Candidate List for Senate Seat Far From Stable : Redistricting: Curtis Tucker Jr. and Ralph C. Dills both have said they will seek new 25th District seat. But Tucker is being pressured to drop out and Dills hints he may change his mind.

Inglewood Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. says fellow Democrats are dropping by his office these days to have a little talk.

The conversations, it turns out, are aimed at persuading the 37-year-old legislator to drop his plans to run for the state Senate.

“Everyone says, ‘Gee, why don’t you stay in your Assembly seat?’ ” Tucker said this week.

Tucker wants to compete this year in the proposed 25th Senate District, which will include Lynwood, Paramount, half of Compton, a small part of Long Beach and parts of the South Bay if the state Supreme Court approves district boundaries later this month.

But so do two other black Democrats--Lynwood City Councilman Paul Richards and Assemblywoman Teresa Hughes of Los Angeles. And longtime state Sen. Ralph C. Dills (D-Gardena), who is white, says he plans to run too.

The situation in the 25th District shows how reapportionment--the once-a-decade redrawing of political boundaries--and term limits imposed by voters last year are combining to turn 1992 into one of the most turbulent political years in recent history.

Drawing the candidates to the proposed 25th District is the fact that the territory is solidly Democratic; ethnically diverse, with African-Americans making up 36% of the population and Latinos 41%, and ripe for the picking. The Senate incumbent best positioned to win it, Bill Greene (D-Los Angeles), is retiring because of poor health.

Dills and Hughes are interested because reapportionment will carve up their old districts and they need a new home.

For Tucker, the issue is term limits. Under the new restrictions, he could have only two more two-year terms in the Assembly--or until 1996. If he wins the Senate seat, he could serve two four-year terms--until 1998.

For Richards, the new district is an opportunity to move up to higher office.

Already, Democratic power brokers are working behind the scenes--either to support their favored candidates or to try to avoid a fratricidal blood bath.

Tucker says a wide array of Democratic leaders urged him to back off from a showdown with Hughes, who has served 16 years in the Assembly. Among them, he says, are members of the Legislature’s black caucus and the West Los Angeles political organization of Democratic Reps. Howard Berman and Henry Waxman.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) has not explicitly recommended that he drop out, Tucker says, but Brown has hinted that Tucker should drop out by saying he supports Hughes and hopes that a divisive primary will be avoided.

“These (Tucker and Hughes) are two high-quality people that would go head-to-head for that seat,” Berman said this week. “The downside is that after it’s over, one of them would be out of public office.”

Hughes, 59, says Tucker’s presence in the race would “confuse the black community about who can best represent them,” possibly splitting the black vote. “It’s conceivable that someone not black could come in and win,” she said.

“I would hope that we as a community would get our heads together” behind a single candidate, she said.

Hughes plans to spend around $500,000 campaigning for the seat, she said.

Meanwhile, Richards, who is an assistant city manager in Compton as well as a Lynwood councilman, has the endorsement of Greene, the retiring senator. Greene attended the news conference at which Richards announced his candidacy last week, and on Monday the senator showed Richards around the Capitol in Sacramento.

Richards, 35, said he also hopes to gain support from U.S. Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton). Dymally could not be reached for comment.

Without an incumbent in the seat, Richards said, “this is an opportunity for someone who is really familiar with these areas . . . to get involved to represent the people of this new district, and I’m going for that opportunity.”

The candidate who may have the most to lose is Dills, whose political career began in the 1930s. But Dills also may be the candidate most likely to change his mind about the race.

Because of declining population, Dills knew his Long Beach area district would be collapsed and has been searching for a new seat for the past year. At one point, he thought about running for Congress. Then, when the court plan moved his current 30th District into Norwalk, Dills said he would represent it until his current term expires in 1994.

But last week, Dills, who left the Legislature in the 1940s and returned in the mid-1960s, said he would campaign in the reconfigured 25th District. This week, he indicated that he might change his mind again. He said Monday that “under certain circumstances” he might bow out of the race. He declined to elaborate.

For Tucker, the decision of whether to stay in the race or get out is a complex political dilemma.

In many cases, the pressure to get out is coming from close allies. Brown, for instance, played a big part in helping Tucker win his Assembly seat in a special election in 1989 after his father, former Assemblyman Curtis Tucker, died in office.

But with legislative term limits clouding the political future of state lawmakers, Tucker says he might have to place career considerations first.

“In the past you could wait in office for (higher offices) to open up, but now you have to take your shot when the opportunity presents itself,” he said. “If I was a betting man, I’d put money on me running.”

Tucker argued that the district would be best served with him as its senator because he now represents about one-third of the area, Richards only represents about 5.4% and Hughes none of it.

“People deserve a senator who is at least from their community,” Tucker said. “I haven’t heard any compelling arguments yet about why I shouldn’t run.”

Gladstone reported from Sacramento and Hatch reported from Torrance.