ELECTIONS / STATE SENATE : GOP Write-In Candidate Will Run Against Hayden

Leonard H. McRoskey was filling out his absentee ballot last month when he noticed something was missing: a Republican candidate in the 23rd state Senate District race.

“Jiminy Christmas,” the Westwood resident recalled telling his wife. “This means whoever wins in the Democratic primary gets a free ride. It’s a giveaway.”

On the very next morning, McRoskey set out to fill in the blank the hard way--as a write-in candidate.

All he needed was to alert 2,491 Republicans to write his name on the June 2 ballot, and he would qualify as the official GOP candidate in November. He had a little more than two weeks to do it.

McRoskey, 72, acknowledged that write-in candidacies are generally an example of the triumph of hope over experience, but he said he was amazed and delighted to hear from county election officials late last week that he had made the cut by 64 votes, with a total of 2,555.

“I was very, very surprised when I got a call from the registrar of voters saying I went over the top,” McRoskey said.

Other Republican write-in candidates were Robert Teagle with 1,644 votes and Carol Newman with 784.

Those who wish to support McRoskey will no longer have to bring a pen to their polling place, as the candidate said he advised them to do in June.

A longtime plastics manufacturer and former bank vice president, McRoskey served as deputy assistant secretary of the Navy during the last two years of President Reagan’s second term. His opponent in November is Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), whose victory in the Democratic primary over state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal by 580 votes was made official this week.

Final election results show Hayden with 47,549 votes (36.83%), Rosenthal with 46,969 (36.38%) and Pacific Palisades businesswoman Catherine O’Neill with 34,571 (26.78%).

Until McRoskey’s coup, and facing only opposition from minor parties, the Hayden primary victory was considered tantamount to winning the general election. He is still greatly favored in the heavily Democratic district, which includes most of the Westside and the southern portion of the San Fernando Valley.

Although only about one-third of the registered voters in the district are Republicans, McRoskey said he is prepared to wage a serious campaign.

“I’ve always been successful in what I’ve done,” he said.

McRoskey said he has lived in what is now the 23rd Senate District since before World War II. He and his wife of 50 years, Virginia, have five children and 15 grandchildren.

The GOP candidate said he would classify himself as neither liberal nor conservative. “I like to say I am a sensitive, sensible type of man who has been out in the realities of business and social activities and has traveled quite widely.”

At this point, McRoskey said he is short on specifics of his platform, but he promised details would be forthcoming.

“I want to be closer to my constituents than the majority of elected officials are once they get up to Sacramento,” said McRoskey. “That’s what’s missing.”

Though he had only a few weeks to act, McRoskey said he got out a mailing to as many as 10,000 voters, including instructions on how to write in a candidate’s name.

A McRoskey cable television ad also ran the weekend before the election.

Perhaps more important, he was on one slate mailer put out by Republican consultant Allan Hoffenblum. The message, Hoffenblum said, was, “Don’t let Tom Hayden run unopposed!”