach in Orange County, for nearly 10 years.

Eight GOP hopefuls filed for the contest. Two of the best known are Orange County Supervisor Harriett Wieder and Stephen Horn, former president of Cal State Long Beach. On the Democratic side, Ada Unruh, daughter-in-law of the former treasurer is on the ballot.

Two Democratic congressional primaries also are expected to attract attention. In the 23rd Congressional District, which includes part of the San Fernando Valley and the Westside, Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles) faces challenger Val Marmillion of West Hollywood, a politically well-connected partner in a marketing firm. If elected, Marmillion would be one of a handful of openly homosexual members of Congress. He said he intends to stress AIDS education and research as an issue.

Rep. Matthew G. Martinez (D-Monterey Park) also drew an opponent in his primary in the 30th Congressional District in the San Gabriel Valley. He will square off against former Monterey Park City Councilwoman Lily Chen.

In legislative contests, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) this week declared that in the Assembly “all the Republicans are targeted.” Unlike in some recent years, Democrats sought to find challengers to Republican Assembly members even in so-called safe GOP districts.

But two Republican incumbents, Gerald N. Felando of San Pedro and Wayne Grisham of Norwalk, must first face potentially stiff challenges in their own party primary elections.

Felando, who initially announced that he would run for Lungren’s seat and then withdrew from the contest for family reasons, will square off against Deane Dana III, who lists himself as a “California government official.” Dana said he has resigned effective March 27 from his position as deputy director of the state Department of Aging, but he asserted that his ballot description is nonetheless appropriate. “What we attempted to do is avoid the confusion” with his father, he said.

Felando blasted the elder Dana for attempting “to extend his clout to Sacramento.” Besides Dana’s son, the supervisor’s top deputy, Don Knabe, a Cerritos city councilman, is running for the state Senate.

Supervisor Dana, who is also campaigning for reelection, dismissed the suggestion that he had influenced either his aide or his son. Dana said his son entered the race because Felando had declared that he would be a candidate for Congress. The supervisor said:”I’m proud of my record. I suppose some of it will rub off” on his son.

Anne Richards, press secretary to Assembly Republican Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale, said Nolan “tried real hard to get Dana to bow out” of the Assembly contest. “He thinks it’s silly to fight Republicans when we could fight Democrats.”

Across the county, Grisham will face a challenge from Dale F. Hardeman, a former aide. Meanwhile, three Democrats have filed to run in November against the Republican nominee in the 63rd District, where Democrats hold a strong registration lead over Republicans. Grisham is viewed as vulnerable because he lost a costly special state Senate election last year to Democrat Cecil N. Green of Norwalk.

Among the Democrats who filed are Robert Epple, a lawyer and member of the Cerritos Community College Board who is expected to win support from many Democrats in the Assembly. Also on the Democratic ballot are Peter Ohanesian, a Downey businessman, and Marshall Story, a Cerritos airline technician. Both were unsuccessful candidates in 1984. In the neighboring 54th District, two Democrats will battle for the right to oppose freshman Assemblyman Paul E. Zeltner (R-Lakewood). They are Willard Murray of Compton, a congressional aide who finished second in the 1986 primary, and former Assemblyman Leon Ralph, who served as chairman of the powerful Assembly Rules Committee before leaving the Legislature in 1976 for the ministry. Ralph, who now lives in Paramount, is pastor of a church in Hawthorne.

Several Democrats also face primary challenges. The most spirited is expected to be in the 50th Assembly District, where Assemblyman Curtis Tucker (D-Inglewood)is being challenged by Inglewood City Councilman Daniel Tabor. The district is heavily Democratic and whoever wins the primary will be the front-runner in November.

Senate Contests

In state Senate contests, Cerritos Councilman Knabe and Margaret Vineyard, a former Hawaiian Gardens city councilwoman, are campaigning for the GOP nomination in the 33rd District, captured last spring by Sen. Green. Democrats and Republicans regard the fall contest as a key to their hopes of gaining ground in the Senate, where the lineup is 24 Democrats, 15 Republicans and one independent. A spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Ken Maddy (R-Fresno), said:”It’s our No. 1 priority.”

One veteran lawmaker whose name will be missing from the ballot is Sen. H. L. (Bill)Richardson (R-Glendora), a major force in conservative politics. He followed through on his earlier announcement and did not file for another term in the upper house. Among those seeking his seat is Assemblyman Bill Leonard (R-Redlands).