LOCAL ELECTIONS 29TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT : Three Face Uphill Battle Against Waters : Primary race: Assemblywoman says she’s taking no chances despite high expectations. She won’t appear with opponents, and says record speaks for itself.

One is a novice whose campaign office is in a barbecue restaurant in Watts. Another insists he is a true-blue Democrat, but ran for two offices as a Republican in recent years in order, he says, to “infiltrate the enemy camp.” The third has his feet planted solidly on the political fringe.

Barring a political earthquake of double-digit Richter-scale proportions, none of the three has a chance of accomplishing his goal--defeating Assemblywoman Maxine Waters in next month’s Democratic primary for Rep. Augustus Hawkins’ 29th Congressional District seat.

Democrat Hawkins, 82, decided to retire after 28 years in the office; Waters, 51, long has been viewed in local political circles as his obvious successor.

Some political observers expect Waters, who reports having so far spent about $40,000 on the race, to walk away with as much as 95% of the vote in an area that significantly overlaps the Assembly district to which she has been repeatedly reelected the last 14 years.

“You take her experience and add the kind of money she’s raised, it’s a slam dunk,” said Joe Cerrell, a veteran Los Angeles political consultant. “The only way she could have it better is if she had nobody at all running against her.”

Said Roderick Wright, a former Waters aide who is running for her Assembly seat: “Every vote Maxine gets under 90% would be a cause for concern.”

Their comments reflect the conventional wisdom in and out of Waters’ camp. But such thinking has not deterred Twain M. Wilson, a newcomer to politics who says he represents those who will supplant old-style black politicians, among whom he includes Waters; Lionel Allen, who is running for a third congressional seat in a four-year period; and Ted Andromidas, a Lyndon LaRouche Democrat who plans to “cause trouble” in Congress if he manages to get there.

They are hoping for the kind of upset boxer Buster Douglas engineered after he climbed into the ring with heavyweight champ Mike Tyson.

Indeed, Douglas serves as a role model for at least one of the candidates. Allen, in touting his prospects, insists, “I know nobody believes us, but Buster Douglas said he was going to shock the world and nobody believed him.”

Allen, a 33-year-old financial consultant and real estate developer, said he was a registered Democrat until 1986, when he ran unsuccessfully as a Republican in the 28th Congressional District primary. He also was unsuccessful two years later, when he ran in the GOP primary for the 32nd Congressional District seat.

He says he was never a serious Republican, but consciously joined the party and stayed in it five years with the intention of gaining “intelligence.”

Allen, like Wilson and Andromidas, contends that Waters is an integral part of the political, economic and social establishment that has, at the least, stood by impotently, as forces from within and without have eroded the quality of life in much of the 29th District.

They note that portions of the district--which encompasses South-Central Los Angeles, Huntington Park, South Gate and parts of Downey--are plagued by high crime rates, drug trafficking, deteriorating housing, homelessness and joblessness.

Wilson, 26, an independent filmmaker, contends that Waters has done little in her 14 years in the Assembly to rid her 48th Assembly district of such problems. Running his campaign out of Smith’s Barbecue restaurant on 111th at Wilmington, Wilson offers himself as a youthful, energetic alternative.

Andromidas, 40, of Highland Park, accuses American “blue bloods”--among whom he includes Ronald Reagan and George Bush--for perpetrating economic genocide against dark-skinned Americans. He also blames the high incidence of AIDS among poor blacks and Latinos partially on Waters and other mainstream politicians who opposed LaRouche-backed state initiatives that called for public reporting of those carrying the disease’s virus.

Waters, for her part, brushes off the various criticisms from her foes.

“My record speaks for itself,” she said, declining to comment further.

In a tactic commonly used by well-known politicians facing obscure opponents, Waters has avoided appearing on the same stage with her opponents--the one candidates’ night scheduled for the 29th District race was canceled after she declined to attend.

Despite the virtual certainty of her primary win, she insists that she is leaving nothing to chance.

“I walk precincts every Saturday. I have five or six speaking engagements a day,” she said. “In my mind, everything I’ve ever gotten I’ve worked for and I intend to work for this.”