Election ’92 : Flores Outpolls Reagan, Beverly in Closely Watched Race : Congress: The only survivor among the relatives of well-known politicians is Evan Anderson Braude.

The South Bay’s bumper crop of scions running for Congress withered to one--Evan Anderson Braude--as unofficial returns Wednesday showed primary voters panning Maureen Reagan, Bill Beverly, Ada Unruh and Lynn Dymally.

Reagan, former President Ronald Reagan’s daughter, and Beverly, son of state Sen. Robert Beverly (R-Manhattan Beach), ran second and third, respectively, to Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores in the 36th Congressional District’s closely watched Republican race.

Meanwhile, Unruh, daughter-in-law of the late state Treasurer Jesse Unruh, placed a distant second to Washington attorney Jane Harman among the Democrats competing for the open seat in the 36th, which hugs the coast from San Pedro to Venice.

And hopes for a Dymally dynasty appeared doomed in the nearby 37th District, which reaches from Wilmington and Carson to Lynwood. Compton Mayor Walter Tucker III inched past Compton School board trustee Lynn Dymally after a bitter Democratic primary campaign to succeed Dymally’s father, the retiring Rep. Mervyn Dymally (D-Compton.)

The only survivor among the relatives of well-known politicians was Braude--winner of the Democratic race in the 38th Congressional District, which stretches from south Wilmington and Long Beach to Downey. The seat became open when Braude’s stepfather, longtime Rep. Glenn Anderson (D-Harbor City), decided not to seek reelection.

Experts said the results fit a pattern: Voters aren’t easily wowed by a famous last name. Said USC political science professor H. Eric Schockman: “Dynasties are hard to continue in American politics. It’s hard to pass the baton.”

Only one South Bay congressional district Tuesday lacked an attempt at baton-passing. In the 35th, which includes Inglewood, Hawthorne and South-Central Los Angeles, incumbent Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) crushed her sole primary opponent, Roger A. Young, collecting more than 89% of the vote.

Though Waters will face Republican Nate Truman, and Libertarian and Peace and Freedom candidates in November, her primary win in the overwhelmingly Democratic district virtually ensures her reelection.

Perhaps the most widely followed attempts at political succession Tuesday came in the 36th Congressional District’s GOP primary, in which Beverly and Reagan lost to Flores despite strong backing from their well-known fathers.

With all 550 of the district’s precincts reporting, Flores had won 34.01% of the vote compared to 30.63% for Reagan and 11.43% for Beverly, the third-place finisher.

Although some uncounted ballots cast by absentee and Ross Perot write-in voters will be tabulated beginning today, Flores appeared confident that her margin over Reagan--more than 2,000 votes--will prove sufficient.

Others agreed. Said Beverly on Wednesday: “I’d feel pretty comfortable ordering new bumper stickers if I were Joan.”

The primary drew attention not only for the big-name appeal of its three front-runners, but also for the ideological sweep they represent. Flores, who supports government curbs on abortion, was considered well to the right of Beverly and Reagan, both of whom favor abortion rights.

Despite the GOP’s voter registration edge in the 36th, some experts believe that Flores’ conservative stances will put her in a tough general election fight with the well-financed Harman, whose motto is “Pro-Choice, Pro-Change.” Harman said Wednesday that she expects to benefit from the same political forces buoying two other Democratic women who won on Tuesday--U.S. Senate candidates Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.

“All the results are showing that strong, qualified women who are pro-choice are getting enormous support,” said Harman, who easily dispatched Unruh, the second-place finisher in a seven-way race, 45% to 16%. “I expect a very tough fight, but I expect to win it.”

Flores said voters will consider Harman too far to the left. Said the councilwoman on Wednesday: “There is a clear difference in philosophy here. I’m much more conservative than she.”

To marshal Republicans, however, Flores probably will have to mend some fences. Her mailings, some of which portrayed Reagan as a carpetbagger and unqualified, clearly annoyed her chief rival, who was laconic on election night.

Reagan, who failed in a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1982, did not appear at her campaign party at the Ramada Renaissance Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport until 10 minutes before midnight. In terse replies to questions, she indicated she thought Flores had waged a dirty campaign, citing mailings by her rival that questioned her qualifications and carried titles including “What’s In a Name” and “Ronald Reagan and Bob Beverly Are Not Running for Congress.”

