COUNTY ELECTIONS / NEW FACES : 72ND ASSEMBLY DISTRICT : Overachiever Umberg Soars to Higher Rank

Neighbors on the quiet suburban street where Assemblyman-elect Tom Umberg grew up must have known he was the kind of boy who had dreams bigger than Lombard, Ill. He was class president in high school and captain of the wrestling team.

And as soon as he was old enough--17--he signed up with the Army ROTC.

It might have been the Hollywood story of a hometown prep star who ships out in uniform before he can even shave. But that was another generation. Umberg enlisted in 1973, just weeks before President Richard M. Nixon told a divided nation that he was calling American troops back from Vietnam.

Umberg got bewildered looks, even from friends, when he joined the Army. And when he arrived that fall at the University of Colorado, he saw the hostility that he had only heard about in Lombard. One student spit on him as he walked across campus in his uniform.

“I knew the mood of the country wasn’t exactly patriotic,” said Umberg, now 35. “But that was a real eye-opener, that somebody would have that intense of a feeling about me. That was when I had chosen sides and I was in the fray.”

In high school and throughout his life, Umberg has had an overachiever’s confidence that has led him to remain an outsider even in jobs where he excelled. His friends say it’s an appetite for challenge that he pursues with relentless zeal.

At a young age he rose to an Army rank--captain--that would have led many to consider a military career. But instead, Umberg left after eight years of full-time service to become an assistant U.S. attorney in Orange County in 1987.

During his three years there, Umberg again proved himself capable of establishing another bright career track. He prosecuted several major drug crimes as well as a high-profile civil rights case involving a cross-burning in Westminster.

But Tuesday, Democrat Umberg established another lifetime milestone when he won one of California’s most hotly contested legislative seats by defeating Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove).

Umberg campaigned hard as an independent soul who promised to kick Sacramento’s “liberal” Democratic leadership in the shins rather than add another vote to their pool--once again the outsider. Some of his backers think that new moderate-to-conservative attitude may be just what the Democratic Party needs.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) said Umberg’s election shows that “Democrats can appeal to mainstream working men and women of both parties if they’re right on issues like personal freedoms.”

“I think that’s a very good message for Democrats to be putting out,” said Katz.