CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / O.C. SENATE RACES : GOP’s Lewis Has Race; Bergeson: No June Foe : Republican Thakar tries to unseat incumbent in 33rd. Two Democrats and a Libertarian are vying in 35th District.

Known as a legislator who often blocks bills or causes that challenge the conservative right, state Sen. John R. Lewis (R-Orange) knows how to play “political defense.”

But Lewis now finds himself in a different defensive posture, warily eyeing his Republican opponent in the June 2 primary for the 33rd Senate District.

Attorney Todd Thakar is trying to court the anti-incumbency protest votes by calling Lewis a “career politician” with a poor legislative record.

By contrast, there is no intra-party rancor in Orange County’s other state Senate race in the 35th District, where Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) is running unopposed in the primary. There are, however, two Democrats and a Libertarian candidate seeking the 35th District seat.

In the 33rd District race, Lewis, 37, and Thakar, 34, already have exchanged heated words.

Pointing to the low number of bills introduced by Lewis during his 10 years in the Assembly and one year in the Senate, Thakar said Lewis either “is an incompetent legislator, or he chooses to play party politics first. I think reelection should be about running on your record, and after 11 years in office, he has no legislative record.”

Lewis counters that Thakar has lived in Orange County since 1990 but did not vote in the 1991 special elections when Lewis was elected to the Senate and his successor, Mickey Conroy (R-Santa Ana), was elected to the Assembly.

“For someone to come forward and say, ‘I think this incumbent is doing a terrible job and we ought to throw him out,’ it rings hollow when he did not even bother to vote,” Lewis said, adding that Thakar has not lived in the district long enough to know the community.

As one of the most conservative senators in Sacramento, Lewis would seem to have little trouble winning reelection in one of the most Republican Senate districts in the state. The 33rd District, which encompasses the northern portion of Orange County and parts of San Clemente, has an almost 59% Republican registration.

After 10 years in the Assembly, Lewis won the Senate seat last year in a special election to fill a vacancy.

Like other incumbents seeking reelection, Lewis said he is mindful of the strong voter backlash against current officeholders. In fact, Lewis tried to get Thakar to bow out of the race, according to both candidates.

But while other potential candidates were dissuaded by Republican heavyweights from challenging incumbents for the sake of party unity, Lewis’ emissaries, including Senate Minority Leader Ken Maddy (R-Fresno), were shunned by Thakar.

Lewis has since lined up a $250,000 campaign budget to run against Thakar, who had raised about $40,000 at the end of March from donors who were mostly from outside Orange County, according to the most recent campaign finance reports.

In a recent campaign mailer, Lewis implied that Thakar is supported by those who want to raise taxes--a claim that Thakar strongly disputed and that Lewis later conceded were “just rumors.”

Lewis has also dismissed the criticism of his legislative record as being politically naive.

Charged with developing a strategy to help elect more Republicans to the Assembly, Lewis paints himself as a marked man who had little chance of getting legislation passed by the Democrat-controlled Assembly.

“It’s virtually impossible to pass legislation the way the Legislature is controlled by Willie Brown and the Willie Brown committee system,” Lewis said.

Since his election to the Senate, he added, he has introduced a pro-business legislative package aimed at reducing Air Quality Management District regulations for small businesses and capping the fines charged by the agency.

But Thakar called the legislative initiatives “election year politicking” and Lewis’ Assembly record “unacceptable.”

“Part of being a legislator is being able to go up there and legislate, and not to throw your hands up and say, ‘Willie Brown is going to gut everything I do,’ ” Thakar said.

Thakar previously worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Reagan Administration, and for then-U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson as his director of intergovernmental affairs before joining an Orange County law firm.

Even though he has lived in the city of Orange for only two years, Thakar said his experience in the U.S. Senate office kept him informed on local issues.

The most striking difference between Lewis and Thakar is on the issue of abortion rights.

Unlike Lewis, who opposes abortion rights, Thakar is in favor of a woman’s right to an abortion. But he argues for a “proactive” education campaign aimed at reducing unwanted pregnancies.

The Democratic candidate in the 33rd District primary, Samuel D. Eidt, 24, is a former political science student who decided to seek office because he wanted to become involved in government.

Conceding that a Democrat has a long shot at winning the seat, the insurance claim representative said he would like to help Democrats and Republicans work together in order to solve the state’s financial crisis.

“Taxing Twinkies is not going to solve California’s revenue problems,” he said, referring to the sales tax on snacks approved last year by the Legislature.

Libertarian Party candidate Doyle Guhy, 43, also said he is running to help carry his party’s banner, which holds the tenet that government’s sole purpose is to protect individual rights.

The financial consultant said the doctrine guides his “political” position in favor of abortion rights, even though he personally opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest, if the mother’s life is in danger, or if the fetus is “severely deformed.”

Meanwhile, in the state’s 35th Senate District, Democrats Dorianne Garcia, 33, a communications worker, and George A. Hanna, 61, a retired toolmaker, are competing for their party’s nomination to challenge Bergeson in the November general election.

The district, which generally runs along the coastal edge of Orange County and north to parts of Buena Park and Anaheim, is made up of a strong Republican majority--56% Republicans compared to 32% for Democrats.

“I would not expect a very strong challenge,” Bergeson said. “But I am always prepared.”

Garcia, a Democratic Party activist, said she decided to run when she realized that through redistricting, she had become a constituent of a Republican senator.

Running with the hope of improving workers’ rights--such as better health care, parental leave, and child-care benefits--Garcia said she also opposes Gov. Pete Wilson’s welfare reform plan.

“I think the welfare system does need to be fixed, I just don’t think it needs to be gutted and destroyed,” she said. “I do not want to see the children cut off from the necessities of life.”

