Sparks Expected as 2 Moderates Vie for a U.S. House Seat

Long Beach professor Steve Horn’s apparent victory over former Assemblyman Dennis Brown in last Tuesday’s Republican primary for the 38th Congressional District sets the stage for a November battle that has political strategists rubbing their hands together in anticipation.

Brown conceded defeat to Horn after semi-official results showed that Horn had edged him out by 400 votes. Because an unknown number of absentee and write-in ballots remain to be counted, a cautious Horn has yet to declare victory.

That, however, is not stopping anyone from speculating on the outcome of a Horn battle with Democratic primary winner Evan Anderson Braude, a Long Beach councilman who hopes to fill the seat of his retiring stepfather, Rep. Glenn M. Anderson (D-San Pedro).

Horn is considered a moderate Republican, Braude a moderate Democrat. Both are abortion rights advocates. Both have roots in Long Beach. Both are certain to have the backing of their parties and all the money that brings.

The 38th has slightly more registered Democrats than Republicans, but traditionally, many of the Democrats have voted Republican.

“It’s a seat that both parties will want and a matchup of people of similar views,” Brown said. “The makeup of the district is fairly equal. It’s probably going to be one of the hottest races in the country.”

Republican consultant Tom Shortridge said that, had Brown won the primary, the party may have had a tougher time in its quest to wrest the district from longtime Democratic control. But, he said, “The party can sell Horn to Democrats. It would have been harder than hell to sell Dennis Brown to Democrats.”

Steve Horn Jr., who is running his father’s campaign, said that several Democrats have already said they will form a Democrats for Horn committee.

Meanwhile, Braude is not worried about being confused with his rival.

“There’s a long way to go before November, and there are a lot of factors involved,” Braude said. “As the months go along people will find that there are a lot of things that divide us. Even if we assume, just for argument’s sake, that maybe we are the same on 95% of the issues, then other things will come into play, like background. . . . We are going to take the lead, and we are going to fight it to the end.”

Horn was out of town and could not be reached for comment, but his thoughts on the showdown were made clear in a videotape he mailed out to 20,000 voters shortly before the primary. Near the tape’s end, Horn stares straight into the camera and says: “I know I can beat Braude, and I know Braude doesn’t want to face me, because he knows I can beat him.”

CALM IN COMPTON. While two of its members were anxiously awaiting election returns Tuesday night, the other three members of the bitterly divided Compton City Council had one of the shortest meetings in recent memory.

Bernice Woods, Jane D. Robbins and Omar Bradley dispensed with city business in just a little more than 45 minutes.

“Without all that bickering, we could concentrate on city business,” Bradley said after making an appearance at Lynn Dymally’s campaign party at the Compton Ramada Hotel.

Both he and Woods showed up to support Dymally--the rival of Compton Mayor Walter R. Tucker III for the 37th Congressional seat. Tucker beat Dymally by more than 1,300 votes.

City Council meetings of late have lasted four or five hours and have been marked by heated arguments and personal insults between the Woods-Robbins-Bradley faction and Tucker and his one ally, Councilwoman Patricia A. Moore.

Moore lost her race for the state’s 52nd Assembly District. The full council is expected to reconvene Tuesday, and City Hall insiders hope that, with the election season over, peace will return to the Compton council.

AFTER MIDNIGHT. At campaign parties across the region, boisterous crowds of supporters became fidgety, frustrated and then weary over tallies that had little substance until well after midnight.

Inevitably, well-wishers started going home, leaving behind nervous candidates, a few loyal supporters and the hypnotic glow of television election coverage. As winners were declaring victory in some statewide races, local candidates were wondering what was taking so long.

In Room 640 of the Ramada Hotel in Compton, Assembly candidate Evelyn Wells and die-hard friends watched the inconclusive election results in semidarkness as used plates and glasses from the party piled up outside the door.

“We’re anxious to find out what’s happening,” she said at midnight, four hours after the polls closed. “It seems like with the computer age, everything should be real quick, but it doesn’t seem to be working out that way.”

The lighting was better but the scene much the same at the Sheraton Hotel in Cerritos. Supporters of state Senate candidate Daniel K. Wong cracked hundreds of fortune cookies while waiting for a more scientific barometer on Wong’s future.

“I hope we’ll congratulate you tomorrow,” a weary supporter told Wong before bailing out at 11 p.m.

“If not tomorrow, then in two years,” Wong replied. He was referring to the next Assembly election, but for most candidates it seemed like two years before definitive results appeared at about 1:30 a.m.

Both Wells and Wong stayed up only to learn that their election bids had failed. Willard H. Murray Jr., on the other hand, left an Airport Hyatt campaign party at 10 p.m. and did not show again. In his case, the results were nothing to lose sleep over, as Murray won his Assembly race.

For the record, election officials said the waiting time was no longer than usual. About 79% of the results were in by 12:44 a.m.; over 90% at 1:17 a.m. The count was over at 3:20 a.m.

“We’ve ended about the same time as long as I’ve been here,” registrar spokeswoman Marcia Ventura said. “I’ve been here for 11 years.”

Write-in votes did cause some ballots to be pulled for hand counting, and those, along with absentee ballots, began to be tabulated Thursday.