Republican Lewis Wins Seymour’s Vacant State Senate Seat : Ballot: GOP, in winning two other special elections, defeats Patti Garamendi, wife of state insurance commissioner. Orange County voters reject tax measure aimed at raising money for new jails.

Republican Assemblymen John R. Lewis of Orange and Tim Leslie of Auburn, in Northern California, won state Senate seats in special elections Tuesday.

Another Republican, Stockton businessman Dean Andal, was elected to the state Assembly over Democrat Patti Garamendi, wife of state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, in their San Joaquin County district.

Lewis, one of Orange County’s most conservative and controversial political figures, had an easy victory in an election to replace John Seymour in the 35th Senate District.

Orange County voters handed Sheriff Brad Gates a defeat as they overwhelmingly voted against Measure J, a half-cent sales tax initiative that would have raised revenues for a new jail to relieve overcrowding. With absentee ballots and nearly 88% of the 924 precincts reporting, about 73% of the voters rejected the measure, while about 27% said yes.

Seymour’s seat was vacated last January when Gov. Pete Wilson appointed the former mayor of Anaheim to fill his U.S. Senate seat.

With 87% of the vote counted in the Orange County district, Lewis led his Democratic opponent, Frank X. Hoffmann, by 68% to 26%, with Libertarian Erik Sprik, a Costa Mesa businessman, trailing with 5%. Hoffman, 42, is an attorney and a trustee on the Orange County Board of Education who lives in Garden Grove. Sprik, 38, of Costa Mesa owns a dry-cleaning business.

Lewis has been expected to win California’s most heavily Republican state Senate district ever since he defeated seven other GOP candidates--including two colleagues from the Assembly--in a primary last March.

“I’m excited. I feel real good,” Lewis said at a victory party in Orange shortly after the polls closed. “I wouldn’t say I expected this, but I was always hopeful. I was always one of the front-runners.”

Lewis said he hoped that he could be sworn into his new office Thursday. He said his new constituents can look at his performance in the Assembly to learn about their new senator.

“I campaigned on free enterprise, property rights and less government . . . and I think the voters of my new district are in sync with that,” he said.

The 35th District includes almost all of Anaheim, Orange, Costa Mesa and Fountain Valley, as well as parts of Irvine, Westminster, Tustin and Huntington Beach.

In final unofficial returns in the 1st Senate District, which stretches over 13 Northern California counties, Leslie defeated his Democratic opponent, Siskiyou County Supervisor Patti Mattingly, by 55% to 43%, with Libertarian Gary Dusseljee trailing with 2%.

The Senate contests could have had statewide repercussions if a Democratic nominee had won either seat because Democrats are one vote short of the 27, or two-thirds majority, needed to override a Wilson veto.

In final unofficial returns in Stockton’s 26th Assembly District, Andal defeated Garamendi by 56% to 42%, with Libertarian Debra Klohs DeZarn trailing with 2%.

Republican Andal’s victory was the only upset among the three races, as Democrats had a 20.5% registration advantage in the district.

The vacancy in the Stockton Assembly seat also was caused indirectly by last fall’s elections. John Garamendi resigned from the Senate to run for state Insurance Commissioner, triggering a special election for his Senate seat. Assemblyman Pat Johnston defeated Patti Garamendi for the Senate, and Garamendi then ran for Johnston’s Assembly seat.

Times staff writer Maria Newman contributed to this story.