ELECTIONS ’88 SOUTHEAST / LONG BEACH : Both Parties Covet Same 3 State Seats

State Democratic and Republican leaders have turned Southeast Los Angeles County into one of California’s most heated and expensive political battlegrounds, as they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to win one Senate and two Assembly seats in Tuesday’s election.

Not only are both parties striving to strengthen their legislative ranks in anticipation of the 1990 reapportionment, but the leaders of both Democratic-controlled houses are trying to consolidate their power.

As a result, state party dollars have found their way to candidates in the 63rd and 54th Assembly and 33rd Senate District races like bees to blossoms.

The Democrats, who outnumber Republicans 43 to 35 in the Assembly, have set their sights on the 63rd District seat held by Norwalk Republican Wayne Grisham, a two-term assemblyman and former congressman judged vulnerable in light of his upset loss in last year’s special election to fill the 33rd Senate seat.

Grisham, 65, faces well-financed Democratic challenger Robert D. Epple, a 39-year-old attorney and member of the Cerritos College board of trustees. Both candidates said last week they consider the race to be very close.

The Grisham campaign, backed by Assembly Republican Leader Pat Nolan and other state Republican leaders, had raised $539,133 as of last week, according to campaign disclosure statements. The Epple campaign, which has received strong backing from top lieutenants of Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), raised $719,227.

A lot of that money has been spent on mailers that question Grisham’s voting record and dedication, and attack Epple’s integrity and ties to Brown.

Epple has painted Grisham as an ineffective, absentee legislator. From December, 1986, to the end of September, 1988, Grisham missed 24% of the committee votes, according to Legi-Tech, a computerized information service. That ranks him among the 10 most absent Assembly members for committee votes. In response, Grisham said that once a bill got to the floor, he voted 97% of the time, a rate confirmed by Legi-Tech. “My voting record is 97% on the floor and 94% overall,” Grisham said last week. “It’s physically impossible to make all committee meetings.”

Challenge to Brown

Grisham has attacked Epple as a puppet of Brown, who needs to pick up at least three more supporters in next week’s election to give him the 41 votes necessary to hold on to the speakership. During most of 1988, Brown’s leadership has been challenged by five rebel Assembly Democrats known as the “Gang of Five.”

Epple acknowledges he has received ample support from Brown forces, but he bristles at the suggestion that he would be a stooge for the embattled speaker. “I’m going to be voting for my district,” Epple said. “I believe that I can go up there and represent this district well and still be a Democrat.”

The 63rd District includes Artesia, Cerritos, Downey, Hawaiian Gardens, Santa Fe Springs, almost all of Norwalk, and parts of Lakewood, southern and eastern Whittier, and Long Beach. Registration is 57% Democratic and 35.5% Republican, but the mostly blue-collar district has conservative leanings and numerous crossover votes.

State party leaders also have focused heavily on the Assembly’s 54th District race, where GOP incumbent Paul E. Zeltner is being challenged by Democrat Willard Murray, a veteran political consultant and former aide to Rep. Mervyn Dymally (D-Compton). Spending in the contest is well on its way to $1 million.

Uphill Fight

The 54th, which runs southeast from the Willowbrook area and Compton to take in Paramount, Lakewood, Bellflower and a slice of northeast Long Beach, is the most heavily Democratic district in the state represented by a Republican. But even though 65% of the registered voters are Democrats, Murray has an uphill fight.

Zeltner, 63, a retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s captain, is a former Lakewood councilman whose roots in the district go back 40 years. During his two years in the Assembly, he has made himself highly visible throughout the district, even in heavily Democratic Compton.

Local businessmen there have contributed to his campaign. And local Democratic officials, while supporting Murray, go out of their way to point out that they appreciate Zeltner’s visibility in their community and his willingness to tackle crime and unemployment problems.

Murray, on the other hand, is being called a carpetbagger. In a hard-hitting mailer that went out to voters several weeks ago, Zeltner said that Murray has owned a home for years in Baldwin Hills, which is not in the 54th District. The Baldwin Hills address is on Murray’s driver’s license. His voting address is an apartment in Paramount.

Accused of Lying

Zeltner’s mailer also accused Murray of lying about having a degree from UCLA. University officials say Murray only attended the university for a semester.

Murray, 57, a veteran of Democratic politics stretching back to John Kennedy’s campaign in 1960, is counting on a large turnout in the heavily black and Latino areas of the district to help him defeat Zeltner. Murray has also fashioned a campaign platform designed to appeal to conservative, blue-collar Democrats. He opposes any further restrictions on gun ownership and has changed his position on the death penalty. He now supports it.

Backed by organized labor, including several law enforcement groups, Murray is charging that Zeltner has not protected the economic interests of his working-class constituents. Zeltner opposed efforts to raise the minimum wage, Murray points out, and the freshman legislator did not object when banks and other businesses that offer credit cards persuaded lawmakers to remove the ceiling on interest rates.

The 33rd Senate District, the site of a remarkably costly special election last year, has once again proven to be a gold-plated jousting arena.

To win reelection to a full, four-year term in the conservative, blue-collar district--which spreads from southeast Los Angeles County into northwest Orange County--Sen. Cecil N. Green (D-Norwalk) has raised $1.4 million. His Republican opponent, former Cerritos Councilman Donald R. Knabe, the top aide to Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana, had received $835,759 as of last week.

Massive Financial Support

While both men have asserted their political independence--accusing the other of being a party pawn--both have accepted massive financial support from their parties, as well as special interests outside the district. Green’s primary benefactor is Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti, the powerful Los Angeles Democrat who has loaned or contributed $407,243 to Green’s campaign in hopes of holding onto the district and maintaining a majority control of the Senate, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 24 to 15. Labor groups have also been generous to Green, a former Norwalk councilman.

Nearly half of Knabe’s campaign funding has been supplied by state Republican leaders or party political action groups, and much of the rest has come from development, real estate and business concerns.

In a maneuver that mimics the national Republican strategy, Knabe has attempted to tar his Democratic opponent with a liberal brush, while depicting himself as the rock-ribbed, conservative guardian of family and community values. Citing the mailers of both candidates, observers say the race has turned surprisingly nasty. Knabe’s material in particular has been the subject of comment by observers, marked as it is by a stridency not evident during Knabe’s two terms on the Cerritos City Council.

Eager to distance Green from his constituents, Knabe’s political brochures have linked Green with everybody from Westside gay activists to former state Sen. Paul Carpenter (D-Cypress) and Democratic fund-raiser John Shahabian, key figures in the FBI sting investigation of political corruption in Sacramento.

Both candidates have accused each other of distorting their records.

‘Falsehoods and Innuendoes’

‘It’s another crummy attempt by Knabe to smear Mr. Green with a lot of falsehoods and innuendoes,” Green campaign spokesman Larry Morse said of the Knabe mailer that raises questions about Green’s association with Shahabian and Carpenter. Carpenter, a focus of the FBI probe, is a longtime friend of Green’s who played an important role in Green’s successful special election campaign last year. Shahabian, a paid staff member in that same campaign, was an informant in the FBI investigation.

Morse says the senator had no prior knowledge that either Carpenter or Shahabian was under investigation, adding that neither man is involved in Green’s reelection effort.

Among the other mailers that have offended the Green camp is one that attacks Green’s support of a bill that gave AIDS victims handicapped status under the law. The law, say Green spokesmen, simply picked up anti-discrimination language from federal court rulings.

For his part, Knabe has expressed anger over a Green brochure denouncing Knabe for taking a “secret $10,571.31 bonus at taxpayers’ expense.” The county bonus, Knabe said, was given to him as part of a merit pay program.

52nd Assembly District

In the 52nd Assembly District, Assemblyman Frank Hill (R-Whittier) has strong financial and community support in his bid for a fourth term despite being a subject of the FBI’s corruption probe.

Hill has reported spending $179,000 on his low-profile campaign and nears the election with $268,000 cash on hand. Democratic candidate Terry Lee Perkins, an elementary school teacher from Walnut, reported raising $10,400 and spending $9,100.

A member of the Assembly Republican leadership, Hill is one of five state lawmakers targeted in the FBI’s investigation, aimed at uncovering bribery and extortion in the state Capitol. No charges have been filed in the case.

The 52nd District includes La Mirada, La Habra Heights, and parts of Whittier.

Incumbents in other Assembly districts touching the Southeast area are expected to win reelection.

Five-term Assemblyman Dave Elder (D-Long Beach) is running against Republican David Ball and Peace and Freedom candidate Justine Bellock in the strongly Democratic 57th District, which includes parts of Long Beach.

Assemblyman Dennis L. Brown (R-Long Beach) is defending his 58th District seat against Democrat Andrew Kincaid, Peace and Freedom candidate Richard Green and Libertarian Scott Stier. The 58th District includes parts of Long Beach and all of Signal Hill.

In the 59th District, Assemblyman Charles M. Calderon (D-Alhambra) is facing a weak challenge by Libertarian Steven Pencall. The district includes Pico Rivera, Montebello and parts of Whittier.

Assemblywoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles) is being challenged in the 56th District by Republican Stephen R. Sheldon and Peace and Freedom candidate Axhel Munoz. Commerce, Maywood, Bell Gardens and Vernon are included in the district.

Incumbent Teresa P. Hughes (D-Los Angeles) is expected to retain her 47th District seat in the race against Libertarian Bryan Riley. The district includes Huntington Park, Bell and Cudahy.

Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) is running unopposed for her 48th District seat, which includes South Gate and Lynwood.

In the 31st Senate District, which spans the Orange County line, incumbent William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights) is being challenged by first-time candidate Janice Lynn Graham of Laguna Hills. Graham, 51, has criticized Campbell’s voting attendance record and his willingness to introduce special-interest legislation. She also has criticized his annual sponsorship of a women’s conference in Orange County, saying the conference has financially helped Campbell, his wife and some of his aides while he continues to vote against many issues important to women.

Seeking his third Senate term, Campbell has spent much of this election season stumping for George Bush as the co-chairman of Bush’s presidential campaign in California. Campbell, 53, has stressed his reputation as a legislator who can forge bipartisan coalitions and who has helped his district with legislation providing more expeditious earthquake relief and additional funds to cities with little property tax revenue.

In the 29th Senate District, which runs from the beach cities of the South Bay to the southern boundaries of Long Beach, Libertarian Steve Kelley and Democrat Jack Hachmeister are running against Sen. Robert G. Beverly (R-Redondo Beach), a popular, three-term Senator who previously served in the Assembly.

Hachmeister, a lawyer from Manhattan Beach who handles personal injury cases, portrays Beverly as a lackluster legislator of little achievement. “What has he done?” asks Hachmeister, contending the incumbent has failed to provide leadership on crucial issues such as auto insurance. Very much the Libertarian, Kelley complains that Beverly has not done enough to cut taxes and government interference. A Hermosa Beach resident and copywriter for a Westside advertising agency, Kelley’s platform calls for the legalization of drugs, the abolition of zoning and a government that confines its role to the protection of life, liberty and property.

Elsewhere in Southeast, in the predominantly Democratic 27th Senate District, Democratic incumbent Bill Greene of Los Angeles is running against Peace and Freedom candidate Jeffrey M. Artz of Bell and Republican Johnnie Neely of Los Angeles.

Times staff writers Michele Fuetsch, Steven R. Churm, Mary Lou Fulton and David Haldane contributed to this story.