LOS ANGELES : GOP Write-In Candidate Named as Hayden’s Foe

Los Angeles businessman Leonard H. McRoskey, a write-in candidate in the 23rd State Senate District, received enough votes to qualify as the official Republican candidate in the November election, putting him in a race against Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica).

McRoskey, 72, of Westwood, said county election officials last week told him he had received 2,555 votes. Hayden’s 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, Rosenthal with 46,969 and Pacific Palisades businesswoman Catherine O’Neill with 34,571.

Other Republican write-in candidates were Robert Teagle, who got 1,644 votes, and Carol Newman, who got 784, officials said.

A longtime plastics manufacturer and former bank vice president, McRoskey served as deputy assistant secretary of the Navy during the last two years of the Ronald Reagan Administration.