Katz Rules Out Senate Bid, Seeks Reelection Instead : Politics: The assemblyman will not challenge David Roberti for the seat Alan Robbins vacated. A Roberti aide says no deal was struck.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) announced Thursday that he will seek reelection this year to his Assembly seat, ruling out a race against state Senate leader David A. Roberti for an open San Fernando Valley Senate seat.

Katz’s announcement came one day after Roberti (D-Los Angeles) said he is running for the Senate seat formerly held by Alan Robbins in the 20th Senate District, which covers the south-central Valley. Robbins resigned in November after agreeing to plead guilty to federal racketeering and tax evasion charges.

Katz, the influential chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, also said he is still exploring a possible run for Los Angeles mayor next year.

Katz--who had said repeatedly that he was interested in the Senate seat--denied that his decision to remain in the Assembly was motivated by Roberti’s candidacy. A 20-year Senate veteran, Roberti is a prodigious fund-raiser who already has $500,000 on hand for his campaign.

Katz said Roberti’s candidacy was “not a consideration for me.”

“I have no doubt--absolutely none--that if I ran to get into that district, I would have won,” said Katz, who had about $100,000 available for the Senate race.

Katz said he decided against the Senate run because he felt he could do more to alleviate Los Angeles’ traffic and air pollution woes by remaining chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee.

The assemblyman told Roberti during a 10-minute meeting in Roberti’s Sacramento office Thursday afternoon that he would not campaign against him, Roberti spokesman Bob Forsyth said. Forsyth said Roberti struck no deal to endorse Katz for mayor if Katz did not challenge him for the Senate.

Katz’s decision to stay out of the special election for Robbins’ Senate seat April 7 leaves Roberti with only one major potential opponent, Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles). The only other declared candidates are Encino political activist Glenn Bailey and Sherman Oaks land-use lawyer Fred N. Gaines.

Friedman has said he is still making up his mind about the Senate race, although he also is considering a new Assembly district in the southwestern Valley created by the state Supreme Court’s recent redrawing of boundary lines for California legislative and congressional districts.

The 20th Senate District, which Robbins had represented since 1973, covers Van Nuys, Reseda, Panorama City, Arleta, Mission Hills, Sylmar, San Fernando and parts of Encino, Sun Valley and North Hollywood.

Whoever wins the seat will serve the two years remaining in Robbins’ four-year term. If Roberti wins, he must leave the Senate in 1994 under term limits approved by voters in 1990 unless he wins a lawsuit pending before the U.S. Supreme Court that seeks to throw out the limits.

Katz said he was urged to run against Roberti by the California Abortion Rights Action League and other abortion rights advocates unhappy with Roberti’s long-held opposition to abortion. Katz said abortion rights backers argued that regardless of the outcome, it would be a high-profile race that could help Katz in a mayoral bid by showcasing his support for their cause.

Asked about Katz’s assertion that he could have defeated Roberti, Roberti spokesman Forsyth said, “Well, we’ll never know.”