Cranston Has Cancer, Won’t Run in 1992 : Politics: An outspoken advocate of liberal causes, he has been tarnished in the S&L; scandal. He will give up his post as majority whip.

Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), whose illustrious, 32-year career in California politics has been tarnished by the savings and loan scandal, announced Thursday that he has cancer of the prostate and will not seek reelection in 1992.

He also will abandon what has become an uphill bid to continue as Senate majority whip for two more years.

Cranston, 76, said medical experts will determine shortly whether he should undergo surgery or radiation treatment for a type of cancer that is considered highly curable if detected early.

“A positive factor is my otherwise robust health,” Cranston, an avid runner, said in a statement. “The physicians tell me that the cancer is apparently totally curable, but immediate treatment is necessary.”

His surprise withdrawal is sure to unleash a wild scramble to fill two California Senate seats in 1992--both Cranston’s and the one to be given up by Republican Sen. Pete Wilson when he becomes governor. Wilson soon will appoint a successor to an abbreviated, two-year term.

Among the many potential candidates for the Democratic nomination are former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., recently defeated gubernatorial candidate Dianne Feinstein and Reps. Mel Levine of Santa Monica, Barbara Boxer of Greenbrae and Robert T. Matsui of Sacramento.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) called Cranston’s announcement “a sad one for all his colleagues, but especially for me.” He said that he knows the California senator will battle cancer with “the same courage he has always brought to his legislative career.”

In a brief interview, Cranston declined to discuss why he has decided to end a political career that began when he was elected California comptroller in 1958, brought him to the Senate in 1968 and included an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1984.

He pointed to his written statement, which said that “I must concentrate now on defeating this thing (cancer).” In a cheerful aside he added, “More than 90% of the people who get this are cured.”

But Cranston’s medical problem, detected in a routine annual physical examination and confirmed by a biopsy Oct. 15, may not have been the only factor influencing his decision to bow out of politics.

Cranston’s political popularity plummeted last year when the Senate Ethics Committee began investigating charges that he improperly helped S&L; owner Charles H. Keating Jr. battle federal regulators in exchange for large financial contributions to various political causes.

A TV network poll of California voters Tuesday found that the Keating affair had left Cranston’s reputation in shreds. Only 10% thought he should run for reelection; 33% said he should not run and 24% said he should resign now. The others refused to respond.

The veteran senator also faces the almost certain prospect of losing his whip job to Sen. Wendell H. Ford (D-Ky.) at a Senate Democratic caucus election Tuesday. Cranston, who won the post in 1977 largely for his nose-counting skills, acknowledged that he had lined up only 19 of the 29 Democratic senators needed to keep him in the job.

Moreover, Cranston is one of five senators who have been summoned to Ethics Committee hearings next Thursday to answer charges that the lawmakers improperly aided Keating, a major contributor and fund-raiser who has been indicted on fraud charges in connection with his ownership of the failed Lincoln Savings & Loan Assn. based in Irvine.

Cranston has acknowledged that he solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars from Keating while defending him in dealings with federal regulators. But the senator has defended his action, saying that he did nothing illegal or unethical but rather that he was assisting a constituent whose business employed many Southern Californians.

Despite Cranston’s recent difficulties, he will leave a legacy of broad legislative accomplishment that has mixed liberalism with moderate pragmatism.

Beginning with his founding of the California Democratic Council in the 1950s and continuing through his four-term Senate career, Cranston has been an outspoken advocate of liberal causes.

Behind the scenes, he has also labored hard for business interests, ranging from defense and aerospace contractors to growers, movie makers, vintners, independent oil companies, real estate agents and savings and loans.

He has shown a passionate interest in improving civil rights, halting the spread of nuclear weapons, preserving the environment, improving the nation’s housing and providing more benefits for veterans. He chairs the Veterans Affairs Committee and serves on the Foreign Relations and Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committees.

In the 101st Congress that adjourned recently, Cranston was the primary force behind the first housing bill in 20 years--a measure that is expected to provide a blueprint for housing reform over the next decade.

An avid environmentalist, he has been responsible for creating numerous wilderness areas in California and recently has been a leader in the battle to restrict the use of the Mojave Desert.

During the Vietnam War, Cranston made a name for himself by sponsoring legislation that improved the care that returning soldiers received in the nation’s veterans hospitals.

As whip, or assistant Democratic leader, he played a major role in ratification of the Panama Canal Treaty in 1978 and the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987 and helped to delay ratification of the 1979 second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.

He also was a leader in the Senate’s rejection of the nomination of Judge Robert H. Bork in 1987 to serve on the Supreme Court. And he has been an outspoken advocate of sanctions against South Africa, a proponent of nuclear non-proliferation and a staunch supporter of Israel.

In his statement, Cranston indicated that he intends to pursue his goals vigorously for the remainder of his career.

“I look forward to two years in the Senate free of the burdens and the perils of campaigning and fund raising,” he said. “I intend to make them years of great achievement for the people of California and the United States.”

Cranston’s political difficulties began with his failed bid for the presidency in 1984, according to many analysts. His approval ratings back home in California took a nose-dive after he finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses and seventh in the New Hampshire primary. As a result, he barely won reelection to the Senate in 1986 against a tough challenge from Republican Ed Zschau.

It was the endless quest for political contributions that eventually led to Cranston’s problems with the Senate Ethics Committee. A tireless fund-raiser, the California senator raised a then-record $13 million for his 1986 campaign. One of his chief contributors was Keating, who has since become a national symbol of the fraud and mismanagement that destroyed the U.S. thrift industry.

To help Cranston in his 1986 reelection bid, Keating contributed about $35,000 directly to the senator’s campaign and another $85,000 to the California Democratic Party for a get-out-the-vote drive. After his reelection, the senator solicited another $850,000 from Keating for voter registration projects designed to help Democrats around the country.

Keating had good access to Cranston, who with four other senators intervened with federal regulators on behalf of Lincoln in April, 1987. The others are Sens. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.), John Glenn (D-Ohio) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Sources said that Cranston, who has staunchly maintained his innocence from the start of the Ethics Committee investigation last December, recently became discouraged when it appeared that the investigation would continue into next year. Special counsel Robert Bennett, who conducted a preliminary inquiry, has recommended that the committee conduct a more extensive investigation of Cranston, Riegle and DeConcini.

Cranston’s involvement with Keating came as a shock to many of his California supporters, who knew him only as a liberal Democrat and were unaware of his close ties to banking and business interests. At a House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee hearing last year, several elderly California women who had lost money in the Lincoln collapse declared that the senator had betrayed their trust in him.

Not only did Cranston’s popularity in California suffer as a result of the investigation, but fund raising for his 1992 campaign appeared to be lagging. Cranston’s last report to the Federal Election Commission showed that he had $564,808 in his war chest, which he will be permitted under law to distribute to other candidates.

Even Cranston’s personal life appeared to be affected by his political troubles. After divorcing his invalid second wife last year, he fell in love with a Beverly Hills woman, Cathy Lee Pattiz, 49. The two even took out a marriage license last December, but the wedding was called off when Cranston’s sister objected to the match.

In recent months, Cranston has been a frequent companion of Diane Wolf, 36, a New York socialite and a member of the federal Commission on Fine Arts. Last month, Cranston was unable to win passage of legislation promoted by Wolf that would have required the redesign of the penny, nickel, dime, quarter and half-dollar.

Times staff writer Marlene Cimons contributed to this story.