Hanna is a supporter of ultraconservative Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. and breaks away from traditional Democratic Party positions.

He opposes abortion rights and does not believe that the survival of the gnatcatcher is an important campaign issue. “We need to have people survive,” he said.

Like Guhy in the 33rd District race, Libertarian Party candidate Eric Sprik, 39, said he became a candidate to increase public awareness of his party’s views.

The anti-incumbency mood sweeping across the country may help the Libertarian Party, Sprik said, as voters look for less government interference and an alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties.

“As more and more people see the futility of the way the drug war is being run, we are getting more support from people we never thought we would ever get support from,” Sprik said.

State Senate

Here are the candidates running for Orange County’s two state Senate District seats in the June 2 primary.

The Issues

The following are the questions asked each of the candidates:

Abortion Rights--Do you support or oppose abortion rights?

Education voucher--Do you support the proposed education initiative, which would provide parents with a voucher they can use to send their children to the school of their choice, including a private institution?

Health care plan--Do you support the California Medical Assn.’s proposed health care initiative, requiring all employers to provide basic coverage for any employee working more than half-time?

Gay rights--Do you support legislation similar to AB101, prohibiting discrimination by employers against homosexuals?

Welfare plan--Do you support Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposed welfare reform plan, calling for a minimum 10% reduction in welfare grants, incentives to stay in school and lower payments for new state residents?

Gnatcatcher--Should the California gnatcatcher, a rare bird that nests in areas targeted for development, be designated as a state endangered species?

33RD DISTRICT

REPUBLICANS

John R. Lewis

Age: 37

Home: Orange

Occupation: State senator

Background: Elected last year to the state Senate in a special election to fill the vacancy created by John Seymour’s appointment to the U.S. Senate. Served in the state Assembly from 1980 to 1991.

Issues: Abortion rights--opposes. Education voucher--supports. Health care plan--opposes. Gay rights--opposes. Welfare plan--supports, but is undecided on whether the governor should be given additional power during the budget process. Gnatcatcher--opposes.

Todd Thakar

Age: 34

Home: Orange

Occupation: Attorney

Background: Local government attorney. Before law school, served as special assistant to the regional administrator of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Also worked as the intergovernmental affairs director and special projects assistant for then-U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson during the mid-1980s.

Issues: Abortion rights--supports. Education voucher--undecided, but generally supports parental choice. Health care plan--opposes. Gay rights--opposes discrimination but does not believe anyone deserves special treatment. Welfare plan--supports. Gnatcatcher--opposes.

DEMOCRAT

Samuel D. Eidt

Age: 24

Home: Mission Viejo

Occupation: Insurance claims representative

Background: Political newcomer who became interested in politics while studying political science and economics in college.

Issues: Abortion rights--supports. Education voucher--opposes. Health care plan--opposes, but might favor a modified plan. Gay rights--would probably support legislation. Welfare plan--opposes portions of plan but favors reform. Gnatcatcher--supports.

LIBERTARIAN

Doyle Guhy

Age: 43

Home: Yorba Linda

Occupation: Accountant, financial consultant

Background: Self-employed for the last five years after working for an international accounting firm. Has been active in the Libertarian Party for one year, but has supported its candidates for more than 10 years.

Issues: Abortion rights--supports individual rights, according to the Libertarian Party philosophy. Education voucher--supports, with the goal to completely privatize educational system. Health care plan--opposes. Gay rights--opposes legislation because protection against discrimination already exists. Welfare plan--supports, with more stringent measures. Gnatcatcher--opposes.

35TH DISTRICT

REPUBLICAN

Marian Bergeson

Age: 64

Home: Newport Beach

Occupation: State senator

Background: Elected to the state Senate in 1984, becoming the first of two women Republican senators ever to be elected in the state’s history. Served in the Assembly for six years, beginning in 1978.

Issues: Abortion rights--opposes. Education voucher--opposes this proposal but advocates alternative that improves access for low-income students and targets low performing schools. Health care plan--opposes, but favors coordinated effort with worker compensation reform. Gay rights--opposes. Welfare plan--supports. Gnatcatcher--opposes, but favors a broader study of all potential endangered species.

DEMOCRATS

Dorianne Garcia

Age: 33

Home: Cypress

Occupation: Communications specialist

Background: Vice president of the Democratic Women of Orange County. Member of the Orange County Democratic Latino Caucus and vice chairwoman of the California Democratic Party Latino Caucus. Member of the California Democratic Party Central Committee.

Issues: Abortion rights--supports. Education voucher--opposes. Health care plan--supports. Gay rights--supports. Welfare plan--opposes, but feels some reform may be needed. Gnatcatcher--supports.

George A. Hanna

Age: 61

Home: Huntington Beach

Occupation: Retired toolmaker

Background: Born in Palestine and immigrated to the United States in 1949. Served four years in the Air Force before working in the aerospace and commercial tool manufacturing industry. Self-employed for five years before retiring.

Issues: Abortion rights--opposes. Education voucher--supports. Health care plan--supports only if it does not force entrepreneurs out of business. Gay rights--opposes legislation but also opposes discrimination against anyone. Welfare plan--opposes. Gnatcatcher--opposes.

LIBERTARIAN

Eric Sprik

Age: 39

Home: Costa Mesa

Occupation: Dry cleaner

Background: Unsuccessful candidate in the 1991 special election to fill an unexpired term in state’s 35th Senate District. Has supported the Libertarian Party for 10 years. President of the Costa Mesa chapter of the National Rifle Assn.

Issues: Abortion rights--supports individual rights. Education voucher--supports with goal to completely privatize educational system. Health care plan--opposes. Gay rights--opposes legislation because homosexuals should not be treated differently from other groups. Welfare plan--supports. Gnatcatcher--undecided.