ELECTIONS:ASSEMBLY : Reapportioned District Gives Edge to Margolin : Politics: The veteran assemblyman is running for reelection in the new heavily Democratic 42nd.

In the dash for safe seats brought about by reapportionment, Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles) appears to have emerged a winner.

The veteran assemblyman, elected in 1980, is running for reelection in the heavily Democratic 42nd Assembly District. The new district, which contains much of the turf Margolin represented in the 1980s, includes most of the Westside north of Wilshire Boulevard and east of the San Diego Freeway (405), and crosses the Santa Monica Mountains to include the southern edge of the San Fernando Valley.

Margolin, 39, won his 1990 reelection bid with 65% of the vote, with his Republican challenger receiving only 29%. This year, he has drawn one Democratic challenger, attorney John J. Duran.

Duran, 32, a resident of West Hollywood, is a member of the California Commission on Hate Crimes. He says he plans to spend $50,000 on his campaign to unseat Margolin and has raised $32,000 to date.

This week, Duran said, he is mailing to 20,000 district voters a videotape featuring an endorsement of his candidacy by Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, a candidate for the U.S. Senate. He has also targeted the district’s 40,000 gay and lesbian voters, who will receive a separate mailer. Duran is the statewide chairman of Life Lobby, the organization that proposed the gay and lesbian rights legislation vetoed last year by Gov. Pete Wilson.

Margolin and Duran share similar views. Both support abortion rights, capital punishment in some instances and social programs such as a proposal to require California businesses to provide health insurance to employees.

“As a gay-rights attorney, I have seen the devastating impact of HIV disease,” Duran said. “Health care is a right, not a privilege. Healthy workers lead to increased productivity. Uninsured workers lead to personnel turnover, absenteeism and decreased efficiency.”

Margolin said the proposed requirement should be “absolutely tied to a major health care cost-containment package that gives employers guaranteed controls on their health spending.”

He pointed out that he is the author of a bill to create a universal health system based on the employer’s choice of financing, which would also give employers a cap on increases in their health premiums.

The two differ slightly on welfare reform. Duran does not support Wilson’s proposal to reduce welfare benefits to families, but Margolin said he agrees with that portion of the plan that limits welfare for new arrivals in the state.

“The reduction in grants for families already on welfare won’t solve the problem,” Margolin said. “Poor children will suffer. An expanded workfare program would make more sense.”

Duran said Wilson has “vilified welfare mothers with children as a threat to our society.” If the governor wants welfare reform, he said, “he should link it to child care. Mothers won’t abandon their children to latch-key status. Providing for child care will free mothers to re-enter the work force.”

Republicans Robert K. Davis, a contractor and West Hollywood human services commissioner, and Chauncey J. Medberry, a Los Angeles businessman, are competing for long-shot honor of running against the Democratic winner in November. Only 29% of the registered voters in the district are Republicans.

Davis, 47, also ran for the Republican nomination against Margolin in 1990 but lost to Elizabeth Michael in the primary. Like his Democratic opponents, he supports the death penalty and abortion rights.

However, he does not believe the state’s businesses should be required to fund health insurance for their employees. “People should pay for it themselves or through general taxation and not burden business,” Davis said.

He said a national health-care system would not work. “I do not believe in socialized medicine, which is what all these proposals are, even if they deny the word.”

If elected, Davis said he would work toward cutting taxation in half.

Medberry could not be reached for comment.

Also on the ballot are Libertarian Andrew S. Rotter of Los Angeles, a retired attorney, and Peace and Freedom party candidate Timothy Burdick, also of Los Angeles, an office worker.

Assembly District 42 Where: Most of the Westside east of the San Diego Freeway and nort of Wilshire Boulevard. Democrat:

John J. Duran, civil rights attorney

Burt Margolin, assemblyman Republican:

Robert K. Davis, businessman

Chauncer J. Medberry, businessman Libertarian:

Andrew S. Rotter, historian, retired lawyer Peace and Freedom:

Timothy Burdck, office worker Party Registration:

Democrat: 58%

Republican: 29%

Demographics:

Anglo: 79%

Latino: 10%

Black: 3%

Asian7%