Potential L.A. Challengers Analyzing Farrell’s Loss : 48th District: Hopefuls for his City Council seat are now looking for signs of a political wounding.

Just hours after Robert Farrell’s stunning loss to Marguerite Archie-Hudson in the 48th Assembly District Democratic primary election Tuesday, potential challengers for his seat on the Los Angeles City Council were analyzing the race, looking for signs of a political wounding.

With Farrell having to face voters in just 10 months--he has indicated that he will run for a fifth consecutive term representing the 8th Council District--friend and foe alike were eager to know just what the defeat will mean for a politician seen by some as already vulnerable on his own turf. Farrell did not have to give up his council seat to run for the Assembly.

Farrell, after his concession speech Tuesday night, brushed off questions about how theloss might affect his political future.

Asked if he would try to retain his council seat, he responded, “Why wouldn’t I?”

Others, however, said the outcome of the primary may have hurt him.

“It may mean the voters showed a lack of confidence in his leadership abilities and decided he didn’t deserve a promotion to Sacramento,” said community activist Kerman Maddox, who has already formed a committee to study his chances in a run for the 8th District seat.

The huge size of Farrell’s loss to Archie-Hudson--15 percentage points--shows, Maddox said, that there may be “a continued erosion” of Farrell’s support in the 8th, which makes up about a third of the 48th Assembly District.

On Tuesday, the voters gave Archie-Hudson 9,724 votes (45% of the total) to Farrell’s 6,563 (30.3%).

Mark Ridley-Thomas, a Farrell supporter in the primary who was considering running in the April, 1991, 8th Council District race had Farrell won Tuesday, said he is now presented “with a new set of dynamics.”

“What has to happen now is a serious analysis of the 8th District proper,” said Ridley-Thomas, executive director of the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

His candidacy, he said, will now “depend on whether the voters were saying we prefer (Farrell) being a councilperson rather than an assemblyman” or something else.

Some observers, however, said there was little ambiguity in the voters’ message.

Farrell has “been sent a shot across the bow,” veteran political analyst Joe Cerrell said. “He has a warning: ‘You better start working now real hard for reelection.’ ”

Cerrell said it did not help that questions arose late in the race about whether Farrell lives in the 48th District.

However, Cerrell said he did not view the blow to Farrell as fatal.

“It’s like a person who has a mild heart attack. It’s not a good thing, but it gives you a warning. I think he (will get) reelected.”

Farrell’s campaign manager, Marcella Howell, said: “Lots of people try for higher office and lose, but in my experience rarely does that affect their incumbency in another office.”