Absentee Voters Help Hill to Win GOP Nomination for State Senate

Assemblyman Frank Hill put together his victory in Tuesday’s Senate election with the help of absentee ballots and hard-core Los Angeles County Republicans unwilling to believe attacks on his ethics, according to political consultants.

The Whittier Republican, who since 1988 has been the target of an FBI political corruption investigation, led a field of eight candidates. Because Hill failed to win 50% of the vote, he will face Janice Graham of Laguna Hills, the top Democratic vote-getter, in an April 10 runoff to fill the vacancy created by the decision of state Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights) to leave office.

With Republicans holding an edge of 54% to 36% among registered voters, Hill is widely believed to have the inside track at winning the runoff in the sprawling 31st Senate District, which stretches from West Covina and Whittier in the north to Laguna Beach in the south.

In anticipation of a Hill victory in April, seven candidates already have lined up to run for his 52nd Assembly District seat in the June 5 primary election.

Sal Russo, Hill’s campaign consultant, said attacks against Hill “lacked credibility.” Voters in the Whittier area, which Hill has represented in the Assembly for eight years, “knew him too well” for the criticism to undermine his reputation, Russo said.

The unofficial results were: Hill, 15,043 votes, or 22.8%; Gil Ferguson, 14,123, or 21.4%; Ron Isles, 11,827, or 18%; Gary Miller, 10,310, or 15.6%; Graham, 9,357, or 14.2%; Bradley McFadden, 3,056, or 4.6%; Thomas Whaling, 1,489, or 2.3%; and Robert Lewis, 683, or 1%.

Nearly half of Hill’s votes came from absentee ballots, according to election officials in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Orange County officials Wednesday said they were still counting another 500 absentee ballots.

Russo acknowledged that “the absentees certainly were a help.” Of Hill’s absentee ballots, 5,559 or about 70% were cast in Los Angeles County.

The Senate campaign was the third special election in recent months where absentee ballots played an important role.

Last week in Modesto, Democrat Sal Canella won a special Assembly election on a heavy tide of mail-in ballots. Canella was running to fill a vacancy created by the election of Assemblyman Gary Condit (D-Ceres) to Congress. Condit, too, fashioned his victory four months ago with a heavy reliance on absentee ballots.

Harvey Englander, a campaign consultant to Republican Isles, a Brea city councilman, said Hill’s campaign was able to get off to a faster start than other candidates in encouraging voters to file absentee ballots.

Englander cited a letter Hill mailed early in the campaign that erroneously implied that he had been endorsed by former Sen. Campbell. The letter included an absentee ballot application, which Englander and other consultants said could have provided a boost to Hill’s campaign.

Another factor in the outcome was a last-minute mailer sent out by a Sacramento-based Republican group to promote Democrat Graham’s candidacy, Englander said. Sources said the purpose had been to help Hill by heading off Democrats who might defect to Isles over the abortion issue. Isles was the only pro-choice Republican in the race.

Bob Gouty, a consultant to Republican Miller, a Diamond Bar city councilman, said the low turnout of 17% and the number of hard-core Republicans who did vote played a pivotal role in the result. “They will generally vote for some sort of incumbent,” Gouty said. Hill already represents “a large part of the district,” and many Republicans in Los Angeles County treated him as the incumbent, Gouty said.

Democratic legislative staffers privately have dismissed the chances of Graham or any other Democrat of winning the runoff because of the Republicans registration edge.

“No doubt at all, (Hill will) win the runoff,” Englander agreed. But, he maintained, if Hill is indicted in the political corruption investigation “all bets are off,” and there could be a write-in campaign mounted by another Republican.

American Independent Party candidate Robert Lewis will also be in the runoff.

Meanwhile, seven Republicans, including Hill, have filed papers indicating their intention to run for the 52nd Assembly District. A Hill campaign official indicated that Hill’s filing was a mistake.

The other Republicans who have filed are Kenneth Manning, a member of the Hacienda-La Puente Unified School District who said Stuart Spencer, an adviser to former President Reagan, will oversee his campaign; Wil Baca and Jim Baker, both of Hacienda Heights; Jack Dortignac of West Covina; Phil Mautino of Whittier and Tony Russo, a former aide to Hill.

One Democrat, Gary Neely of Diamond Bar, has filed papers with the county to run for the seat.