Last-Minute Frenzy Grows in Assembly, Senate Races

The high-stakes power struggle that pits Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown against five rebel Democrats who want him deposed has escalated into a desperate, last-minute legislative primary campaign fund-raising and spending binge.

For example, one of the rebels, Assemblyman Gerald R. Eaves of Rialto, who faces a stiff challenge for renomination in Tuesday’s primary election, has accepted a $100,000 loan from one of his staff members.

In another bitterly contested race, Norwalk attorney Bob Epple, a candidate favored by Brown, was showered with at least $180,000 from the Speaker’s legislative allies and from the California Democratic Party.

Special Interest Generosity

Beyond the Brown versus “Gang of Five” battle, a tidal wave of 11th-hour contributions from generous special interests reflects an increasingly intense effort to capture a handful of nominations in both the Assembly and the Senate. These funds are being used to finance a final blitz of political mail to sway voters before Tuesday’s elections.

All 80 Assembly seats and the 20 odd-numbered Senate seats are in contention this year. The Democrats currently control the Assembly by a 44-36 margin over the Republicans. The Senate has 24 Democrats, 15 Republicans and one independent.

On the Republican side, veteran Assemblyman Gerald N. Felando of San Pedro is facing a monumental challenge from Deane Dana III, son of Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana, in the 51st District. The senior Dana has loaned his son about $450,000 from his own campaign funds.

In the Senate, Sen. Daniel E. Boatwright (D-Concord) is confronted with the biggest challenge of his 16-year legislative career by Sunne Wright McPeak, a Contra Costa County supervisor who ignored pleas by the Democratic Establishment not to run against him in the 7th District.

Boost to Boatwright

To preserve Boatwright’s incumbency, fellow Senate Democrats have kicked in almost $300,000 to his campaign. McPeak, who gained statewide attention in 1982 by spearheading the successful referendum to sink the Peripheral Canal water project, has reported spending more than $400,000 received from a variety of interest groups, ranging from women’s organizations to land developers.

Although Felando and Boatwright are fighting for their political survival, most attention has focused on Brown’s efforts to protect his own speakership, now threatened after a record 7 1/2-year tenure. If enough candidates who support him win in Tuesday’s primary and again in the November general election, Brown presumably would retain his post.

However, if candidates supported by the dissident “Gang of Five” are victorious in both elections, or if Republicans prevail, Brown’s speakership could come to an end.

Because of this, his Assembly lieutenants and the California Trial Lawyers Assn., a longtime political ally of Brown, have poured more than $166,500 into the campaign of Joe Baca, a community college trustee who is opposing Eaves’ bid for a third term in the 66th District.

In an unusual twist, Leslie J. Willey of Redlands, an administrative assistant to Eaves, loaned his boss $100,000 in the final days of the campaign. A retired telephone company executive, Willey said he made the loan because “I didn’t want Jerry to have to worry about money.”

Eaves said Willey, a former district manager for General Telephone Co. of California, who is paid about $25,000 a year as a legislative staff member, “is my good friend as well as employee and I am glad he was in the position to do it (make the loan).” Willey said he “acquired some assets” during his nearly four decades at General Telephone and “I have my own financial resources . . . (but) I do expect to be paid back.”

Opposed by Businessman

In the 63rd District, attorney Epple is opposed by Downey businessman Peter Ohanesian, the candidate of the “Gang of Five.” The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Assemblyman Wayne Grisham of Norwalk in the fall. Ohanesian has received almost $100,000 from the dissident Democrats, including almost $70,000 from Assemblyman Charles M. Calderon (D-Alhambra).

At the core of the Brown speakership dispute is the dissidents’ claim that Brown has run roughshod over Democrats who are more conservative than he is. Among other things, the dissidents maintain that his policies had led to the demise of bills that have strong public support.

They express a fear that by adhering to Brown’s liberal leadership they endanger their own reelection prospects with more centrist voters back home. In a series of recent showdowns, the rebel Democrats have joined forces with Assembly Republicans to pass politically sensitive bills on to the Senate over Brown’s opposition.

The Speaker denies that he stacks committees to kill bills at his request and says his policies merely reflect the will of the majority of Democrats.

As it stands now, the dissident Democrats do not have enough muscle to oust Brown because the Republican leadership insists that it wants to wait until the GOP is in the majority or there is a chance of a more solid coalition than offered by the “Gang of Five.” It takes 41 votes to elect a Speaker.

Game Plan

The Republican game plan is to take majority control by 1990 in order to be in charge of the redrawing of Assembly district lines based on the 1990 federal census. This is important because the majority party can fashion the district lines to help keep itself in power for the next decade.

Another contested Democratic primary that has generated more than the usual amount of interest pits former Assemblyman Leon Ralph, who retired 12 years ago to become a minister, against Willard Murray, an assistant to Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally of Compton, in the 54th Assembly District. The winner will run against Republican Assemblyman Paul E. Zeltner of Lakewood in November.

In the 50th Assembly District, veteran Democratic incumbent Curtis R. Tucker of Inglewood, where he is known as the political “godfather,” is being challenged by Inglewood City Councilman Daniel Tabor, who offers himself as the candidate of a “new style of leadership.”

Two Republican senators are retiring: Jim Ellis of San Diego and bedrock conservative H. L. Richardson of Glendora. Richardson, the dean of Senate Republicans, first was elected in the 1966 Ronald Reagan gubernatorial landslide and is the Legislature’s fiercest opponent of gun control.

In the general election, the two Senate seats now held by Ellis and Richardson are expected to remain in the GOP column--so Tuesday’s primary generally is regarded as tantamount to an election. Heavily favored to replace Ellis and Richardson in the 39th and the 25th Senate districts, respectively, are Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego) and Assemblyman Bill Leonard (R-Redlands).

Seven Seeking Seat

Seven Republicans are running for Leonard’s 61st Assembly District seat, including Paul A. Woodruff of Redlands, a Leonard aide, and John Lewis of Apple Valley, a brother of Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Highlands).

Seeking Stirling’s seat in the 77th Assembly District are Carol Bentley, a former assistant to Ellis, and Gloria Demers McColl, a San Diego City Council member.

In the 70th Assembly District, incumbent Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) is expected to defeat two opponents: Evelyn Hart, mayor pro tem of Newport Beach, and Mike Mang of Laguna Beach, who identifies himself as an environmentalist and historian. Ferguson is a former Marine colonel best known in the Legislature for his failed attempts to expel liberal, former anti-war activist Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica).