Grisham, Epple Both Claim Victory in 63rd District as Vote Count Continues

Republican incumbent Wayne Grisham and Democratic challenger Robert D. Epple continued to claim a piece of the Assembly’s 63rd District seat as county officials counted absentee, write-in and damaged ballots from the Tuesday election.

Semiofficial results released Wednesday indicated Epple had unseated the two-term assemblyman by 87 votes. But about 100,000 ballots from throughout the county remain to be counted during the election canvass, which is expected to be completed by Nov. 29, officials said. How many of those are from the 63rd District is not known, an election official said.

Epple claimed victory by a “landslide of 87 votes” after going to Sacramento Wednesday to meet with Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and other Democratic leaders. Epple maintained that there were no outstanding absentee ballots to be counted in the district.

On Thursday, Grisham’s campaign manager, Tony Russo, told reporters outside the registrar-recorder’s office that he estimated the canvass would turn up 2,000 to 3,000 absentee ballots from the district.

Grisham in Sacramento

“I think I will win,” Grisham said in Sacramento, where he met with the Republican Caucus to choose a minority leader. Sources said Grisham did not vote when Republicans selected Ross Johnson of La Habra to replace Pat Nolan of Glendale as minority leader.

Grisham said he may have been able to avoid the close finish if the Assembly’s Republican leadership had provided more money during the closing days of the race.

“The polls said I was going to lose,” Grisham said in a brief interview outside the GOP meeting room. “Sometimes decisions are not made correctly. They thought I was going to lose the election.”

Canvass Director Margarite Brown said that ballots would be counted through the weekend and that she did not know how many uncounted ballots were from 63rd District voters. She said officials hope to complete the counting by Nov. 22 and have the election certified by Nov. 29. An update on the canvass is scheduled to be released Monday, Brown said.

Russo said he used simple mathematics to calculate his projection of 2,000 to 3,000 uncounted district ballots. There are 28 Assembly districts in Los Angeles County, which has 100,000 uncounted ballots. He projected victory based on the results of absentee ballots that were counted by Wednesday morning.

Grisham captured 3,597, or 53.6%, of the absentee votes, compared to Epple’s 3,112 votes, according to the semiofficial election results.

Epple could not be reached for comment on his claim that there were no outstanding absentee votes from the 63rd District.

Russo said the Grisham campaign would consider calling for a recount if the assemblyman is behind by 1,000 or fewer votes at the end of the canvass.

The race drew strong interest and hundreds of thousands of dollars from Democratic and Republican leaders who are trying to control the Legislature in anticipation of the 1990 reapportionment. Brown also saw Epple’s election as key to retaining his speakership.

Breakdown of Results

A breakdown of the election results indicated Epple carried Norwalk by nearly 14 percentage points and cut into Grisham support in Cerritos and Downey. The three cities account for 76.8% of the registered voters in the 63rd District. Epple outpolled Grisham in the district’s smaller cities or cities that are partially in the 63rd--Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, Santa Fe Springs, parts of Lakewood and south Whittier.

Registration for the 63rd District is 56.7% Democratic and 35.8% Republican, but Republicans historically have been able to find ample crossover votes. The 63rd is a bit more conservative than two years ago, when 58% of the district’s voters were Democrats and 34.4% were Republicans.

Grisham counted on carrying the more affluent and conservative Downey, where registration is 50% Democratic and 43.7% Republican. Cerritos, which has the highest household income in the Southeast, was seen as a swing area with registration that is 47.2% Democratic and 43% Republican. Democrats expect strong support in Norwalk, which has a higher minority population than the other two cities, and is 66.5% Democratic and 26.6% Republican.

In 1986, Grisham ran against a poorly financed Democratic candidate, Robert (Bob) White, and scored a 17-percentage-point victory. He captured 69.3% of the vote in Downey, 63% of the vote in Cerritos and 41.9% in Norwalk.”

Epple was able to cut into Grisham’s support in Downey and Cerritos, where the Republican won 56.9% and 54.8% of the vote, respectively. Grisham captured 43.1% of the vote in Norwalk, slightly better than he did in 1986.

Voters cast 29,291 ballots in Downey, 22,317 in Norwalk, and 18,009 in Cerritos, according to semiofficial returns.

Epple reigned in Norwalk, where he captured 56.9% of the vote, and in other areas of the district. The challenger carried Artesia with 52.2%, Hawaiian Gardens with 64.6% and Santa Fe Springs with 64.1%. The Democrat also carried 55% of the vote in the parts of Lakewood that are in the district, and 57.7% in south Whittier.

Heavy Mailer Campaign

The Epple campaign has attributed its uncertain victory to a heavy mailer campaign that labeled Grisham an ineffective and absentee legislator. Grisham missed 24% of his committee votes from December, 1986, to the end of September, 1988. Epple strategists theorized the working-class district would toss out a legislator if they thought he wasn’t showing up to work. Also, the Epple campaign, aided by state Democratic workers, staged a strong get-out-the-vote drive on election day.

In turn, the Grisham campaign said the incumbent’s work record had been distorted, that the Democrats failed to mention he voted 97% of the time once a bill got to the Senate floor. Grisham portrayed Epple as a puppet of Speaker Brown.

Overall, Grisham strategists attacked Epple’s campaign as deceitful. To emphasize the point, the Grisham campaign released information that led the challenger to detail his involvement in a 1970 auto accident. Epple acknowledged that he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges and paid fines in connection with the accident. The Grisham campaign accused Epple of trying to hide the incident, which the Democrat denied.

Times staff writer Mark Gladstone contributed to this story.