Asked why she had arrived so late--the crowd, which at one point in the evening had numbered about 200, had dwindled to about half that by the time she arrived--Reagan said only, “Just bad scheduling.”

Earlier, campaign workers seemed at a loss to explain why Reagan had not yet shown up. When pressed as to her exact location, her husband, Dennis Revell, testily responded, “Any other questions about that come under the category of none of your business.” He said it twice.

The scene was far different at Flores’ headquarters, a converted children’s clothing store on Pacific Coast Highway in Torrance. There, the candidate, awaiting results with her supporters, expressed confidence all night long that she would win.

The optimism was based largely on Flores’ strong showing in the district during her only other run for higher office--an unsuccessful attempt in 1990 to unseat Secretary of State March Fong Eu, a Democrat.

Flores bristled when told that Reagan believed she had run a dirty campaign. She charged that it was Reagan who had gone too far by sending out a last-minute mailer portraying the councilwoman as a close ally of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, denouncing it as “untrue and racist.”

She termed her own mailings legitimate “comparisons” that helped the public see beyond Reagan’s well-known last name. Said Flores, who began her city hall career as a stenographer: “What (the election) shows is that not everyone can grow up to be the President’s daughter . . . but almost anybody can grow up to be a congressperson.”

37th District

In the 37th District, Tucker, the Compton mayor, declared victory only after the last regular ballots were counted at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. Dymally conceded the election about the same time, campaign workers said.

Indeed, the campaign for the solidly Democratic district was among the ugliest of Tuesday’s congressional races. Hit pieces, name-calling and public brawls were the rule.

“I thought this would be a tough fight, a hard fight, but not this close,” Tucker said.

With only 827 votes separating Tucker from Dymally, and an unknown number of ballots still uncounted and in the hands of the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder’s office, election officials acknowledged it was still possible for Lynn Dymally to wrest 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 a hall--and by 9:30 p.m., one only had to stand in a hallway and listen to whose party was louder to gauge who was ahead.

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

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

Tucker, accompanied by his wife, Robin, made only brief forays into his packed campaign party, periodically retreating into an upstairs room. 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 hours, Dymally and Tucker seesawed in the polls. Dymally was up by 5%, then tied with Tucker, then ahead again by fewer than 100 votes. Tucker gained a full 1% lead at midnight as both camps retreated to their hotel rooms to anxiously watch televised results.

Both Tucker and Lynn Dymally quickly took the lead from their other three challengers, including former Carson Councilwoman Vera Robles Dewitt, who portrayed herself as someone who was not the offspring of “slick politicians.”

“I’m disappointed,” Dewitt said after the voting trend had become clear. “The real issues were never discussed in this race. Instead, the focus was who could muddy whom the most.”

38th District

In the 38th District, a much ballyhooed fight among eight Republicans for the seat left vacant by Rep. Glenn M. Anderson, quickly boiled down to a fierce tug-of-war between former Cal State Long Beach President Steve Horn and former Assemblyman Dennis Brown.

If the unaccounted ballots confirm his narrow victory, Horn will square off in November against Braude, the Long Beach city councilman.

Brown took the early lead in the race and, with Horn hot on his heels, the pair quickly outdistanced their opposition. However, as the hours passed, Horn took the lead-and inched toward victory by a mere 400 votes.

With an unknown number of ballots still out, Horn still had not declared victory as of Wednesday. All late-arriving absentee ballots and ballots with write-in votes for Ross Perot have been set aside and must be hand counted, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County registrar’s office said. She said she had no idea how many ballots that might be.

“Nobody seems to know how many (votes) are out,” said Horn’s son and campaign manager, Steve Horn Jr. “(My father) is cautiously optimistic. He’ll 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.

On Tuesday night, while some 100 supporters awaited election results 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, hired consultants or donations from political action committees.

Horn also flooded the district with mailers, free of negative attacks on his opponents, and last week took the innovative step of mailing 20,000 videos to Republican homes. In the video, a plain-spoken Horn explains his positions on various issues, including a pro-choice stance and an interest in overhauling national health care.

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

“Obviously, I’m on the City Council,” Braude said. “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.”

Times staff writers Tina Griego and Greg Krikorian and correspondent Gordon Dillow contributed to this report.