ELECTIONS : Edgerton Loses, 2 Incumbents in Runoffs : Politics: Voter discontent is apparent in rejection of a 17-year City Council veteran and support given to 2 newcomers who will again challenge Councilmen Thomas Clark and Clarence Smith.

In a dramatic rebuff of incumbents, Long Beach voters ousted veteran City Councilman Wallace Edgerton in Tuesday’s primary and forced two others into June runoffs.

Thomas Clark, the council’s senior member, will face auctioneer Charles G. (Jerry) Westlund in the runoff match, while Councilman Clarence Smith will have to do battle with Civil Service Commissioner Doris Topsy-Elvord.

Edgerton’s stunning defeat at the hands of Cal State Long Beach psychology professor Alan Lowenthal ended the 17-year council career of the incumbent who had confidently predicted victory throughout much of the campaign.

Backed by a powerful array of development, shipping and union interests, Edgerton had raised more money than any of the other candidates in the council races and three times as much as Lowenthal.

But money was not enough to overcome Lowenthal’s tenacious walking campaign or his message that the quality of life in the shoreline 2nd District had drastically declined under Edgerton’s watch.

Edgerton, a 58-year-old stockbroker who had tried to brand Lowenthal a radical liberal, was gracious in defeat.

“That’s politics. That’s OK,” Edgerton said at his campaign headquarters as a small, grim-faced band of supporters watched the final ballot counts flicker across a television screen shortly before midnight Tuesday. “I had a good run. It was a great honor and a great privilege to represent the people.”

Edgerton said he belatedly realized last week that he was in trouble. “Alan worked morning, noon and night. Perhaps in some ways he needed it more and wanted it more. . . . He did a superb job, and I can’t do anything but congratulate him.”

He added that he had no plans to run for office again, either locally or at a higher level. “I enjoyed politics. But I feel like there’s about a thousand pounds off my shoulders. . . . Me, I’m free.”

Over at Lowenthal’s house, the crowd roared with pleasure as each announcement of the returns showed him inching toward his 51% victory.

Despite the odds against him, Lowenthal said he had gained hope during his door-to-door campaigning. “When I walked and talked to people, I thought we were going to win. . . . They wanted something to change,” said Lowenthal, 51, who will take office in July.

He vowed to his beaming supporters that “We’re going to turn this city and this district around. We’re going to pull people together.”

Lowenthal’s backers speculated that Edgerton had been his own worst enemy. “There’s an awful lot of residual resentment about how Wally has waited for a crowd to form and gotten out in front of it,” Planning Commissioner Anthony D. Tortorice said. “I think people are looking for some political courage.”

The single, clear message of the council primary was discontent on the part of voters who feel besieged by crime and battered by the recession. But while they expressed their anger by voting against incumbents, they went to the polls in low numbers, averaging a 25% turnout. They also sent mixed signals in whom they chose as alternatives.

For example, Lowenthal is an unapologetic liberal; but Westlund is a firebrand conservative who campaigned as “the real Republican” in the nonpartisan race.

“I really didn’t think Westlund was going to get all those votes,” said Sharon Lee Douglass, 41, a neighborhood organizer who placed third in the 4th District, which cuts across east-central Long Beach. Westlund’s GOP appeals, she added, seemed to help him pick up votes against Clark, a more moderate Republican.

“I’m ecstatic,” declared Westlund, who at 26 was the youngest candidate in any of the Long Beach council contests. He is a former talk-show host on local cable television and was also one of the most aggressive candidates, known for his brashness as well as his exceptionally long political advertisements on cable channels.

Clark, a 26-year veteran of the council, said his campaign was hurt by a last-minute barrage of Westlund mailers and handouts “with lies and misrepresentations and half-truths.”

Noting, however, that many incumbents throughout the area were voted out of office, the 65-year-old optometrist said: “We knew it’s not an easy year for incumbents. Overall, looking at the results of the election, we fared very well.”

Smith, a retired city recreation administrator, had hoped that the final votes of the evening would push him over the top, electing him to his third term. But shortly after midnight, it became apparent that he and Topsy-Elvord, 60, would have another six weeks of campaigning before the victor is declared.

Dejected supporters trickled out of Smith’s campaign headquarters, patting one another on the back and saying “Keep the faith.” In a field of five contestants, Smith had emerged the top vote-getter but failed to win more than half of the votes--as required to avoid a runoff.

Smith, 61, attributed the outcome to the large number of candidates, some 3,000 new voters he picked up in redistricting last year, and Topsy-Elvord’s campaign tactics, which he claimed had included some false information. Come June, he predicted, he will retain his seat representing the district, which is north of downtown.

“She’s unproven,” Smith said of his opponent. “I think (the voters) will go with a proven leader.”

Promising to redouble her efforts, Topsy-Elvord said she was very happy at the results of Tuesday’s balloting. “The message is that all the people are not satisfied, and they think we can do better.”

Wrigley neighborhood activist Dan Cangro, who ran a low-budget campaign which centered on walking door to door, came in third.

Long Beach Unified

Bobbie Smith’s campaign to retain her seat on the Long Beach Unified School Board was no contest. Smith, the current board president, outpolled challenger Donald Moore by a margin of more than 4 to 1.

Long Beach Community College District

Challenger E. Gerrie Schipske was the leading vote-getter in a close four-way race for three seats. Incumbents Judith Olmsted Powell and Trudy Polsky retained their seats. Incumbent C. Thomas Dean, a board member since 1979, was the loser.

Schipske and Powell got a boost from faculty endorsements. New member Schipske pledged to involve students, faculty and other staff members in board efforts to bring new revenue to Long Beach City College, expand vocational training and address minority concerns.

“I was most proud of the faculty endorsement,” Schipske said, adding that she will ask fellow trustees to give the board’s student member full voting rights, the privilege of “sitting in closed session, and the same compensation trustees receive.” Trustees are paid $200 per meeting.

Staff writers Roxana Kopetman and Howard Blume and community correspondent Kirsten Lee Swartz contributed to this report.