Remap May Shuffle the Political Deck : Redistricting: Court’s reapportionment plan includes a few safe seats, but many local lawmakers will be in a fight for their legislative lives.

When state lawmakers set out to redraw California’s legislative districts earlier this year, the process was shaping up to be politics as usual: Competition would be squelched to preserve the fiefdoms of incumbents.

Then the state Supreme Court got into the act. Under the court’s redistricting proposal unveiled Monday, several South Bay incumbents would be forced to run for their political lives--as would many of their colleagues elsewhere in the state.

The plan, on which the court will make a final decision Jan. 28 unless Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature can agree on an alternative plan, does create safe seats for some area incumbents such as Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood) and Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles).

But it yanks the political rug out from under officeholders, including state Sen. Robert G. Beverly (R-Manhattan Beach) and Assemblyman Dave Elder (D-San Pedro), and it creates opportunities for political newcomers and incumbents gunning for higher office.

“It’s like everything was placed in a hat and thrown up in the air,” Tucker said. “Now everybody’s running around trying to pick up the pieces.”

The cause of the confusion is the state Supreme Court’s proposal for reapportionment, a redrawing of state and congressional legislative boundaries that is undertaken each decade to account for population shifts.

The Supreme Court took charge of the process after the Democrat-controlled Legislature and Wilson, a Republican, failed to agree on a reapportionment plan. This is how the South Bay would be affected by the proposed new districts, which would be established in time for next June’s Assembly, state Senate and congressional primary elections:

ASSEMBLY

One South Bay Assembly district outlined in the court plan would likely go unclaimed by an incumbent when all 80 of California’s Assembly seats come up for election next year. The Republican-leaning district would embrace the beach cities, Westchester, Venice and most of Torrance.

Would-be Assembly members are circling.

Torrance City Councilman Dan Walker, long interested in landing a seat in Sacramento, announced this week that he will forgo another council term to run in the new Assembly district. Other local officials may follow suit.

“This district looks like it was made for me,” Manhattan Beach Mayor Bob Holmes said. “I lived in Westchester for nine or 10 years and have friends and relatives in El Segundo. It’s a real tempting thing to look at.”

Elsewhere, the court proposal would leave the South Bay’s political landscape with fewer Assembly districts than incumbents, creating the potential for head-to-head competition among colleagues.

Elder, the San Pedro Democrat, would find himself in the same district as Gerald N. Felando, a San Pedro Republican. Unfortunately for Elder, GOP voters would dominate the proposed district, which would include the Palos Verdes Peninsula, San Pedro and parts of Long Beach.

Felando announced this week that he will seek reelection in the new territory. Elder, meanwhile, was left weighing options.

“It’s a little bit like somebody telling you, ‘We’re going to move the plant in a year and we’re going to be moving it out of state,’ ” Elder said.

Elder said that if the Supreme Court approves its plan, he will consider alternatives to running against Felando.

One, he said, would be to run for state Senate. Another would be to change his residence and compete for a nearby district that would include Wilmington, western Long Beach, Carson and southern Compton.

In his favor, that district would have a majority of Democratic voters and would contain areas he now represents. But on the downside, he might find himself facing a fellow Democrat, Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd (D-Carson), whose district is also carved up under the court plan.

The other two Assembly members with constituents in the South Bay, Tucker and Moore, appear to be left with safe seats under the court proposal. Moore was out of town and unavailable for comment.

Tucker, however, said the time might be right to seek higher office. The court plan, he points out, creates a state Senate district that would include Inglewood, Watts and northern Compton. And the incumbent best positioned to control it, Bill Greene (D-Los Angeles), has said he will not be running for reelection next year.

“If this plan is adopted, then, yeah, I want that Senate seat,” Tucker said this week. He added, however, that he will oppose the redistricting plan if he concludes that it discriminates against minorities.

SENATE

Two of the three state senators currently representing South Bay residents would avoid any immediate danger under the court proposal.

State Sens. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) and Ralph C. Dills (D-Gardena) are among the 20 incumbents in the 40-member body who will not face reelection until 1994. Watson could retain her Senate seat even if she loses her bid for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors next June.

The court plan creates a dilemma, however, for Beverly, the Manhattan Beach Republican, whose four-year state Senate term does expire next year.

A large chunk of Beverly’s political base would be included in a GOP-leaning Senate district extending from the Palos Verdes peninsula through most of San Pedro and into Lakewood, Downey and Long Beach.

The new district, although it would be up for grabs next year and would be ripe for a Republican candidate, would not include Beverly’s home city.

Instead, Manhattan Beach would form part of another district that would not be open for competition until 1994 and would favor a Democrat. The seat would represent voters in the beach cities, Carson, Torrance, Compton and Venice.

As will Elder, Beverly may suddenly have to make painful political choices. Among his options are to move into the GOP-oriented district and compete in it next year, or sit out two years and run in 1994 in the new district that includes his home.

Beverly said he might even run for Congress. “I’m not closing off that option,” he said. “It would partly depend on who (else) is going to run.”

CONGRESS

If Beverly does run for Congress, he would do so in a coastal, GOP-leaning district stretching from the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Venice. Making that turf attractive to many South Bay politicos is that incumbent U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach) would not compete for it.

Rohrabacher, who now represents territory stretching from the Palos Verdes Peninsula south to Huntington Beach, announced he intends to run in another district that would be contained entirely within Orange County.

“My decision is based on the assumption that the district lines will stay the same as (they are) in the court proposal,” Rohrabacher said. “If the district shifts again, I could very well come back again and run in the South Bay.”

The court also creates opportunities for GOP congressional hopefuls in the harbor area. It puts U.S. Rep. Glenn M. Anderson (D-San Pedro) in a tougher position by placing him in a district with a larger share of Republican voters than the Long Beach-based territory he represents now.

The change, if approved, is likely to add to speculation that Anderson, 78, may not seek reelection. Said by colleagues to be overwhelmed by the demands of his job, Anderson suffered an embarrassing defeat last year when fellow Democrats removed him as chairman of the powerful House Public Works and Transportation Committee.

Two other congressmen now representing South Bay residents--Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles) and Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton)--would wind up with safe seats but both would see shifts in their districts.

Dixon says he would lose the portion of his district that includes part of Inglewood, and that a district likely to be won by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) would cover Inglewood instead.

Dymally’s office, meanwhile, says he would lose Hawthorne and Gardena but gain other South Bay turf, ending up with a district including Carson, Compton, Wilmington, downtown Long Beach and Watts.

In a statement released by his office Wednesday, Dymally pronounced himself generally satisfied with the new district.

Summing up the feelings of other South Bay incumbents, however, he added: “The only excellent district is the one you carve for yourself.”

Times staff writer Mark Gladstone contributed to this story.