Lewis Advances to 35th Senate Runoff Election

Assemblyman John R. Lewis, a 10-year veteran legislator and one of Sacramento’s most conservative lawmakers, was the top vote-getter in a special election Tuesday to replace former Anaheim state Sen. John Seymour, but he fell short of the 50% margin needed to avoid a runoff.

Lewis will face Democrat Francis X. Hoffman and Libertarian Eric Sprik in a general election on May 14. However, because the 35th Senate District is one of California’s most Republican, Lewis is a heavy favorite to win the seat that Seymour vacated in January when he was appointed to the U.S. Senate.

“I think we can declare a victory now,” Lewis said at a campaign party in Orange along with about 100 supporters. “This feels great; I’m really thrilled.”

Finishing behind Lewis were two of his colleagues in the Assembly--Nolan Frizzelle (R-Fountain Valley) and Doris Allen (R-Anaheim). Orange County Transportation Commissioner Dana Reed, who finished in fourth place, conceded the race after the first absentee ballots were counted.

“It was an excellent campaign on his part. He was clearly better organized than any other candidate,” Reed said of Lewis. “He’s won, and he won fair and square.”

The recession-strapped campaigns were unable to stir much interest among voters, but several candidates aggressively targeted absentee ballots leading to a county record of 21,749 votes cast by mail. Overall voter turnout was 13.8%, election officials said.

Should Lewis win the runoff, Gov. Pete Wilson will have to order another special election to fill his Assembly seat, probably in the fall.

Curt Pringle, who lost his Garden Grove Assembly seat to Democrat Tom Umberg last November, is rumored to be considering another run for the Assembly if Lewis is elected to the Senate. Pringle, who attended the campaign party for Lewis Tuesday night, declined to comment on the Assembly race, adding that he would not make any announcement until after the runoff in May.

“I’m really here supporting a friend of mine who would make a great state senator,” Pringle said. “What happens after that is after.”

Gov. Wilson ordered Tuesday’s special election in January after he appointed Seymour to fill his U.S. Senate seat. Eight Republicans, one Democrat and one Libertarian candidate entered the race.

The other candidates were: Republicans William A. Dougherty, John S. Parise, Charles V. Smith and Jim Wronski. Seymour’s district covers most of the cities of Anaheim, Orange, Villa Park, Costa Mesa, Tustin and Fountain Valley, as well as parts of Irvine, Huntington Beach and Santa Ana.

One of the issues at stake in the race was abortion--Seymour was the only one of 11 Republicans in the county’s legislative delegation to support a woman’s right to abortion. Before Tuesday’s election, state abortion-rights groups said they counted 24 of the state’s 40 senators as supporting abortion rights.

Of the four Republican front-runners in Tuesday’s election, only Reed supported abortion rights. The issue was a key part of his strategy as he tried to lump Lewis, Frizzelle and Allen together as abortion opponents and “career politicians.”

What made the race so competitive, though, was that all four of the front-runners drew their strength from different bases.

Lewis and Frizzelle expected big support from voters in their Assembly districts because both substantially overlap the Senate district. On the other hand, they both competed for votes from conservative voters.

Reed and Allen, meanwhile, both sought moderate Republican and Democratic voters. Reed used the abortion issue, while Allen sought support from her background as an activist on education and environmental issues.

For weeks, the contest among the 10 candidates was surprisingly quiet, largely due to the inability of any campaign to raise a substantial amount of money. While four candidates combined in a special Senate race in Orange County last year to spend nearly $2 million, all of the campaigns in the 35th District race combined will probably spend less than $500,000.

In the latest financial statements, Reed showed the largest bank account with a total of about $150,000, with Lewis second at about $115,000. Allen reported that she has raised about $49,000 and Frizzelle reported about $31,000.

In the final week of the race, controversy erupted when Reed attacked Lewis in a letter raising several controversies that have surrounded Lewis’ political career, including his indictment in 1989 for allegedly forging former President Ronald Reagan’s signature on campaign literature; a reprimand he received in 1980 from the county’s Republican Party, and his alleged role in a controversial decision in 1988 to hire uniformed guards at polling places in Santa Ana.

Lewis’ forgery indictment was later overturned by an appeals court, and he denies that he ever played a role in the so-called poll guard case. His campaign acknowledged that Lewis was reprimanded by the county Republican Party, but it took issue with Reed’s use of the term “censure.”

Lewis complained to the Republican Party Central Committee about Reed’s mailer, and the party’s executive committee later reprimanded Reed for violating its campaign code of conduct.

This week, two other controversial letters were mailed to voters.

In one, opponents of Lewis charged that he tried to circumvent campaign laws that limit individual contributions to less than $1,000. Under a recent court ruling, the contribution limit applies to special election campaigns but not to those during regular-year elections.

Lewis sent a letter to voters late last week that was funded by the “John Lewis for Senate ‘92” committee, for which contributions apparently are unlimited. The letter included the phrase, “For State Senate: John Lewis,” but the assemblyman’s campaign staff said that was referring to the election next year, when the seat is up for grabs, not to Tuesday’s special election.

In an unrelated mailer sent to voters this week, a Republican committee that backs conservative candidates statewide paid for a letter urging support for Democratic candidate Francis X. Hoffman. Some strategists involved in the election said they believe the letter was intended to prevent Democrats from voting for one of the moderate Republican candidates.

The race in the 35th Senate District was one of three Tuesday to fill two vacancies in the state Senate and one in the Assembly. Twenty-four candidates, including four members of the Assembly and the wife of state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, were running for the three seats.

In Northern California’s sprawling, 13-county 1st Senate District, Republican Assemblyman Tim Leslie of Auburn was less than 3% away from winning outright without a scheduled May 14 runoff.

Leslie had 47.1% of the total in a race against three other Republicans, two Democrats and a Libertarian.

The seat became vacant after Republican John Doolitle was elected to Congress last November.

In San Joaquin County’s 26th Assembly District, Republican Dean Andal of Stockton had 31.8% of the early vote to 25.6% for Democrat Patti Garamendi, in a seven-candidate race.

The vacancy results from John Garamendi’s election to the newly created post of insurance commissioner.

Times staff writer Anita M. Cal and correspondents Lisa Mascaro and Shannon Sands contributed to this report.

EDITION TIME ELECTION RETURNS

Special Election

State Senate

DISTRICT 35

100% Precincts Reporting Votes % *Republican John R. Lewis 12,722 29.9 Nolan Frizzelle 7,563 17.8 Doris Allen 6,746 15.8 Dana Reed 5,813 13.7 William A. Dougherty 2,513 5.9 Charles V. Smith 1,123 2.6 Jim Wronski 584 1.4 John S. Parise 483 1.1 *Democratic Francis X. Hoffman 4,518 10.6 *Libertarian Eric Sprik 516 1.2

If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, a runoff election between the top vote-getters in each party will be held May 14.