Election for Roos’ Seat in Assembly Attracts 14 : Politics: Several rivals have strong backing from influential organizations and individuals. Democrats are expected to retain control.

A potent field of Los Angeles political and community activists emerged Monday as filing closed for the June 4 special election to fill the 46th Assembly District seat left vacant by the resignation of Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Mike Roos.

The six-week campaign will feature a clash between prominent Los Angeles political organizations, a battle of skilled professional consultants and campaign managers and a struggle for support within one of the city’s most ethnically and culturally diverse communities. A dozen Democrats, one Republican and one member of the Peace and Freedom Party filed by the 5 p.m. deadline.

Democrats, who hold an edge of more than 2-to-1 among registered voters, are favored to keep the seat. If no candidate wins a majority of the vote on June 4, a runoff will be held July 30, the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder’s office said.

Political insiders said they do not believe any one Democrat has the inside track at this point. But Barbara Friedman, 41, an assistant to City Controller Rick Tuttle and former chief of staff to Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles), kicks off her campaign Thursday with a $250-a-person fund-raising event at a Universal City hotel. The event is sponsored by the high-profile political organization of Reps. Howard Berman and Henry A. Waxman.

Keith Umemoto, 35, who was raised in the Griffith Park area and has been a budget consultant to the Senate Finance Committee, has the support of Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti of Los Angeles. Portions of Roberti’s Senate district overlap the 46th, which includes mid-Wilshire, Griffith Park, part of Hollywood and Silver Lake.

So far, Roos has not endorsed a candidate.

Others who enter the contest with considerable name identification or support generated by their community activism include:

* Bob Burke, 48, a land-use planning expert who is a member of the board of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the nation’s largest lesbian and gay organization.

* Jill Halverson, 49, founder and executive director of the Downtown Women’s Center, described as a national model shelter for chronically disabled Skid Row women.

* John Emerson, 37, chief deputy city attorney since 1987, deputy director of Gary Hart’s 1986-87 presidential campaign and former partner of the politically prominent law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg and Phillips.

* Kathleen A. Torres, 39, director of the Health Careers Opportunity Program at UCLA and a self-described protege of her father, Presiding Judge Ricardo A. Torres of the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

* Michael Cacciotti, 31, a lawyer and former aide to Roos.

The Democratic list also includes:

* Tong Soo Chung, a 1970 immigrant from Korea who was graduated from Harvard, Princeton and the UCLA Law School and is a founding partner of the area’s largest Korean-American law firm.

* Adam B. Schiff, 30, a former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted accused FBI spy Richard Miller.

* Sal Genovese, 45, owner and operator of an alcohol and drug-abuse center who ran for the seat in 1988 and 1990 and for mayor in 1989.

* Jocelyn Geaga Yap, a Philippine-American activist.

* John Ladner.

The other candidates are Republican Jeffrey Church, and Elizabeth Nakano, Peace and Freedom Party.

Roos, 45, resigned his seat after 13 years in the Assembly last month to direct a new nonprofit organization that will study ways to improve the Los Angeles Unified School District.