ELECTIONS ’88 : Wild Celebration, Anxiety, Sadness Mark Ballot Count

The man who came from nowhere celebrated, the Irvine councilman kept his fingers crossed and the businessman who seemed to have come up short again threw in the towel, telling his supporters the race was over.

Those were the scenes at the camps of the top three contenders in the Republican primary in the 40th Congressional District early today with more than two-thirds of the vote counted.

Despite a lead that narrowed dramatically as the hours passed, attorney C. Christopher Cox held court in a wild celebration in his three-room suite at the Doubletree Hotel in Orange. Downstairs, Irvine Councilman C. David Baker anxiously watched his chances improve with each round of returns. And a few miles away, a his Costa Mesa headquarters, Newport Beach businessman Nathan Rosenberg said he was done in by “negative campaigning . . . and I’m a little bit sad about that.”

Earlier in the day, the candidates in the 40th and 42nd congressional districts had tried every trick in the political book--phoning supporters, crisscrossing precincts and even praying--right up to the close of polls, hoping that somehow they had touched enough voters to finish on top.

“I’m feeling relaxed for the first time in four months,” said a smiling Cox, who led throughout Tuesday night in the 40th District, which ranges from Fountain Valley to Newport Beach to Laguna Hills. By 11 p.m. he was ahead of Baker, his nearest challenger.

Anticipating victory, several hundred Cox supporters and well-wishers jammed his three-room suite at the Doubletree Hotel in Orange, spilling into the hallway.

At one point, conservative Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) shouted to Cox, dressed in a blue pinstripe suit: “Have you declared victory yet?”

Despite Cox’s strong showing, Baker did not want to concede.

“It’s still too early,” he said as he arrived about 11:15 p.m. at the Doubletree, where many Republicans from around the state were holding a glitzy post-election celebration.

Cox, Baker and Newport Beach businessman Rosenberg were locked in a three-way battle for the GOP primary in the 40th District. Because of the Republicans’ 2-1 edge in voter registration, the primary winner is virtually a shoo-in to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Robert E. Badham of Newport Beach.

At Rosenberg’s headquarters, volunteers counted the final seconds of Election Day, then cheered when the clock struck 8. Rosenberg, 36, then told the large gathering to pray.

“It’s the only thing that’s left to do,” he said. “I don’t know how this is going to turn out. We conducted this campaign like champions. I just want to thank you for the great work over the last eight months. . . . “

‘The Cleanest Campaign’

In Irvine, Baker told campaign supporters after the polls closed that “we’re going to win because we ran the cleanest campaign.”

On the Democratic side in the 40th, Lida Lenney was far ahead of George Margolis. But she was unable to spend all evening at a victory party because of a regularly scheduled meeting of the Laguna Beach City Council, of which she is a member.

“I feel like a kid in grade school,” Lenney said before the meeting. “I wish somebody would write me a note and excuse me from the meeting, just this once.”

In the 42nd District, which runs from western Orange County through Long Beach to Torrance, the focus among the nine candidates was on voter turnout.

Harriett M. Wieder, the three-term Orange County supervisor, voted early in her Huntington Harbour neighborhood and then spent time “doing the things I suppose women do,” she said Tuesday. “Relaxing, getting a massage . . . I kind of went into a cocoon.”

About the same time, Stephen Horn, former president of Cal State Long Beach and one of Wieder’s main rivals, was still walking precincts in Torrance in Los Angeles County. Horn began the day by voting, then got a haircut and had a photo session with a local newspaper.

Leading early today was ex-White House speech writer Dana Rohrabacher of Palos Verdes Estates. Andrew J. Littlefair of Torrance, a former White House advance man, was back in the pack.

After voting, Rohrabacher went to lunch with his father, retired Marine Lt. Col. Don Rohrabacher, and mother, Fluff. Later, they watched a home video of the campaigning done for Rohrabacher by another retired lieutenant colonel, Oliver L. North of Iran-Contra fame. North campaigned for Rohrabacher and Cox last week.

Littlefair was first in line at his Torrance polling place. He then spent the morning on the phone with supporters before walking a precinct in Rancho Palos Verdes.

The seat became vacant when Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach) was nominated by Gov. George Deukmejian to be state treasurer.

Times staff writers Maria La Ganga, Lonn Johnston, Ray Perez, Nancy Wride, Mary Lou Fulton and Alan Jalon contributed to this article.