Local Races a Lesson in Contradiction : Elections: A pro-woman, anti-incumbent mood that affected other areas did not prove decisive in the San Gabriel Valley.

A veteran congressman and a freshman assemblyman overcame strong opposition, the mayor of Diamond Bar scored an upset win in a congressional primary, and three Latina Democrats and a Republican insurance agent appeared headed for the Assembly after Tuesday’s primary elections in the San Gabriel Valley.

It was an election in which clear patterns were hard to discern.

Candidates backed by Gov. Pete Wilson and County Supervisor Gloria Molina both won and lost. Women won three Assembly nominations, but two others were soundly beaten--and one said lack of support from women played a big part in her loss. All the incumbents won renomination, but a veteran politician blamed the “anti-incumbency factor” for his defeat in a new congressional district.

Former Assemblyman Charles Bader, who lost the Republican nomination in the 41st Congressional District to Diamond Bar Mayor Jay Kim, said, “The voters were looking for a change and my opponents were able to tag me with incumbency.”

Bader, a former Pomona mayor who served eight years in the state Assembly before losing a bid for the state Senate two years ago, was called a “career politician” by opponents who pointed out that his name had been on the ballot 20 times in 21 years.

Kim, 53, the owner of an engineering design firm, agreed that Bader suffered because voters wanted change. “He’s a fine man, but it’s a bad time (for him to run),” Kim said.

Bader said the results also reflected the fact that he was outspent. Bader said he spent $185,000 on his campaign. Kim estimated his expenditures at $250,000, including $70,000 of his own money. The extra money helped Kim buy cable television commercials, which Bader shunned.

Bader, 52, recently sold his condominium management company, and he said he is uncertain of his plan, but he won’t run for political office again.

The new 41st Congressional District takes in part of three counties and includes Diamond Bar, Rowland Heights and part of Pomona.

Kim overcame Bader’s 1,000-vote edge in San Bernardino County by finishing first in Los Angeles County and second to attorney James V. Lacy of Yorba Linda in Orange County.

But incumbency proved no obstacle to other legislators seeking reelection. Instead, voters appeared to reward political experience and even nominated a veteran congressman and his daughter in districts that partially overlap.

In a race that some thought might be close but turned into a rout, Rep. Matthew G. Martinez (D-Monterey Park) received almost twice as many votes as his nearest opponent. In addition, he had the pleasure of seeing his daughter, Diane, emerge as the victor in the 49th Assembly District.

Diane Martinez, 39, a member of the Garvey school board, will be favored to beat Republican challenger Sophie Wong, 55, a member of the Alhambra school board, in the fall in the heavily Democratic district, which takes in Alhambra and Monterey Park.

Another Latina Democrat, Hilda Solis, 34, a member of the Rio Hondo College board, won a surprisingly easy victory Tuesday in the 57th Assembly District, and she, too, will be favored in November. The Republican winner in the 57th was Gary Woods, 48, a member of the Citrus College board.

Outside political clout proved decisive in the new 44th Assembly District but showed less clear results in other races.

Pasadena insurance agent Bill Hoge, backed by Assembly members Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) and Richard Mountjoy (R-Monrovia), finished well ahead of his closest competitor, former La Canada Flintridge Mayor Barbara Pieper, to win the Republican nomination in a field of 10 candidates. Jonathan S. Fuhrman, a business manager from Pasadena, scored a narrow victory in the Democratic race.

Pieper, a moderate Republican, lost to the more conservative Hoge, despite an endorsement by Gov. Wilson.

Meanwhile another candidate endorsed by Wilson, freshman Assemblyman Paul V. Horcher (R-Hacienda Heights) fared much better, easily beating Diamond Bar Councilwoman Phyllis Papen after a bitter campaign. Papen said her fight with Horcher isn’t over; she intends to pursue a lawsuit she filed against him over campaign charges.

“He needs a dictionary to find out what the word ethics means,” Papen said as she conceded defeat. “I’m not a sore loser, but I’m angry.”

Horcher said he was hoping for a more gracious response. “I think it is time for her to be magnanimous,” Horcher said. “I hope she’ll endorse me.”

The assemblyman, who won by a margin of 57% to 43% in the 60th Assembly District Republican primary, said Papen’s candidacy presented a challenge, but “I never had much doubt about the wisdom of the people of this district.”

Papen accused Horcher of lacking principles, kowtowing to special interests and deceiving voters by claiming to oppose tax increases while voting for a state budget that required tax hikes.

Meanwhile, Horcher accused Papen of ethical violations in voting on the Diamond Bar City Council to negotiate a trash contract with a company that employed her “live-in boyfriend” as a consultant.

Papen said there were no improprieties in her vote and she accused Horcher of invading her private life. Papen said she will pursue a lawsuit against Horcher over a television commercial because “he has made allegations that were not true.” Horcher replied simply: “We told the truth.”

