ELECTIONS ’88 : Vasquez, Stanton Ahead in Contests for Supervisors

Supervisors Gaddi H. Vasquez and Roger R. Stanton held onto their seats by comfortable margins in Tuesday’s election, although both of their dark-horse challengers made surprisingly strong showings.

With almost half of the vote tallied, Vasquez, seeking to become the first Latino ever elected to the County Board of Supervisors, had a commanding lead in the 3rd District.

A beaming Vasquez said late Tuesday night: “I think we are headed for an overwhelming victory tonight. I’m pleased that the voters of the 3rd District have seen fit to give me the opportunity and the honor to represent them for the next four years.”

Vasquez’s challenger, rancher Sam Porter, said he was disappointed that he was not winning the race. But he was holding onto more than a third of vote as the tally continued into this morning.

“I’ve taught these developers one thing,” Porter said. “They’ve learned that my first name is defiant, my second name is tenacious and my last name is Porter.”

Stanton, who spent more than $150,000 in his campaign in the 1st District, much of it in the final weeks, declared his victory early Tuesday night over Santa Ana City Councilman Ron May. He was far ahead, with about two-thirds of the precincts in his district reporting.

“I’ve won the election,” he said later in the evening. “And that’s what I thought I would do when I saw who was filing” as a challenger.

May attributed the results of the race to the lopsided bankrolls of the candidates. He said he spent about $50,000. But he added, “I think that starting from basically nothing, . . . I’m very satisfied with the way the campaign was conducted.”

The election was especially significant for Vasquez because his political abilities had been doubted by many when he was appointed last year to the 3rd District seat by Gov. George Deukmejian after Supervisor Bruce Nestande resigned.

A former Orange police officer, Vasquez was a supervisor’s aide to Nestande before becoming a deputy appointments secretary to Deukmejian in Sacramento in April, 1985.

When he was appointed to the board last year, he was just 32 and had never won an election. But by January, Vasquez had almost $400,000 in campaign contributions in the bank, and when the filing deadline passed in March he had just one opponent.

Times staff writer Andrea Ford contributed to this story.