CONGRESS: Tucker, Horn Appear Victorious in...

The champagne and soda had gone flat, the chips were just crumbs and most of the supporters had already headed home to bed, but in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, a drama was being played out in two of the Southeast’s central Congressional districts.

Throughout Tuesday evening and long past midnight, Compton Unified School District Trustee Lynn Dymally and Compton Mayor Walter R. Tucker III jockeyed back and forth in a nerve-racking battle for lead position in the 37th District, which includes Compton, Carson and Hawthorne.

Meanwhile, in the neighboring 38th Congressional district, which includes most of Long Beach, the vote tally in the Republican primary seesawed between former Cal State Long Beach President Steve Horn and former California Assemblyman Dennis Brown.

In the end, Tucker and Horn appeared to have edged out their rivals by a handful of votes, wrapping up two of the hardest fought Southeast-area Congressional primaries.

Southeast area voters went to the polls Tuesday to select representatives in five Congressional districts--four of which have open seats.

Despite the unique opportunity to change the face of the area Congressional delegation, preliminary reports indicate that the voter turnout in the area was very light, about 28%. Unofficial exit polls at several precincts revealed a number of voters who said they voted against anyone who was in office or seemed to be a political insider; many also cast their ballots for women.

Dymally, daughter of Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton), appeared to get caught in the cross-fire. Accused on one side of riding her father’s coattails, and praised on the other side for being strong-minded and intelligent, Dymally saw her early lead over Tucker slip away during the night.

There is still a chance, however, that Dymally and Brown could wrest the lead from their rivals. An unknown number of ballots have been set aside by the Los Angeles county registrar of voters to be hand-counted. Among them are late absentee ballots and write-in votes, including those for Ross Perot for president. Spokeswoman Marcia Ventura said the registrar’s office hopes to have the ballots counted by June 22.

Though the November general election still lies ahead, the primary results indicate that this winter the new Southeast-area congressional delegation is likely to be as ethnically diverse as the Southeast itself--made up of a black lawyer, a Latina assemblywoman, a Latino assemblyman, and two Anglo men.

Below is a summary of each Southeast-area race.

33rd DISTRICT

( Bell, Bell Gardens, Commerce, Cudahy, South Gate, Huntington Park, Maywood, Vernon, Florence, Walnut Park; parts of Downey, Los Angeles, East Los Angeles .)

As predicted, Assemblywoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles) blew past her two opponents and will head into the November general election the heavy favorite.

The 49-year-old lawmaker captured almost 75% of the vote, setting her on her way down the path her retiring father, Rep. Edward R. Roybal (D-Los Angeles), blazed to Congress three decades ago.

Roybal-Allard easily fended off challenges from paralegal Lucy F. Kihm and real estate broker Frank Fernandez in the newly drawn district, which is 84% Latino--the highest Latino concentration of any congressional district in the country.

Roybal-Allard ran a low-profile campaign, highlighting her battles against a proposed industrial incinerator and toxic-waste recycling plant in the city of Vernon. She will face Republican educational consultant Robert Guzman in November, but given the overwhelming number of Democrats in the district, she is expected to win with little problem.

34th DISTRICT

( Montebello, Norwalk, Pico Rivera, Santa Fe Springs, Whittier; parts of Commerce, East Los Angeles, Hacienda Heights .)

While candidates in neighboring congressional districts were nervously waiting out Tuesday evening’s vote count, Rep. Esteban E. Torres (D-Pico Rivera) and his challengers, Republican J. (Jay) Hernandez and Libertarian Carl M. Swinney were looking ahead to November.

The trio faced no opposition in Tuesday’s primary. Torres got about 65% of the votes cast by both parties, but only about 22% of the voters turned out.

“I keep telling people that the real fight doesn’t begin until after (the primary),” said Victor Valenzuela, Hernandez’s campaign manager. But with Democrats holding a solid voting majority in the district, the 62-year-old Torres is a strong favorite to win his sixth term in the House.

37th DISTRICT

(Carson, Lynwood, Wilmington, Willowbrook, most of Compton; parts of Athens, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Paramount.)

Hopes for a Dymally dynasty in the 37th Congressional District appeared doomed Wednesday as Tucker inched past Lynn Dymally after a bitter campaign to succeed her father.

“I thought this would be a tough fight, a hard fight, but not this close,” Tucker said. He declared victory only after the last regular ballots were counted at 3:30 a.m. Dymally conceded the election about the same time, her campaign workers said.

However, with only 827 votes separating Tucker from Dymally and an unknown number of ballots still uncounted at the Los Angeles County registrar’s office, a registrar spokeswoman acknowledged that it was still possible for Lynn Dymally to grab the lead from Tucker.

If Tucker’s victory holds, he is virtually guaranteed a Congressional seat. His only opposition in November will be Peace and Freedom candidate B. Kwaku Duren, who captured 107 votes Tuesday.

