Assemblyman Hopes to Keep Home Base

Staying Put--Reapportionment gave Assemblyman Xavier Becerra (D-Monterey Park) a choice of running for reelection in either the 49th Assembly District or the new 58th District.

He chose the 49th, he said, mainly because he and his wife do not want to move from the house they bought in Monterey Park more than five years ago. Assembly members must live in the district they represent.

Becerra’s decision, announced Friday, means that he will be seeking reelection in a realigned district that includes Monterey Park and Alhambra, from his old jurisdiction, plus San Gabriel, Rosemead and a good chunk of East Los Angeles.

The assemblyman already represents South El Monte, Montebello, Pico Rivera and part of Whittier. But all of those cities will be included in the new 58th District, where the absence of an incumbent should produce a wide-open race.

Reelection would put Becerra in a strong position to run for the state Senate in 1994, when a new San Gabriel Valley district will be established under reapportionment. But the assemblyman said he is not looking that far ahead.

Quick Start--The filing of nomination papers for the June primary does not begin until Monday, but Republicans who plan to run in the new 41st Congressional District have already nailed down most of the endorsements worth having.

Former Assemblyman Charles W. Bader of Pomona has won the support of state Sens. Bill Leonard (R-Big Bear) and Frank Hill (R-Whittier), and Assemblymen Jim Brulte (R-Ontario), Paul Woodruff (R-Yucaipa) and Ross Johnson (R-La Habra).

Attorney James V. Lacy of Yorba Linda is backed by Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach), Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) and state Sen. John R. Lewis (R-Orange).

John Eastman, a Republican nominee for Congress in West Covina two years ago, has picked up the support of Assemblyman Richard Mountjoy (R-Monrovia).

Those are just the endorsements from state legislators and congressmen.

Bader also has the backing of 18 mayors and council members in the district.

Eastman has released an endorsement list that reaches all the way down to a former Ontario planning commissioner and a leader of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform in Anaheim.

That does not leave many endorsements available to Diamond Bar Mayor Jay Kim, if he should decide to run. Kim said this week that he is still “seriously considering” that option.

Tax Returns--Bader has released his state and federal income tax returns from 1986 to 1990 and has called upon his fellow candidates to do the same.

In a statement distributed to the news media with his tax returns, Bader said:

“Voters are angry and skeptical about the behavior of their elected officials. They have a right to know if candidates seeking office have received federal grants, government contracts or if they are entangled with special interests.”

In an interview, Bader said he does not know what the tax returns of his rivals might reveal.

But Eastman said he thinks Bader is just trying to point out, through the tax returns, that Lacy, who has been a government official in Washington for 10 years, has not been living in, or paying taxes, in California.

If that’s the game, Eastman said, count him in. The candidate said he will not only release his tax returns for the past five years, but he would be willing to go back 10, and hopes Lacy will do the same.

Lacy--who has worked for eight years at posts in the Department of Commerce and for two years as general counsel of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission--said he plans to release financial information, but has not decided in what form.

Although residency is not legally required for congressional candidates, Lacy, who moved to Yorba Linda just a few months ago, is the only candidate who actually lives in the 41st District.

Eastman lives in West Covina. Bader’s house, in the Ganesha Hills area of Pomona, is just outside the district, which takes in Pomona south of the San Bernardino Freeway and includes Diamond Bar, Rowland Heights, Upland, Chino, Chino Hills, Montclair, Yorba Linda, and part of Ontario.

Incidentally, Bader’s tax returns show that he and his wife, a Pomona school principal, earned $120,461 in 1990, his last year in the Assembly, and paid $18,486 in federal income taxes and $6,111 in state income taxes.

Short Subjects--Mike Noonan, a pharmacist who lives in Claremont and has run in the past as a Peace and Freedom candidate against Rep. David Dreier, said he will run a similar campaign in the wide-

open 41st Congressional District.

Diamond Bar and Walnut are the only San Gabriel Valley cities to gain in voter registration since the 1990 elections. Diamond Bar increased its voters from 24,727 to 24,797; Walnut climbed from 11,039 to 11,348. Pasadena lost more than 3,900 registered voters, dropping to 59,187, and Pomona fell to 38,694, a loss of more than 3,700.

Political columnist William Rusher and Rep. Dreier will speak at the installation banquet of the San Gabriel Valley Coalition of Republican Clubs at 7 p.m. Feb. 14, at the Holiday Inn in Monrovia. Tickets are $25.