ELECTIONS : Spotlight on 3 Seats in Assembly : Politics: A crowded ballot awaits San Gabriel Valley voters, but most attention will focus on the three districts where no incumbents are running.

San Gabriel Valley voters on Tuesday will choose nominees for three hotly contested state Assembly seats, decide whether to recall a controversial Pomona councilman and resolve ballot issues in Pomona and Pasadena.

The valley also is expected to play a major role in deciding who replaces longtime 1st District County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, who is retiring. The district stretches over much of the San Gabriel Valley and also encompasses Southeast Los Angeles County cities including Whittier, Downey, Norwalk and Santa Fe Springs.

Party nominees will be chosen in five U.S. congressional districts, four state Senate districts and eight state Assembly districts that serve parts of the San Gabriel Valley, but most of the attention will be focused on contests in the 52nd, 59th and 65th Assembly districts, where no incumbents are running.

Eight Republicans are seeking the 52nd Assembly District seat that was held by Frank Hill until he won election to the state Senate early this year. Hill (R-Whittier) has endorsed Diamond Bar Councilman Paul Horcher for the post, but Hill and others say the race is wide open.

Horcher, 38, is running as a moderate conservative. Both Kenneth Manning, a 37-year-old contractor and member of the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District board, and Tony Russo, 27, who has served as an aide to three assemblymen, claim to be the most conservative candidate.

Wil Baca, 49, an engineer and businessman from Hacienda Heights, has strong support from environmental groups. Wayne Grisham, 67, of La Mirada, is attempting a political comeback after serving in Congress and the Assembly. Phil Mautino, 50, who practices law in Whittier and lives in La Habra Heights, has emphasized his membership on a hospital board and other community service.

Jim Baker, 61, a loan representative from Hacienda Heights, has campaigned on a platform of political ethics, refusing to take campaign contributions, and Jack Dortignac, 33, of West Covina, a father of seven, promises to protect family values.

In November, the winner of the Republican primary will face Gary L. Neely, a marketing executive from Diamond Bar, who is unopposed for the Democratic nomination. The 52nd District, which stretches from La Mirada to West Covina and includes Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights, Diamond Bar and Walnut, has 155,201 registered voters, with Republicans outnumbering Democrats 74,029 to 65,722.

In the 59th Assembly District, voters will choose a replacement for Charles M. Calderon, who resigned after winning election to the state Senate.

The Democratic candidates are Xavier Becerra, a state deputy attorney general; Bill Edward Hernandez, a member of the Rio Hondo College board of trustees; Marta Maestas, who served as Calderon’s district representative for seven years; Diane Martinez, a member of the Garvey school board; and Larry Salazar, a business marketing consultant.

The race has split Latino leadership. Martinez, 37, is being supported by her father, Rep. Matthew G. Martinez (D-Monterey Park) and several other congressmen. Maestas, 47, has the backing of Calderon. Becerra, 32, a former aide to state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), has the senator’s endorsement. And Hernandez, 41, is being backed by longtime friend U.S. Rep. Esteban E. Torres (D-La Puente). Salazar, 33, of Montebello, is the only candidate without a well-known officeholder in his corner.

The Republican Party nomination is also up for grabs in the 59th District. Steven Kipp of Monterey Park is running against Leland Lieberg of Alhambra.

Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2 to 1 in the district, which stretches across the southwestern part of the San Gabriel Valley, taking in Alhambra, Montebello, Monterey Park, South El Monte and Pico Rivera.

In the 65th District, which is mostly in San Bernardino County but includes part of Pomona, three candidates are hoping to succeed Assemblyman Charles Bader (R-Pomona), who is giving up the seat to run against state Sen. Ruben S. Ayala (D-Chino) this fall. Bader has endorsed Jim Brulte, 34, of Ontario, his former chief of staff. Pomona Councilman Mark A. T. Nymeyer, 37, is competing with Brulte for the Republican nomination. Robert Erwin, a Chino businessman, is unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Republicans hold the edge among registered voters, 92,010 to 74,311.

