CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / ASSEMBLY DISTRICTS : Mays Wards Off Alban to Win GOP Race in 58th : Primaries: Two Democrats pull off major upsets to face Republican foes, while a third, an incumbent, wins his party’s nomination easily.

Thomas J. Mays, the conservative mayor of Huntington Beach, fended off a strong, well-financed challenge by a moderate from Long Beach to win the Republican nomination in the 58th Assembly District.

“One of the things that is perfectly clear is that you can’t come in and buy an election,” Mays said of his primary victory Tuesday over Long Beach surgeon Seymour Alban in the district stretching from Huntington Beach to Long Beach.

In other Assembly races, two Democrats pulled off major upsets to face Republican opponents in November, while a third, an incumbent, won his party’s nomination easily. And in congressional primaries, two well-known Democrats--including one incumbent--sailed to expected victories in heavily Democratic districts.

The Mays contest with Alban became a free-for-all earlier this year when incumbent Dennis Brown (R-Los Alamitos) announced that he was dropping out of politics after six terms in the Legislature to become a minister.

Mays, who gained valuable public attention as mayor at press conferences and in TV interviews after the Huntington Beach oil spill, and developer Peter von Elten, also from Orange County, went after the seat. Long Beach City Council members Jeffrey A. Kellogg and Jan Hall also entered the race.

Alban, a prominent Long Beach surgeon, ended up waging an expensive and almost-successful campaign emphasizing support for abortion rights and other positions considered liberal by Republican standards.

In the eyes of many, the race became a struggle of special interests in which Alban, heavily backed by the medical community, and Mays, heavily backed by chiropractors, battled over such issues as health insurance, the environment and gun control.

After maintaining silence through most of the campaign, Brown suddenly endorsed Mays last week, describing him as a “hard-working family man, a conservative who shares our values.”

Expressing pleasure at the outcome, Brown said Wednesday that Mays had a more conservative platform than Alban’s and that Republicans in the area tend to be conservative.

But Alban countered that his own strong second-place showing indicates a shift toward moderation in the heavily Republican district. “There are a lot of people who are more moderate than the extremists who have (dominated) the party before,” he said.

And some observers even speculated that Mays’ victory could help Luanne W. Pryor, a Long Beach public relations executive who defeated opponent Joel R. Bishop to win the Democratic primary, by turning the race into a showdown over abortion.

“The district is basically pro-choice,” said Leroy Hardy, a political science professor at Cal State Long Beach who specializes in local issues. “The anti-abortion people are not as strong as many have thought.”

In the 48th Assembly District, which includes parts of South-Central Los Angeles as well as Lynwood and South Gate, Marguerite Archie-Hudson, a UCLA administrator, beat Los Angeles City Councilman Robert Farrell in the Democratic primary. In November, she will face Gloria Salazar, an auditor for the Lynwood Unified School District, who ran unopposed in the Republican primary.

Assemblyman Willard H. Murray Jr. (D-Paramount) won his bid for reelection in District 54, which includes Paramount, Lakewood, Bellflower and parts of Compton. He won despite his opposition to gun control and support for malathion spraying. He will face Emily Hart-Holifield of Compton, winner of the Republican primary.

And in the 59th Assembly District, newcomer Xavier Becerra, a deputy district attorney, astounded political analysts by topping the two leading contenders to win the Democratic primary to succeed longtime representative Charles M. Calderon, now a state senator.

“Eight weeks ago, nobody knew he was,” one campaign worker said. “Now everybody will know.”

In achieving his stunning upset, Becerra defeated Garvey School District board member Diane Martinez and Calderon’s longtime district representative, Marta Maestas.

“I didn’t win the race,” Becerra said. “We won the race.”

In a district that has elected Democrats for the last two decades, Becerra will face Republican primary winner Leland Lieberg and Libertarian candidate Steven Pencell in November.

On the congressional side, the primaries held few surprises.

Longtime Assemblywoman Maxine Waters will succeed retiring Augustus F. Hawkins in the state Senate’s heavily Democratic 29th District if she beats Republican Bill De Witt in November. The district includes South-Central Los Angeles, Huntington Park, Cudahy, Lynwood and South Gate.

In the 42nd Congressional District, Democratic political science instructor Guy C. Kimbrough squeaked by an opponent to take on Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Lomita) in the fall.

And longtime Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton) won easily in the 31st District’s Democratic primary, despite what he called a “propaganda” campaign waged by an opponent. Dymally said the opponent distorted his congressional record to unfairly tie him to African dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, president of Zaire, who has been accused of violating human rights.

The opponent, Inglewood lawyer Lawrence A. Grigsby, was backed by the New Alliance Party, a New York City-based group that critics call a cult. In recent years, NAP has aligned itself with anti-Mobutu forces in this county and in Africa.

The third candidate in the race was Carl E. Robinson, a former Compton College trustee. In November, Dymally will seek his sixth term by facing Eunice N. Sato, a former Long Beach mayor who ran unopposed in the Republican primary. The district runs south from Watts and Willowbrook through such cities as Compton, Lynwood and Carson before ending in North Long Beach.

Staff writers Michele Feutsch, Howard Blume, Bettina Boxall, Tina Griego, Mark Gladstone and Bob Schwartz contributed to this story.