One-Third of Assembly May Be Newcomers

California voters appear poised to reshape the state Assembly in November by filling at least one-third of the seats with new faces, including more minorities and women, and possibly handing Republicans control of the Legislature’s lower house for the first time since 1970.

Most of the newcomers will take seats left vacant by incumbents who are retiring or running for higher office as the once-a-decade redrawing of district lines and the prospect of limited terms for legislators prompt what may be the greatest turnover of members in the Assembly’s history.

Five incumbents were turned out in Tuesday’s primaries, including one who had abandoned his campaign and four others pitted against each other in two races when the district lines were redrawn.

Carson City Councilwoman Juanita McDonald may exemplify the trend. A woman, a black and a newcomer to state politics, she took advantage of the redrawn lines to capture the Democratic nomination in the 55th District by handily defeating two veteran lawmakers: Dave Elder of San Pedro and Richard E. Floyd of Carson.

McDonald said Wednesday that Elder and Floyd “came up with the same old rhetoric” during the campaign while she sought to describe a fresh approach to the problems of the district, which suffers from high unemployment and other urban ailments. She said Floyd, perhaps best known for writing the state’s mandatory motorcycle helmet law, seemed “obnoxious and aloof” while Elder at times was ill-prepared.

“I saw they were weak and I went after their weaknesses,” McDonald said in an interview. McDonald’s primary victory is tantamount to election in her heavily Democratic district, which should ensure that African-Americans retain their hold on seven seats in the Assembly, even as Assemblywoman Teresa Hughes of Los Angeles moves up to the state Senate.

Elsewhere in Democratic primaries, Los Angeles County voters nominated five new Latinos, including four women, in districts designed to allow Latino voters, if they vote as a bloc, to control the outcome of elections. Another Latino, Assemblyman Richard Polanco of Los Angeles, won renomination and is expected to be returned to office in November.

If all of them win, the new Assembly will have six Latinos when it convenes in December, up from four in the current 80-member house.

And for the first time in 12 years, the Assembly probably will have an Asian-American, perhaps two, in its ranks. Oxnard Mayor Nao Takasugi won the GOP nomination in Ventura County’s strongly Republican 37th District. In the 3rd District in Northern California, farmer and lawyer Lon Hatamiya won the Democratic nomination but will face an uphill battle in the fall, because the district leans Republican. Both are Japanese-Americans.

Women also seem assured of upping their numbers in the house, at least modestly. There are 17 women in the Assembly today, and six are either retiring or running for another office. But seven new women already appear certain to win in the fall, based on the primary election results and voting trends in the districts, and three to five others have a chance at victory.

Altogether, 20 members of the Assembly chose to retire this year or run for higher office. With the five incumbents defeated Tuesday and a few more looking at tough races in the fall, 25 to 30 new faces could take office. Republicans see the turnover as a historic opportunity to seize control of the Assembly.

Although the house is divided 47 to 33 in favor of Democrats, they built that big margin by winning elections in districts that Democrats drew in 1982. But last year, when the time came to draw new boundaries reflecting population shifts detected in the 1990 census, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed the Democratic plans, saying they were unfair to his party.

The deadlock handed the task to the state Supreme Court, which crafted a plan expected to yield Republican gains. Wilson hopes enough GOP candidates will win to give his party control of the Assembly and end the reign of Democratic Speaker Willie Brown of San Francisco, who has presided over the house since 1980.

The governor also would like to shape that Republican delegation in his image--in support of abortion rights, balancing business and environmental interests, favoring the use of government programs to solve social problems. To do so, he backed 19 candidates in Tuesday’s primaries, including 11 in districts where there was no Republican incumbent.

All the incumbents Wilson backed won renomination as expected. In the races where no GOP incumbent was on the ballot, Wilson’s choices won eight and lost three.

“We’re extremely pleased with the results of the primaries,” said Dan Schnur, the governor’s communications director.

But others chose to interpret the results differently. A group of conservative Assembly Republicans who have been at odds with Wilson pointed out that they endorsed 14 candidates, and 12 won. In four races for open seats where the two factions went head-to-head, each won two.

