Heated Legislative, Congressional Races Shape Up as Filing Ends : Politics: Republicans are expected to make a run at taking control of the Assembly. Hayden will challenge Rosenthal for state Senate seat. Latinos may gain.

The stage was set Friday for dozens of spirited Assembly and Senate election races that will determine whether Democrats continue more than two decades of control of the state Legislature and whether Assembly Speaker Willie Brown retains his powerful post.

With Friday the deadline for filing election papers for legislative and congressional seats, the candidate lineup reflected the impact of the recent redrawing of district lines and legislative term limits imposed by Proposition 140. It also showed why this campaign season promises to become one of the most divisive in recent years.

For the first time in a decade, for example, two of the primary races for Assembly seats will feature incumbents squaring off against each other: Democratic Assemblymen Richard Floyd of Carson and Dave Elder of San Pedro in a redrawn district in the South Bay, and three Republican lawmakers vying for a single seat in Orange County.

Also, in the marquee attraction in the June 2 primary, Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), whose West Los Angeles district was carved up in reapportionment, announced on Friday that he is challenging Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles), a loyalist in the Democratic political organization of Los Angeles Reps. Howard Berman and Henry Waxman. A third candidate in that race is Democrat Catherine O’Neill, a businesswoman.

Citing the felony convictions of three former state senators on federal corruption charges, Hayden said at a press conference that one reason he is trying to enter the Senate is to spark political reform in the upper house.

“The issue is how to make a difference. To make a difference, you have to stand up and shake up the special interests. To make a difference, you have to put your neck on the line,” said the onetime anti-war activist who was first elected to the Assembly in 1982.

Rosenthal, also a veteran lawmaker, said he, too, has spent his career “fighting big special interests.” But Rosenthal maintained that he is a “more effective” lawmaker than Hayden.

In a surprise move late Friday, veteran Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana), a member of Speaker Brown’s inner circle and a major campaign fund-raiser, announced that he would not seek reelection to his San Fernando Valley seat. Bane said he is considering going into the campaign consulting business with his wife, Marlene, who is a fund-raiser for Brown.

Bane’s decision prompted first-term Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman (D-Los Angeles), whose own district was collapsed, to declare that she will run to replace Bane.

In all, about one-fifth of the state legislators up for reelection this fall have decided to seek other offices or retire. All 80 Assembly seats and 20 of the Senate’s 40 seats are up for grabs in the Nov. 6 general election.

Some of the state lawmakers are trying to move up to seats in Congress vacated by the retirement of veteran Democratic Reps. Edward Roybal of Los Angeles, Mervyn Dymally of Compton and Glenn Anderson of San Pedro. Others are running in new districts.

Dymally’s daughter, Compton school board member Lynn Dymally, and Anderson’s stepson, Evan Anderson Braude, a Long Beach city councilman, are running for their relatives’ seats. Roybal’s daughter, Assemblywoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles), is running in a new Los Angeles congressional district.

Another congressional candidate with a strong family name identification is Maureen Reagan, daughter of the former President, who is seeking a new South Bay seat.

With Roybal-Allard and Assemblyman Xavier Becerra (D-Monterey Park) running for Congress and the addition of new Latino-leaning seats because of reapportionment, a number of aspiring Latino candidates have a chance to win Assembly seats in Los Angeles County. The number of Latinos in the Assembly is likely to increase from four to six.

The Assembly currently has 47 Democrats and 33 Republicans. GOP political strategists hope to take a major stride toward winning a majority for the first time since 1970 and having enough votes to oust longtime Democratic Speaker Brown of San Francisco.

But first Republicans must overcome intra-party squabbles. For example, in Orange County, incumbent Assembly members Doris Allen of Cypress, Tom Mays of Huntington Beach and Nolan Frizelle of Fountain Valley are running against one another in the primary because they were thrown into the same district by reapportionment.

To the south, it is expected that Assemblyman Steve Clute (D-Riverside) will oppose Tricia Hunter (R-Bonita) in the November election in a desert district covering Imperial County and part of Riverside County.

In the Senate, the breakdown is 24 Democrats, 13 Republicans, two independents and one vacancy. The odds of the GOP wresting control and dumping Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) appear to be slim in November.

First, the GOP must settle at least two intra-party tiffs.

In a race to succeed retiring Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita), a former Los Angeles police chief, Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) is being challenged by her former GOP colleague, Marian LaFollette of Newbury Park, who is attempting a political comeback after a brief retirement.

In a newly configured Senate district in San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties, Republican Assembly members Carol Bentley of El Cajon and and David Kelley of Hemet will fight it out for their party’s nomination.

Another Senate race likely to generate interest in the fall is a possible matchup between Sen. Lucy Killea (I-San Diego) and former Republican Sen. Jim Ellis of San Diego, who is trying for a political comeback.

The state’s changing demographic patterns may bring some new faces to the Legislature. Two Japanese-Americans are given good shots of becoming the first Asians in the Assembly in more than a decade. Oxnard Mayor Nao Takasugi is among the Republicans seeking a Ventura County Assembly seat, and in a district north of Sacramento, Democrat Lon Hatamiya, a lawyer, who narrowly lost a 1990 race, is expected to draw strong support.

Times staff writers Carl Ingram in Sacramento and Jeffrey L. Rabin in Los Angeles contributed to this story.