The nonpartisan supervisorial race has attracted 10 candidates, but most of the attention has gone to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gregory O’Brien, a Glendora resident who has Schabarum’s endorsement; Sarah Flores, a longtime aide to Schabarum who has the backing of Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Deane Dana and also lives in Glendora; former Congressman Jim Lloyd of West Covina; Monrovia Mayor Robert Bartlett; and Pomona Councilwoman Nell Soto. Unless one candidate receives a majority of the votes, the two top finishers will compete in a runoff in November.

Voters in Pasadena and Pomona will cast ballots on several local issues.

A yearlong campaign to recall Pomona Councilman C. L. (Clay) Bryant will end with a decision by voters Tuesday. Mayor Donna Smith and Councilman Tomas Ursua support the recall, which began last spring when the council fired A. J. Wilson as city administrator. It gathered momentum a few months later when the council fired Police Chief Richard Tefank. Ursua voted with Bryant on both those decisions, but has since split with him. Ursua said Bryant has heaped abuse on the city staff, created crisis after crisis at City Hall and “severely impeded rational policy-making.”

Bryant said he is opposed by a “hate group” that is trying to gain power and that he has served the city well by watching expenditures closely, helping citizens with their problems and focusing on the needs of the disadvantaged.

Pomona voters will cast ballots on three measures that could revamp city government. Proposition M asks whether the current governing board of four council members and a mayor, all elected citywide, should be replaced with a district election system. Propositions N and O offer two alternatives to be implemented if Proposition M passes. Proposition N would create seven council districts, and council members would choose a mayor from among themselves. Proposition O would create six council districts and provide for the mayor, as the seventh board member, to be elected in a citywide vote.

In Pasadena, voters will cast ballots on Proposition K, which makes minor changes in the Growth Management Initiative approved by voters last year, and on Proposition L, which would raise the compensation for members of the city Board of Directors from $50 a meeting to $935 a month and tie future increases to the inflation rate.

The San Gabriel Valley’s other partisan races involve incumbents who are running unopposed for their party’s nominations.

Four state senators whose districts serve parts of the San Gabriel Valley will have no competition from within their parties Tuesday. They are Sens. Don Rogers (R-Bakersfield), Art Torres, Calderon and Ayala.

Three Democrats are competing for the right to run against Rogers in the 16th District, which extends from Kings County to parts of Pasadena and Altadena. The candidates are Ray Gonzales, a former assemblyman; Carl Bryan, a businessman; and Robert Spencer, a teacher and school board member. All are residents of Bakersfield.

Two Republicans are on the ballot in the 24th state Senate District, which includes South Pasadena. They are Keith Marsh, 46, a Los Angeles attorney, and Don E. Carney, 38, who produces educational videos and lives in South Pasadena. The winner will run against Torres in November.

Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) is unopposed in the Republican primary, but two Democrats are competing for the right to face him in November. They are Jeanette Mann, 53, director of affirmative action at Cal State Northridge and a trustee with the Pasadena Community College District, and Rod McKenzie, 52, a professor of geography at USC. Mann has the party’s endorsement in the district, which takes in a large part of Pasadena and Altadena.

All five of the San Gabriel Valley’s congressmen are running unopposed for their party nominations Tuesday. They are Reps. David Dreier (R-La Verne), Martinez, Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale), Edward R. Roybal (D-Los Angeles) and Esteban E. Torres (D-La Puente).

Garry Martino Hamud, 42, an attorney who lives in Hacienda Heights, and Georgia Houston Webb, 39, senior assistant director of admissions at Scripps College in Claremont, are competing for the Democratic nomination to run against Dreier in the 33rd Congressional District.

Webb has the party’s official endorsement and is running on a platform that includes a comprehensive health care system, abortion rights, fair taxation and emphasis on early childhood education. Hamud’s platform is similar, including support for abortion rights, and he favors limitations on terms of office and political donations.

In the 22nd Congressional District, David Bayer, 45, director of adult education for the Burbank Unified School District, and Thomas G. Vournas, 66, an Altadena teacher, are seeking the Democratic nomination to run against Moorhead, who has been in office for 18 years. Bayer has the party’s official endorsement.

In the heavily Democratic 25th Congressional District, where Roybal has been in office since 1962, Alexander Swift Justice, 46, a Pasadena gem cutter, is competing with Steven J. Renshaw, 31, a Los Angeles attorney, for the Republican nomination.