No Major Hurdles Seen Along Roos’ Reelection Route : 46th District: The assemblyman has outspent his Democratic primary foe by about $217,000 in his bid for an 8th term.

In a low-key race, one Democrat is challenging Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) in the Tuesday primary while two Republican contenders battle for the chance to unseat the veteran legislator.

It appears highly unlikely that any challenger will defeat Roos, 44, speaker pro tem of the California Assembly, who is running for his eighth term representing the 46th District.

The district encompasses Los Feliz, parts of Atwater, Silver Lake, Griffith Park, the mid-Wilshire area and downtown Los Angeles. About 59% of the district’s 63,000 registered voters are Democrats; about 28% are Republicans. The constituency includes large populations of Korean, Armenian, Filipino and Latino voters.

In November, Roos will more than likely win his primary and face the victor in the GOP race, which pits Geoffrey Church against Howard O. Watts. He also will face either Dan Robrish or Robert Taves, who are contending for the Peace and Freedom Party nomination. Libertarian Michael Everling also will be on the ballot.

Roos, well-known and well-financed, normally has won reelection by more than 65% of the voters. So far, he has outspent his Democratic primary opponent, Sal Genovese, by about $217,000--about $240,500 to $23,500.

His Republican and minor party challengers filed forms indicating that they would spend less than $1,000 each on their campaigns.

Genovese, 44, administrator of a private drug and alcohol treatment program, is making a second run for the 46th District seat. Roos defeated him in the 1988 primary with 87% of the vote. But Genovese, like Roos’ Republican challengers, contends that the legislator is out of touch with his constituents and unresponsive to their diverse needs.

Genovese, whose Professional Services Center has an office in Glendale, has run a low-cost, grass-roots campaign consisting mostly of speeches to small citizen or homeowner groups. He, like Roos, is an abortion-rights advocate. But he does not support Roos’ efforts to ban the sale of assault rifles in the state because he considers such legislative measures ineffective, he said.

Roos’ two Republican contenders said they have similar views: Both are antiabortion, for instance, and oppose the ban on assault rifles. But Church, a 27-year-old Los Angeles stockbroker, is a political newcomer whose first campaign has been low-key.

Watts is a 57-year-old disabled Korean War veteran and self-described citizen watchdog who unsuccessfully has run twice for the Assembly and several times for the Los Angeles Board of Education.