Both Tucker and Dymally held election watch celebrations at the city-owned Ramada Hotel--in meeting rooms directly across each other. By 9:30 p.m., anyone in the hallway could gauge who was ahead in the polls by which party was louder.

Dymally drifted through her party calmly--much of the time standing alone, composed. But her father said his daughter’s campaign was much harder on his nerves than any of his own battles.

“If I were a drinking man, I’d be an alcoholic by now,” Mervyn Dymally said.

Tucker didn’t make his first appearance at his campaign party until about 9:40 p.m. With his wife, Robin, Tucker made only brief ventures into the packed party, then retreated to his room upstairs. Each time he made an appearance, however, the room was transformed into a dance party--with a hip-hop band and hundreds of well-wishers turning the phrase “Go Walter” into a dance number.

As precincts were counted and results announced throughout the evening and early morning, Dymally and Tucker fought for the lead. Dymally was up by 5%, then tied with Tucker, then ahead again by less than 100 votes. Tucker gained a full 1% lead at midnight and both candidates retreated to their hotel rooms to anxiously watch televised results.

Without their candidates in sight, supporters steadily left the parties until Dymally’s hired band was playing to a completely empty room about 1 a.m. By then, the Dymallys were enclosed in their room, seeing only a few loyal supporters.

Meanwhile, Tucker’s hotel room was crammed with at least 30 people, all watching eagerly as he called the registrar of voters for more news. Tucker jotted down the figures on a strip of notebook paper, announcing his lead to a room that roared with approval and called him “congressman.”

Both Tucker and Lynn Dymally quickly took the lead from their other three challengers, including former Carson City Councilwoman Vera Robles Dewitt, who had urged voters to choose her as a candidate who is not the offspring of “slick politicians.”

“I’m disappointed,” Dewitt said Tuesday night. “The real issues were never discussed in this race. Instead the focus was who could muddy whom the most.”

Indeed, the campaign for the 37th District, was by far the ugliest of all Southeast-area congressional races. Hit pieces, name-calling and public shouting matches were common occurrences during the race.

38th DISTRICT

( Bellflower, Downey, Lakewood, Paramount, Signal Hill, most of Long Beach .)

A much-ballyhooed fight among eight Republicans for the seat left vacant by Rep. Glenn M. Anderson quickly boiled down Tuesday night into a fierce tug-of-war between Horn and Brown. Brown took the early lead in the race and, with Horn hot on his heels, the pair quickly outdistanced their opposition. However, as the day grew late, Horn inched toward victory with a mere 400-vote lead.

But with an unknown number of ballots still out, Horn still had not declared victory Wednesday morning, according to his son and campaign manager, Steve Horn Jr.

“(My father) is cautiously optimistic,” the younger Horn said. “He will declare victory when the registrar says he’s won.”

Brown, who eschewed an election party Tuesday night for a quiet dinner with family and friends, did not return numerous phone calls.

If the uncounted ballots confirm his victory, Horn will square off with Long Beach City Councilman Evan Anderson Braude in November.

On Tuesday night, while some 100 supporters awaited returns at Jay’s Deli in Long Beach, Horn attributed the success of his campaign to a “major grass-roots effort” that helped him run without paid staff, consultants or donations from political-action committees.

Horn also flooded the district with mailers, which featured no negative attacks on his opponents. And last week, he mailed 20,000 videos to Republican homes. In the video, the plain-spoken Horn explains his positions on issues including his pro-choice stance on abortion and his interest in overhauling national health care.

Meanwhile, in the Democratic race, Braude easily won over his opponents, including Peter Mathews, a liberal college professor who took 27% of the vote compared to Braude’s 41%.

“Obviously, I’m on the City Council,” said Braude, stepson of Anderson, the retiring congressman. “People have some measurement to judge by. Our literature was direct. We didn’t attack anyone else--unlike some of my opponents. Besides, we had ideas.”

Braude may not have as easy a time in November, however, if the final tallies confirm that he must take on Horn. Braude’s political record is clearly distinct from Brown, an ultraconservative Republican. But voters may have a tougher choice between Braude and Horn, a moderate.

39th DISTRICT

( Artesia, Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens, La Habra Heights , parts of Hacienda Heights, La Mirada, Long Beach; several Orange County cities .)

Fullerton City Councilwoman Molly McClanahan quickly leaped to the lead and stayed there in her Democratic primary battle against Whittier attorney Garry Hamud.

By evening’s end, McClanahan, had captured 70% of the vote and was on her way to a showdown with Republican state Sen. Edward R. Royce and Libertarian Jack Dean. Royce faced no Republican challenger and is the heavy favorite in the November general election. The district, left open by Rep. William E. Dannemeyer’s decision to run for U.S. Senate, has more Republican voters than Democrats.

Times staff writer Roxana Kopetman and community correspondent Emily Adams contributed to this report.