The California Republican Assembly, a conservative grass-roots group, and the anti-abortion California Pro-Life Council also claimed victory at Wilson’s expense.

John Stoos, vice president of the California Republican Assembly and executive director of Gun Owners of California, described Wilson’s performance as “dismal.” He noted that many of those endorsed by Wilson actually have positions on many issues that contradict Wilson policies. Of 18 primaries in districts where Republicans think they have a good chance to win an open seat or oust a weak Democratic incumbent, Stoos said, conservatives won 15.

Of those 15, all but two oppose abortion rights, all oppose gun control and most campaigned on a pledge to seek repeal of $7.5 billion in taxes Wilson supported last year to balance the state budget, Stoos said.

“The reality is, the conservatives routed the open seats,” Stoos said.

There were rumblings in Sacramento on Wednesday that the conservatives in the Assembly were preparing to seek the ouster of Republican Leader Bill Jones of Fresno, who sided with Wilson on the budget last summer and then took the leadership post from conservative Ross Johnson of La Habra, whom Wilson had criticized.

But Jones aide Phil Perry said the GOP leader was confident he could retain his job and was looking forward to challenging the Democrats in November.

“We think we have a winning crop of candidates,” Perry said. “We don’t care who was backing them in the primary, if they’re Republicans, we’re going to throw all our weight behind them and make sure they get elected. That’s our only concern.”

Wilson, speaking to a Republican breakfast meeting in Los Angeles on Wednesday, said his party has “no excuse now” if it fails to wrest control of the Assembly from the Democrats.

“It is up to us,” he said, to make sure that “a win on paper, in terms of reapportionment, becomes a win in reality for the people of California.”

But Jimmy Lewis, press secretary for Speaker Brown, said Brown was confident of retaining control of the Assembly in November.

“The Speaker believes there will be at least 41 Democratic votes for Willie Brown as Speaker and very likely more than that,” Lewis said.

Endorsed by Wilson

Gov. Pete Wilson endorsed 19 Assembly candidates in Tuesday’s primaries as part of his campaign to obtain a Republican voting majority in the lower house. Here’s how they fared. The primary winners will compete in the general election in November.

Assembly Status Candidate District in Primary Votes % WINNERS * David Knowles (incumbent) AD 4 Unopposed 44,999 100 * B.T. Collins (incumbent) AD 5 Opposed 22,063 52 * Albert Aramburu AD 6 Opposed 17,408 52 * Janet Nicholas AD 7 Unopposed 26,792 100 * Richard K. Rainey AD 15 Opposed 37,763 77 * Dean Andal (incumbent) AD 17 Unopposed 21,152 100 * Nao Takasugi AD 37 Opposed 10,998 31 * Gerald N. Felando (incumbent) AD 54 Opposed 28,676 79 * Paul Horcher (incumbent) AD 60 Opposed 16,200 57 * Fred Aguiar AD 61 Opposed 9,956 50 * Paul A. Woodruff (incumbent) AD 65 Opposed 21,630 62 * Jo Ellen Allen AD 69 Opposed 6,811 57 * Mickey Conroy (incumbent) AD 71 Opposed 28,663 62 * Jan Goldsmith AD 75 Opposed 22,841 49 * Jeffrey I. Marston AD 78 Opposed 24,524 72 * Tricia Rae Hunter (incumbent) AD 80 Opposed 13,315 45 LOSERS * Barbara Pieper AD 44 Opposed 9,878 24 * Veronica Delaney AD 76 Opposed 12,708 42 * Gregory R. Cox AD 77 Opposed 15,077 45

SOURCE: Final unofficial voting results from secretary of state

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Bill Billiter, Howard Blume, Anna Cekola, Marla Cone, Sam Enriquez, Ken Garcia, Gary Gorman, Greg Hernandez, Nancy Hill-Holtzman, Bernice Hirabayashi, Richard Holguin, Barry Horstman, Lisa Macaro, Gebe Martinez, Patt Morrison, Jim Quinn, George Ramos and Mike Ward.