Huntington Beach Mayor Enters GOP Primary for Assembly Seat

Moving swiftly to capitalize on his sudden visibility from last month’s oil spill, Mayor Thomas J. Mays announced Wednesday that he will seek the Assembly seat being vacated by conservative Dennis Brown (R-Los Alamitos).

Mays, an ambitious 36-year-old Republican who impressed even top state Democrats with his role in leading efforts to clean up the spill, recently said he was considering making a run someday for higher office, possibly Congress. That changed, however, with Brown’s announcement Monday that he will not seek reelection to the 58th District seat.

“It’s been a crazy couple of days, but late Tuesday I decided the time is right to take a chance and go for it,” Mays said in an interview at Huntington Beach City Hall. “I was setting my sights on 1992, but Dennis’ announcement Monday accelerated my plans. Nobody thought Dennis would bow out.”

All but Brown’s closest friends and political allies were surprised by the veteran lawmaker’s decision not to seek reelection after representing the heavily GOP district since 1978. But Brown, 40, said he wants to pursue other interests, perhaps returning to the brokerage business.

Brown’s exit touched off a scramble to succeed him as the Assembly representative for a district that encompasses Seal Beach, parts of Los Alamitos and Huntington Beach, and parts of Long Beach and Signal Hill in Los Angeles County.

Mays will have competition in the June GOP primary.

Long Beach City Councilwoman Jan Hall announced Wednesday that she too will seek the party’s nomination. Hall is chairwoman of the California Commission on the Status of Women and is a former president of the Southern California Rapid Transit District. She lost in a bid to be elected Long Beach mayor two years ago.

Dr. Seymour Alban of Long Beach, a past president of the Long Beach Medical Assn., and Long Beach Councilman Jeff Kellogg have also been mentioned as possible Republican candidates.

At least two Democrats are expected to mount campaigns for the seat: Joel R. Bishop, 32, a Long Beach computer systems analyst who works for Orange County government, and Luanne Pryor, owner of a public relations business and another unsuccessful candidate for Long Beach mayor in 1988.

Mays is the only Orange County-based candidate in the race so far. In the view of one political consultant, he is the “hottest commodity” among the candidates. The mayor, a lean former surfer with a boyish face, appeared almost daily on national network TV as he answered questions about the oil spill and assessed the impact of the gooey brown crude that washed up on beaches of “Surf City.” About 394,000 gallons of oil spilled from the tanker American Trader on Feb. 7 when it struck one of its own anchors about 1.3 miles southwest of Huntington Beach.

Mays even criticized Gov. George Deukmejian’s refusal to declare the spill a “disaster” that qualified for emergency state assistance.

“I’d say my name I.D. is pretty good right now,” said Mays, a strategic planner and analyst with McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co. “I didn’t want the oil spill. I wish it had never happened. But it did, and I’ve tried to be a voice of calm and reason as well as advocate for protecting this precious coastline. This could have been a major disaster.”

Mays likes to describe himself as a conservative with a “strong bent for the environment.” He contends that “politics and bickering” have stymied attempts by Sacramento lawmakers to make serious headway in solving important environmental concerns, a theme he says will be the centerpiece of his campaign.

Mays opposes using the pesticide malathion to eradicate the Mediterranean fruit fly, and he spearheaded an attempt to halt aerial spraying of the chemical over portions of his city and other Orange County communities. He also endorses the new calls that came in the wake of the oil spill to tighten regulations on the size and number of tankers that can transport petroleum off the thickly settled Southern California coast.

“I will be a freshman in the Assembly, and I won’t get many key committee assignments, but I can yell and scream with the best of them,” said Mays, who majored in political science at UCLA.

Despite his environmentalist leanings, Mays was elected to the City Council in 1986 on a pro-development platform. His critics charge that he pushed for the massive redevelopment of the city’s downtown and waterfront areas, something that many warn will result in traffic congestion and other problems.

A WARNING: State official says the focus should be on preventing oil spills. B6