Papen said she had too many obstacles to overcome, including strong support of Horcher by the governor and her inability to compete with Horcher in fund raising. Although she spent $75,000, Papen said Horcher spent much more. She said she was especially disappointed by her failure to attract financial help from Republican women.

“If Republican women want to see Republican women elected,” she said, “they’re going to have to contribute to their campaigns.”

Another Republican woman who failed to win Tuesday was Pomona Mayor Donna Smith, who finished third in her quest for a seat in the state Assembly. Chino Mayor Fred Aguiar, 43, a building executive, received more votes than the combined total of his two challengers, Smith and Ontario Councilman Gus Skropos. Smith has said she plans to complete the year she has left on her mayoral term.

In November, Aguiar will face Larry S. Simcoe, 54, a veteran Los Angeles County firefighter who won the Democratic nomination over two rivals.

As Republican women were faltering, Democrats were nominating three Latinas--Solis, Martinez and Norwalk Councilwoman Grace Napolitano--in three Assembly districts.

In the 58th Assembly District, which includes part of South El Monte, Napolitano took a $100,000 home equity loan on her home to raise money for a campaign in which she outspent four rivals.

At a jubilant party in her campaign headquarters, hundreds of well-wishers sang “Amazing Grace” as Napolitano, 55, stood to declare victory in the heavily Democratic district.

Solis received nearly half the total vote in the 57th District, while her opponents, La Puente Councilman Edward L. Chavez, who was backed by retiring Assemblywoman Sally Tanner for her seat, and water board member Anthony (Tony) Fellow, split the remainder.

Solis stressed her grass-roots support. More than 80% of her approximately $100,000 in campaign money came from donations of less than $100. Chavez had sought to portray her as part of a political machine backed by Supervisor Molina, but Solis said that strategy failed because voters were aware of her years of work in the community. “I was not a Johnny-come-lately and not part of a machine,” she said.

Molina’s endorsement may have helped Solis, but it failed to produce a victory for attorney Richard Fajardo, who finished a distant second to Diane Martinez in a field of four candidates in the 49th District Democratic primary.

Fajardo assailed Martinez in mailers as “the candidate of Sacramento special interests,” citing her campaign contributions from business, the insurance industry, the medical lobby and others.

Jeff Robinson, consultant to the Fajardo campaign, said the mailers pointed out that, although Martinez was campaigning as a “single mom running against three lawyers,” she was taking $4,000 in campaign donations from a trial lawyers association.

But, Robinson said, the attack on special interests contributions apparently failed to sway voters.

Meanwhile, Martinez barely mentioned her opponents in her mailers and used such tested gimmicks as distributing potholders and book bags to voters. She also sent out a ruler and an empty bullet casing in a mailer that asked voters whether they wanted to have the gang problem dealt with by her, “someone like you,” or “another lawyer who will debate courtroom procedures.”

Martinez said she thinks her election reflects a desire for change but not necessarily simple anti-incumbency.

“I think people are tired of business as usual,” she said. And because of that, Martinez said, she had an edge as a woman running against three men. To many voters, she said, “a woman represents the kind of change they want.”

Although Democratic voters may have opted for change in choosing Martinez, they apparently were satisfied with the status quo by strongly renominating her father for another term in Congress over a determined challenger, Bonifacio Bonny Garcia, a San Gabriel attorney. Garcia, who received only half as many votes as Martinez, said he detected a surge in the last weeks of his campaign, but it obviously was too little, too late. In addition, he said, he was handicapped by the fact that he had never run for political office before.

He said he expects to run again. “The way we ran the campaign got us a (political) base,” he said.

In Congress for 10 years, Martinez often has been labeled a political lightweight by analysts, and he has been repeatedly challenged by opponents who thought he was vulnerable. But Martinez has continued to win elections.

Martinez, 63, said there is no secret to his success beyond the fact that he does a much better job than he has been given credit for.

“I don’t need to get acclaim from the press. I know I did a good job,” he said.

Martinez ran a low-key campaign in which he spent about $50,000, according to his chief-of-staff, Maxine Grant. Garcia spent more than $100,000.

In November, Martinez will face Republican Reuben Franco, a 31-year-old San Gabriel businessman, who won the nomination over Nick (Nisar) Hai, an engineering contractor. It will be a rematch of a race that Martinez won easily two years ago.

In the 27th Congressional District, Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale) was an easy winner over two Republican challengers and will face the Democratic winner, Doug Kahn, an Altadena business owner, in the fall.

Rep. David Dreier (R-La Verne) was unopposed for the Republican nomination in the 28th Congressional District, which is considered a safe Republican seat. Al Wachtel, a professor at Pitzer College, won the Democratic nomination.

* In another election Tuesday, one sitting municipal judge was a winner but a second lost. Story, J3