Redistricting Has Lawmakers on the Lookout for New Homes : Politics: To retain their seats, state legislators will be moving into new districts--literally.

State Sen. Robert G. Beverly (R-Manhattan Beach) is scouting around for an apartment in Long Beach. Sen. Don Rogers (R-Bakersfield) plans to rent in the high desert. And Assemblyman John Burton (D-San Francisco) says he will move across town to his mother’s house.

Lawmakers throughout California, including Beverly and Assembly members Dave Elder (D-San Pedro) and Teresa P. Hughes (D-Los Angeles) in the South Bay, are shifting their places of residence in the wake of reapportionment.

The once-a-decade redrawing of state legislative boundaries, approved Jan. 27 by the state Supreme Court, has in some cases lumped legislators together in the same district. In others, it has cut them off from their political base or created constituencies elsewhere that they consider too enticing to pass up.

Unlike past reapportionments quarterbacked by lawmakers, this year’s Supreme Court plan made no attempt to preserve the fiefdoms of incumbents, experts say. No wonder, then, that numerous state legislators facing reelection this year have decided to call new places home.

“The moving companies are going to make a fortune on legislators this year,” said Lisa Foster, executive director of California Common Cause, a government watchdog group. “Since these lines were drawn without considering incumbency, you have lots of folks scurrying to find places to run.”

State legislators, of course, aren’t the only politicians on the move these days. Reapportionment has also prompted congressmen to pull up stakes.

Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, for instance, has moved to Huntington Beach from Long Beach to run in a newly drawn district in Orange County. And Democratic Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson is shifting his residence from West Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley to compete in a new district there.

But state legislators are under closer scrutiny because candidates for Assembly and state Senate are required by law to establish residency and register to vote in the districts in which they run. And they must do so in their new city before they take out nomination papers, which are being issued from Monday until March 6.

Congressional candidates face no such requirement.

“Congressman Howard Berman (D-Panorama City) could be living in San Francisco and never set foot in Los Angeles,” said Joseph Remcho, an attorney advising Assembly Democrats on residency requirements. “It would be perfectly legal.”

Unable to enjoy such leeway, a number of state legislators--about a dozen Assembly members and at least four state senators--are looking to move, according to lawmakers and legislative analysts.

In interviews, some legislators were unclear about whether they actually plan to live in their new places of residence or simply use them to meet the residency requirement.

The requirement is vague. A memo circulated among Democratic Assembly members says the law can be interpreted to mean that a legislator does not have to actually live in the new domicile as long as he or she has “the intention” of doing so.

Remcho, who co-authored the memo, said virtually all the legislators who have contacted him plan to live in their new residences, however. “I don’t know of any who aren’t, with the exception of some people who have moved with their families to Sacramento,” he said.

Lawmakers’ reasons for moving vary according to the problems and opportunities presented by reapportionment.

The motivation is usually simple: Their homes are now in a district that may be unwinnable. In most cases, they are trying to avoid running against other incumbents.

For Elder, moving is the lesser of two evils. Reapportionment left his San Pedro residence in a GOP-leaning district claimed by Republican Assemblyman Gerald N. Felando, also of San Pedro. A neighboring district is Democratic and includes some of his constituents, but it is also sought by Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd (D-Carson).

Elder says he has decided to relocate to Harbor City to run in the neighboring district, though he attacks the court for making him move.

“I think the court did it deliberately,” he said. “They did it to inconvenience me. After all, it’s a Republican court.”

Elsewhere in California, Assemblyman John Burton, a Democrat who lives in the Potrero Hill district of San Francisco, says he will shift his residence across town to his mother’s house in the Sunset area because his present home is in turf claimed by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco).

And Rogers plans to move from Bakersfield to a new GOP-leaning district in the high desert. Had he stayed put, he would have faced a primary showdown with fellow Republican Sen. Ken Maddy of Fresno.

“I’ll move to Tehachapi, Lancaster, Victorville, somewhere in the high desert,” Rogers said. “You have to do what you have to do.”

In a few cases, legislators are moving into new districts that contain none of their current constituents.

One is state Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), who says he is moving to the San Fernando Valley from Los Feliz to run for a Senate seat vacated by former Sen. Alan Robbins.

That averts a showdown between Roberti and Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) or Sen. Newton R. Russell (R-Glendale), but it places the Senate president pro tem in a brand new political arena.

Another example is Hughes, who says she is moving out of her South-Central Los Angeles home to a rented apartment in Inglewood to compete for the state Senate seat being vacated by Bill Green (D-Los Angeles).

In the wake of reapportionment, the district takes in Inglewood, Gardena, Hawthorne, Lawndale, Lennox and other communities--none of which Hughes represents now. But Hughes and Roberti argue that there is no reason voters should punish politicians who move in from other communities.

Roberti says that if he wins the Valley seat, he could continue helping residents throughout California--for instance, by continuing his attempts to strengthen the state’s unemployment insurance program to offset the effects of recession.

Hughes, meanwhile, says her South-Central constituents have close ties to Inglewood and other communities in the new Senate district she hopes to represent.

“You don’t have to have a passport to go into Inglewood,” she said. “There is a tremendous amount of overlap, especially when you’re talking about minority communities.”

However, that view is not shared by Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood), who had hoped to run for the same Senate seat Hughes is seeking but was forced to drop out by state Democratic leaders worried that the pair would become embroiled in a costly primary battle.

“I’m not one of those who opens up PO boxes” to establish residency, said Tucker, who now plans to seek reelection to his Assembly seat. “I’ve always had a problem with that.”

Generally, however, lawmakers who say they are moving are targeting districts that contain some of their current constituents.

Beverly, for instance, discovered that reapportionment had included his Manhattan Beach home and some of his current political turf in a district that is 52% Democratic and not up for grabs until 1994.

Facing reelection this year, he decided to move to a new Republican-leaning district that is open for competition this year and includes another chunk of the territory he represents now. It stretches from the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Downey, taking in a portion of Long Beach.

“I’ve been inquiring around about apartments in the Long Beach area, but I’m finding them more expensive than I thought,” Beverly said.