The California Primary : Speaker’s Choice Wins Key Assembly Contest

In an election that could help decide the fate of his embattled Assembly speakership, Willie Brown’s forces won Tuesday night against a dissident faction of fellow Democrats in one key Assembly primary race but were locked in a tight contest in another.

Norwalk attorney Bob Epple, heavily bankrolled and supported by Brown’s forces in the race for the 63rd Assembly District seat, defeated Peter Ohanesian, a Downey businessman supported by the “Gang of Five” rebel Democrats who are challenging Brown’s speakership.

But in a potentially more significant test of Brown’s strength, Assemblyman Gerald R. Eaves (D-Rialto), the only one of the five Democratic dissidents facing a serious challenge, was running virtually neck-and-neck with Joe Baca, a community college trustee, whose campaign was largely underwritten by Brown’s supporters. Baca, who had pledged to support Brown if elected, was hoping to deny Eaves a third term in the contest for the 66th District.

In the strongly Republican 51st District, Deane Dana III, son of Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana, was trailing substantially behind five-term incumbent Assemblyman Gerald N. Felando (R-San Pedro). The younger Dana, whose campaign was virtually underwritten by his father, sought to make an issue of Felando’s past support for Brown. But he faced a brutal campaign in the 51st waged by Assembly GOP leader Pat Nolan of Glendale.

“One thing that has come out of this race is the feeling that something has got to be done about Willie Brown, and the Republican leadership better wake up to that fact,” the elder Dana said as early ballots showed his son losing.

Felando claimed victory late Tuesday and said of the younger Dana, “That kid would be a joke without the $1 million (from) his dad.”

Meanwhile, in the most hotly contested Senate race, 16-year legislative veteran Sen. Daniel E. Boatwright (D-Concord) was narrowly leading over Contra Costa County Supervisor Sunne McPeak, who rejected the advice of party leaders to stay out of the 7th District race.

In another hard-fought contest in the Assembly, Willard Murray, an assistant to Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally of Compton, held a commanding lead in his second try at winning the 54th District seat. He faced former Assemblyman Leon Ralph, who was attempting a comeback after retiring 12 years go to become a minister. The winner faces GOP Assemblyman Paul Zeltner of Lakewood in November.

Assemblyman Curtis Tucker, a key supporter of Speaker Brown, claimed victory in a closely watched contest in the 50th Assembly District against Inglewood City Councilman Danny Tabor. Tabor said he was offering “new leadership,” but faced a high-spending campaign bankrolled by the Speaker.

As in the past, most of the primary races for seats in the Legislature were uncontested, providing strong testimony to the power of incumbency.

All 80 Assembly seats and half of the Senate’s 40 seats were on Tuesday’s ballot. But only 15 of them involved open contests or races in which incumbents faced opposition from their own parties.

In those Assembly districts where strong challenges arose, several were widely viewed as a test--albeit preliminary to the November general election--of Speaker Brown’s ability to shore up his forces and overcome the rebellion within the Democratic ranks.

The challenge to Brown from the five moderate-to-conservative Democrats erupted publicly in January when the five began to openly join with the GOP to thwart the legislative programs of Brown and other Democrats. More recently, two unsuccessful attempts were made to remove Brown from the speakership, which he has held for more than seven years.

Whether Brown can retain his power hinges on a numbers game.

There are now 44 Democrats and 36 Republicans in the Assembly. With the defection of the five dissidents, Republicans often find themselves with the 41-vote majority they need to push through bills and block Democratic proposals.

If Brown can increase his support by two seats, he might then have sufficient votes to leave the “Gang of Five” powerless.

Nonetheless, Brown vowed to stay out of the primary contests. But his loyal supporters took no such pledge and their fingerprints could hardly be missed.

In the case of the crucial Eaves-Baca race, Brown was counting on a win by challenger Baca to place him just one seat away from neutralizing the rebel faction and regaining his full authority. A member of the San Bernardino Community College board and a former Army paratrooper, Baca had pledged his loyalty to Brown during the campaign and found himself the recipient of hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from Brown loyalists and big special interests that traditionally support the Speaker.

Infusion of Cash

On the other side, Eaves, a two-term assemblyman and former steelworker, received a large infusion of cash from his fellow dissidents.

The race for the Inland Empire’s 66th Assembly District was a freewheeling showdown that saw last-minute charges on both sides and a mailer allegedly sent by the Baca campaign purporting to be an endorsement from U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), which both Kennedy’s office and Baca’s campaign disavowed.

Early polls had shown Eaves in trouble in this year’s primary campaign, and other members of the dissident faction privately warned their Democratic colleagues that an Eaves loss might trigger retaliation. Since Eaves’ term would not end until December, the rebels suggested that they might vote after the primary to install a Republican Speaker--something they earlier pledged never to do.

There also were serious implications for the Speaker in the outcome of the Democratic race for Southeast Los Angeles’ 63rd District seat.

In this community of mostly blue-collar voters, attorney Epple found himself bathed in the largess of Speaker Brown. Meanwhile, Ohanesian was deriving much of his support from the five dissidents. Assemblyman Charles M. Calderon (D-Alhambra), one of the five rebels, counts himself as a long-time personal friend of the Downey businessman.

Concentrate Efforts

In the final days of the race, the dissident Democrats were forced to concentrate their efforts on the Eaves-Baca contest for fear of losing one of their own. And Ohanesian found himself outspent by Epple by a margin of more than 2 to 1.

The outcome of this primary race is more difficult to assess as it pertains to Brown’s future since neither candidate could participate in the speakership battle unless he first beats two-term incumbent Republican Assemblyman Wayne Grisham of Norwalk in the fall.

Brown was not the only legislative leader whose prestige was on the line in Tuesday’s primary vote.

Nolan, the Assembly’s Republican leader, also had given considerable help to his former caucus chairman, Felando, in a rough and tumble fight against Dana, whose campaign received more than $500,000 from his well-known father.

The race in the South Bay’s 51st Assembly District was full of risk for Nolan because a Dana victory not only would show his weakness as a political strategist but could create a new enemy for Nolan.

Attack Leaves Scars

In recent days, Nolan unleashed a vicious attack against Dana, a powerful political figure in Los Angeles County, for allegedly trying “to buy” the seat for his son. The scars could take a long time to heal.

Unlike in the Assembly, where some challengers were staging strong campaigns, the Boatwright-McPeak contest in Contra Costa County’s 7th Senate District was the only Senate race in which an incumbent was perceived as facing a real threat.

About $1.2 million was spent in the contest--one of the most expensive in Senate history. Nearly $400,000 of that came to Boatwright from fellow Senate Democrats, including Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), who last year punished Boatwright for purportedly trying to topple him from power.

McPeak, who is best known for leading the 1982 campaign that defeated the Peripheral Canal water project, reported spending about the same amount as Boatwright, but criticized his rival for being beholden to major special interests.

Leonard Leading

In other races in heavily Republican areas, Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego) was unopposed and Assemblyman Bill Leonard (R-Redlands) appeared to be on his way to victory in contests to replace Sen. Jim Ellis (R-San Diego) in the 39th District and Sen. H. L. Richardson (R-Glendora) in the 25th District, respectively. The two senators are retiring this year.

Paul A. Woodruff, a Leonard aide, was leading a pack of seven GOP candidates in the contest to replace Leonard in the 61st District. In the race to fill Stirling’s 77th District seat, Carol Bentley, a former Ellis assistant, was ahead of Gloria Demers McColl, a member of the San Diego City Council. Both seats are expected to remain in the Republican column after the November election.