HUNTINGTON BEACH : 2 Open Council Seats Expected Next Year

Mayor Jim Silva’s announcement this week that he will run for Congress next year will probably mean that two vacant City Council seats will be contested in 1992.

Silva, who is seeking the Republican nomination in the newly created 45th Congressional District, said Tuesday that even if his bid in the June primary is unsuccessful, he may not run for reelection to the council next November.

Councilman Peter M. Green, whose term also expires next November, is barred under the City Charter from seeking reelection because he will have served two consecutive four-year terms.

The only other council member facing reelection is Don MacAllister, who is expected to run. MacAllister, after serving from April, 1978, to November, 1986, was elected again in 1988.

As it now appears, next year’s council campaign will be the second consecutive municipal election in which two incumbents have declined to run.

Last year, Thomas J. Mays, who was then mayor, and Councilman Wes Bannister both bypassed reelection bids to seek higher office. Mays was elected to the state Assembly, and Bannister lost the race for state insurance commissioner to John Garamendi.

Huntington Beach’s City Charter does not prohibit council members from running concurrently for the council and another office, but Silva said he will not attempt to do so.

Also, he said he expects that he may exhaust his fund-raising and other campaign sources during his congressional primary bid. So, should he lose in the June primary--in which he will face a formidable field of candidates probably led by Reps. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach)--he said he is not sure whether he would attempt to tap those sources again for a council campaign.

“As it stands right now, I’m not” seeking reelection next year, Silva said.

Silva, 47, announced his candidacy for Congress on Monday, just two weeks after ascending to mayor by rotation. He denied, however, that he is attempting to follow Mays’ lead by using the position of mayor as a stepping stone.

“It’s just worked out that way,” Silva said. “I didn’t see the new districts until 10 days ago. I had no idea they were going to line up the way they did,” with Huntington Beach encompassing most of the new 45th District. “I’d like to see Dornan back in his district and Rohrabacher back in Long Beach.”

Silva said he has been hoping “all my life” to seek a congressional seat, and the latest redistricting made 1992 an opportune time.

Silva, who teaches economics at Los Amigos High School in Fountain Valley, said he plans to emphasize that he lives and works in the congressional district.