3 Incumbents to Fight for 1 Assembly Seat : Politics: GOP legislators Allen, Frizzelle and Mays refuse to budge in 67th District face-off as filing deadline passes. Battle lines drawn for several other races in county.

Three Republican Assembly members, brought together by California’s new reapportionment plan, will face off in the June 2 primary in what promises to be a fierce fight in the 67th Assembly District.

The deadline for filing to run in the primary slipped by Friday without any of the three legislators changing their plans. No one even blinked.

“I said from the beginning that I was not going to move,” said Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress), one of the three contenders. “This is not the ideal way to do it, but here it is.”

Hundreds of other candidates met Friday’s filing deadline to run in a slew of spirited races in Orange County that will include six congressional districts, five Assembly districts and two state Senate districts.

In addition, two seats on the Board of Supervisors are up for election, although neither of the incumbents, Gaddi H. Vasquez and Roger R. Stanton, face any opposition. Three seats on the County Board of Education are also up for election, as well as 18 seats on the Superior Court bench and 21 on the Municipal Court bench.

With the state Supreme Court’s approval of new political maps for California in December, Allen and Assemblymen Nolan Frizzelle (R-Fountain Valley) and Tom Mays (R-Huntington Beach) found themselves in the unusual and awkward position of being forced to run against colleagues and fellow party members.

Although all three lamented that they had to run against each other, they said they were ready and willing to do battle. The new district includes Huntington Beach and the northwest corner of Orange County.

“It is unfortunate it happened this way,” Mays said. “But with a limited amount of money available for political races this year, I think this contest will come down to who can run the best campaign and who will work the hardest.”

Frizzelle, after 12 years in Sacramento, is running now in a district that he says is nearly identical to the one he first ran in in 1980. His original district changed as a result of the 1980 Census.

“I guess we drew the short straws,” he said, adding that the face-off could have been avoided if Allen had run in the 68th Assembly District and Mays in the 54th, which includes part of his old district.

Democrat businessman Ken LeBlanc of Huntington Beach and Libertarian Brian Schar, also of Huntington Beach, filed to run in the 67th District.

State Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) and Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) were the only incumbents who will not face opposition in the primary.

At the same time, Orange County attorney and former Superior Court Judge Judith M. Ryan filed papers Friday challenging conservative Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove).

In another contested Republican primary, conservative Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) will face another battle against a female Republican contender, this time Costa Mesa Mayor Mary Hornbuckle, for the seat in the 70th Assembly District.

It is the fourth time that a GOP woman has challenged him in the primary. “There must be something fascinating about me that appeals to women candidates,” Ferguson said Friday.

Asked why she was running against Ferguson, Hornbuckle said that women, more so than men, find it easier to “run outside the establishment” and against incumbents.

“Women do not have the access to the inner circles of power,” she said, adding that that might not be a bad position to be in this election year.

“Being an incumbent makes you a target, but being an incumbent that has done nothing for his district makes you a bigger target,” she said.

Ferguson did not give Hornbuckle much of a chance in the race, and complained that the time he takes in the campaign against her is time that he could be spending helping other Republicans running for office.

Democrat lawyer Jim Toledano and Libertarian Scott H. Bieser, a graphics artist, also filed to run in the 70th District. They both live in Costa Mesa.

In the 73rd Assembly District, which straddles Orange and San Diego counties, three mayors are seeking the Republican nomination for the open seat--Mike Eggers of Dana Point, Patricia C. Bates of Laguna Niguel and Bud Lewis of Carlsbad.

Eight other candidates filed the run in the 73rd District, including four other Republicans, two Democrats, one Peace and Freedom Party member and a Libertarian.

Former Assemblyman Curt Pringle, along with three other Republicans, filed for the 68th Assembly District. Along with Pringle were two City Council members, Joy L. Neugebauer of Westminster and Ronda McCune of Buena Park.

Despite some speculation that he might change his mind and run in his old congressional district, Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) will run in the U.S. Senate race against Sen. John Seymour, who was appointed to the post last year.

Dannemeyer’s Senate campaign leaves an opening in the 39th Congressional District, where state Sen. Ed Royce (R-Anaheim) has filed to run.

In Dana Point, six candidates have entered the June 2 race for two seats on the City Council. The election will be the third in the history of the city, which was incorporated in January, 1989.

LIST OF CANDIDATES: B8