46TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT : Friedman Has Slim Lead in Democratic Race; 1,000 Votes Yet to Be Tallied

In a battle between two powerful and well-financed political groups for a vacant state Assembly seat, Deputy City Controller Barbara Friedman was the apparent winner of the Democratic nomination by 114 votes, although as many as 1,000 absentee ballots remained to be counted in the 46th Assembly District.

A spokesman for Friedman, 41, said Wednesday, “We feel that we’ve won.” In an interview later, Friedman added that she was “cautiously optimistic” that her lead would be sustained and that she would become the official Democratic nominee for the district seat in a July 30 runoff.

John Emerson, 37, a deputy city attorney and the runner-up in Tuesday’s special election, did not concede, however. Emerson campaign officials believed there was some hope of overcoming Friedman on the basis of the absentee ballots expected to be tallied Monday or Tuesday. “Basically, anything can happen,” an Emerson aide said.

In Wednesday’s unofficial count, Friedman had 16.4% of the vote to Emerson’s 15.8%.

Candidates of the Republican, Libertarian and Peace and Freedom parties all were unopposed in Tuesday’s special election and will enter the four-way runoff. But the Democratic nominee will be the overwhelming favorite because the district’s voter registration is so heavily Democratic.

Throughout the two-month-long campaign, Friedman and Emerson had been considered the front-runners in a field of 12 Democrats. They had battled to succeed Assemblyman Mike Roos in representing the ethnically and racially diverse district that runs along the western and northern portions of downtown Los Angeles. Roos resigned in March after 14 years to direct a Los Angeles citizens education reform group.

Friedman, a former community worker and labor union aide, had the backing of the political organization of Reps. Henry Waxman and Howard Berman and of organized labor. Emerson, who helped direct former Sen. Gary Hart’s 1987-88 presidential campaign, was supported by a more loosely organized association of Democrats that included entertainment industry figures and development interests. He is a former law associate of Charles T. Manatt, the onetime state and national Democratic chairman, and of former Sen. John V. Tunney of California.

Their opponents included Keith Umemoto, 35, a former legislative aide who was supported by state Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) and Jill Halverson, 49, whose campaign received financial contributions from many of the same downtown interests that had helped support the Downtown Women’s Center she founded in 1978. But Umemoto finished sixth and Halverson ninth.

Both Waxman and Roberti have represented portions of the 46th District for years. Friedman formerly worked for Assemblyman Burt Margolin, a Waxman-Berman ally whose district adjoins the 46th on the West.

Emerson’s campaign generally had a higher profile. But one Emerson aide said the political campaign firm of Michael Berman and Carl D’Agostino, which works largely for Waxman-Berman candidates, did a good job of targeting likely Friedman voters and getting them to the polls. “Nobody’s better” at get-out-the vote drives, he said.

T. S. Chung, 35, a lawyer and 1970 immigrant backed by Koreatown businesses, ran a strong third by billing himself as the most conservative of the Democratic candidates. Joselyn Geaga Yap, 44, director of a counseling center and an immigrant from the Philippines, was fourth. Bob Burke, 48, a lawyer and activist who was seeking to be the first openly gay person elected to the Legislature, ran fifth.

The large field drew a heavy turnout for the 46th District, which had one of the worst voting histories of all 80 state Assembly districts. While the citywide turnout was about 18%, more than 30% of the district’s 62,000 registered voters cast ballots.