ELECTIONS: ASSEMBLY : Elder, Floyd Wary Despite Big Edge Over Challengers : Campaign: Democratic incumbents in the 53rd and 57th districts say they aren't taking their under-funded, little-known Republican foes for granted.

By GEORGE HATCH

Oct. 21, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Blessed with weak opposition and solid advantages in party registration and campaign cash, Democrats Richard E. Floyd and Dave Elder look set to retain command of the South Bay’s central and southern Assembly districts.

The experience is a welcome one for Floyd, who survived a costly and accusation-filled reelection fight in the 53rd Assembly District two years ago against Republican Charles Bookhammer, a Hawthorne city councilman.

Floyd’s GOP opponent this year, Kevin B. Davis of Lawndale, is little known in the district. Davis, who has collected only $1,000, says his main reason for running is that no other Republican would enter the race.

But Floyd is taking no chances. As of Sept. 30, the five-term incumbent had raised $125,000 in campaign money--more than any of the six other South Bay state legislators up for election this year.

“(Davis) may just be lying in the bushes, waiting to spring in the final weeks,” Floyd said warily. “I’m just preparing to meet the onslaught.”

Elder also faces a little-known and poorly financed opponent. Republican challenger Rodney D. Guarneri refuses to communicate with the press except by mail and has notified election officials that he expects to raise less than $1,000.

But Elder, like Floyd, is not counting his ballots before they’re cast. The six-term incumbent is making frequent public appearances in his district and had raised $89,000 in campaign money as of Sept. 30. Said Elder: “We never take anything for granted.”

Floyd, 59, is running for reelection in a largely blue-collar district that includes north Redondo Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, Carson, Gardena, Harbor Gateway and part of Harbor City.

His campaign platform is simple: “My theme is that I’ve represented the district for 10 years and I’ve done a damn good job.”

Asked for examples, Floyd cites his persistent--but so far unsuccessful--efforts to force the Deukmejian Administration to allow a disputed piece of state property in Hawthorne to be sold to the city as open space.

The narrow, mile-long property, a dusty and trash-strewn vacant strip between Glasgow Place and the San Diego Freeway, has remained an eyesore for years as Hawthorne and the state have debated its future.

He also points to his support for increased state funding for schools, prenatal care and emergency care--programs, he asserts, that have been shortchanged by the Deukmejian Administration. And Floyd cites his opposition to ballot proposals that, in his view, would damage his district.

One, he says, is Proposition 128, or “Big Green,” an initiative on the Nov. 6 ballot that would impose new environmental controls in areas ranging from timber cutting to pesticide use.

He says Proposition 128 would hurt industry and cost jobs--a problem, he charges, that the initiative’s sponsors ignore.

“Here again, we’ve got a proposal that’s going to make life hard for the working people,” Floyd said. “It’s the elitists that want to go backpacking who support this thing. It’s over-age hippies in their last gasp. It’s . . . limousine liberals and movie stars.”

Floyd also opposes the term limits for state legislators contained in two propositions on the fall ballot. He argues that inexperienced lawmakers would fall prey to special interests.

Said Floyd: “The lobbyists are going to come in, write the bills, and say, ‘Hey, here we go.’ ”

However, Davis, Floyd’s 31-year-old challenger, calls term limits “an awesome idea.” He predicts that they would prompt an influx of highly motivated lawmakers intent on “accomplishing something” in Sacramento.

Davis said he has not yet decided how he will vote on Big Green. He expresses concern about the measure’s possible economic costs but says the measure might still be useful as a first step toward providing California increased environmental protection.

“I’m not sure Big Green is the best way to start, but it is a start,” said Davis, comptroller for a Marina del Rey direct-mail firm that sells vitamins and hair-replacement tonic.

The Republican also takes issue with Floyd’s view that problems plaguing schools, health care and other key social services have been due in large part to the insensitivity of the Deukmejian Administration.

“I don’t think it’s that Deukmejian doesn’t care,” Davis said. He added, “I think it’s that the Legislature is not doing its job” by failing to streamline state programs so they provide more services with less money.

In the mainly working-class 57th Assembly District, Elder is seeking to retain control of political turf that includes Wilmington, part of Harbor City, most of San Pedro and the western portions of Long Beach.

Though poorly financed, GOP challenger Guarneri, a 37-year-old welfare case worker, has printed a campaign flyer expressing, among other things, his support for tighter restrictions on abortion and his opposition to tax increases.

The flyer also includes portions of a May 13 news report that Elder came under the scrutiny of state prosecutors in 1988 for allegedly allowing an aide to raise campaign money for Controller Gray Davis during working hours.

A subsequent report said state officials decided against investigating the matter formally because a key informant’s assertions could not be confirmed--information that was not contained in Guarneri’s flyer.

Elder says he knew nothing about the alleged fund raising by aide Susan Grivas, who no longer works for him.

“I was victimized,” he said Friday. “Here was someone who did not advise me” about what she was doing.

Elder, formerly an opponent of abortion, now says he supports abortion rights and public funding for abortions. According to voting records, Elder opposed public funding for abortions as recently as last year.

In an interview, he indicated that the shift is due to his increasing awareness of the problems--particularly inadequate health care--that would face low-income women forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term.

“Our medicine for the poor has become Third World medicine,” Elder said. “My position (on abortion) has more or less evolved over time because as I’ve been confronted with the realities of what’s provided for mothers and children. . . . It’s abysmal.”

On the issue of taxes, Elder says he backs Proposition 126, which would boost liquor levies on wine and beer by 20 cents per gallon and on spirits by $3.30 a gallon to raise more money for government operations. He also favors modifying Social Security taxes so that low- and middle-income earners will pay less than they do now and high income-earners will pay more.

Elder said he doubts that Guarneri will pose a serious threat, given his opponent’s low name recognition and fund-raising totals. But to be safe, he said, he will continue campaigning.

Elder added: “We don’t do our campaigning based on what other people do.”

53RD ASSEMBLY DISTRICT

Candidate: Party

Richard E. Floyd (inc.): Democrat

Kevin B. Davis: Republican

Voter Registration Registered Percent Democrat 78,719 59.2% Republican 39,462 29.7 Independent 12,118 9.1 Minor parties* 2,715 2.0 Total 133,014

* American Independent, Peace and Freedom, Libertarian and miscellaneous

1988 Results Votes Percent Richard E. Floyd (D) (inc.) 55,317 58.7% Charles Bookhammer (R) 38,935 41.3

57TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT

Candidate: Party

Dave Elder (inc.): Democrat

Rodney D. Guarneri: Republican