2 Incumbents May Wind Up in 1 District : Remapping: State Supreme Court plan calling for new political boundaries might lump Reps. Elton Gallegly and Robert J. Lagomarsino into the same congressional area.

Ventura County’s two incumbent Republican congressmen may be forced to run against each other next year under new political boundaries unveiled by the California Supreme Court on Monday.

The court’s tentative plan also would shift political districts for the county’s five state legislators, pushing incumbents into unfamiliar areas with voters who may be unsympathetic to their political survival.

Under the plan drawn by special court “masters,” nearly all of Ventura County, plus Carpinteria, would be placed into one congressional district. However, the 104,000-population city of Thousands Oaks, less one precinct, would be pushed into a congressional district in Los Angeles County.

“You’re kidding. I didn’t expect that,” said Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), startled by the news that he might be thrust into a political race with Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura). Lagomarsino, a congressional veteran of 17 years, has been a mentor to Gallegly during his first terms in Congress.

Gallegly said he fully intends to run for Congress again and has no plans to move from his Simi Valley home to represent an adjoining district. “I think it is too early to speculate, not knowing what the demographics are,” he said.

John Doherty, Lagomarsino’s press secretary, said the congressman “feels very comfortable in Ventura County. He is happy at the prospect of not having to move.”

Lagomarsino was forced to move to Ventura from his ranch in Ojai when the Democratic-controlled Legislature gerrymandered him out of his district nine years ago.

“When Lagomarsino was first elected, he represented both Simi Valley and Ventura. He has represented most of the county for nearly 30 years,” Doherty said.

By creating a Ventura County congressional seat, the court would also end the long-anticipated rematch between Lagomarsino and state Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara). The plan would open a new congressional seat covering San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, including Hart’s hometown.

The masters, a panel of three retired judges, designed new congressional and legislative districts to make them more compact and fairer to Latinos or other minority voters than the contorted districts drawn by Democratic legislators nearly a decade ago. The judges also tried to follow county and city boundaries whenever possible.

But the judges paid no attention to where incumbents live or who might be thrust into races together, according to the panel’s chief counsel. The Supreme Court indicated that it will adopt the plan, with possible adjustments, by Jan. 28.

Those district lines will govern state elections through the 1990s unless the Legislature and Gov. Pete Wilson can forge a compromise redistricting plan of their own. The court took over the redistricting process when Wilson and the Legislature reached a stalemate this fall.

“I think the chances of a legislative agreement will increase after everyone has had a chance to digest these proposed lines,” said Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria). “I hope that this is the motivation that the Legislature needs.”

O’Connell said he was not displeased with the court’s proposal that would add inland portions of Santa Barbara County, Ojai and all of Ventura to his Assembly district. Oxnard, his boyhood home, would be severed from his district under the plan.

“I’ve been doing the Ojai Fourth of July Parade for 10 years,” O’Connell said. “Those areas already think I represent them.”

Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) would fare much better under the court’s plan than under a proposal by the Legislature that would have placed his neighborhood and some other portions of Thousand Oaks into the Los Angeles County district represented by Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills).

The court made less radical changes to his Thousand Oaks district. Although the maps released Monday are not very precise, the lines appear to sever the eastern portions of Ventura now represented by McClintock and add Oxnard to his district.

Oxnard, a Democratic stronghold with 142,000 residents, may provide a counterbalance to the overwhelming majority of Republicans who have made McClintock’s district a sure bet for any Republican incumbent. McClintock did not return repeated phone calls Monday.

The judges’ proposal did not specify the percentage of registered Republicans or Democrats in any of the proposed districts. Legislative staff members said they hope to have party registration figures available in a few days, along with more precise definitions of the new boundaries.

Such new information would settle the question of whether Boland’s neighborhood in Granada Hills has been thrown into the district represented by Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley). Neither lawmaker’s office was certain on Monday if the plan would require the two women to square off in next year’s election.

Wright’s district would shrink dramatically, although it would continue to straddle the Ventura and Los Angeles county line. In Ventura County, her district would be based in Simi Valley, and include Fillmore and Piru.

“It certainly condenses her district from a sprawling condor-shaped district that stretched over three counties,” said John Theiss, a Wright aide. Wright was unavailable for comment Monday.

The judges decided to return to the tradition of having each state Senate district make up two Assembly districts. California has 40 state Senate and 80 Assembly districts. As a result, the district represented by state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita) would encompass the Assembly districts represented by McClintock and Wright.

“We felt it would be very difficult to have a state Senate district based in the Santa Clarita Valley,” said Hunt Braly, a top aide to Davis. He said the senator was pleased that the court fashioned political boundaries without thinking first about incumbents.

At the other end of the county, Sen. Hart’s Santa Barbara-based district would be pushed northward. Under the court plan, Hart’s district would no longer stretch across Ventura County to reach into the San Fernando Valley and Malibu.

Instead, Hart’s district would only have the westernmost sections of Ventura County, including the cities of Ventura and Ojai, and then would reach north to encompass all of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

As a result, the district would lose the Democratic cities of Oxnard and Santa Paula. Furthermore, northern Santa Barbara County and most of San Luis Obispo County have large numbers of conservative Republican voters who may pose political difficulties for the liberal Democratic senator.

“The Hart district is much more marginal than it is now,” said a Democratic Senate staff member who is familiar with the proposed boundaries.

Hart could not be reached for comment. But Joe Caves, his chief of staff, cautioned against speculating about Hart’s political future. “It will be a couple of days before we have detailed census tract maps and before we really have numbers and know what the districts look like.”

Hart has made no secret of his ambition to run for Congress, if the new political boundaries are favorable. He narrowly lost to Lagomarsino in 1988 in a $3-million congressional race, the closest and costliest in the nation during that election year.

The court’s proposed boundaries have created an open congressional seat that includes all of San Luis and Santa Barbara counties--minus Carpinteria. Such a seat would allow Hart to run for Congress without facing a costly rematch with Lagomarsino.

MAIN STORY: A1