CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : Filante Says Brain Tumor Won’t Stop Drive : Congress: Surrogates will carry the Republican’s message to 6th District voters while he undergoes treatment for cancer.

Republican Assemblyman William J. Filante, suffering from a cancerous brain tumor that is nearly always fatal within a year of diagnosis, vowed through a spokesman Thursday to continue his campaign for Congress.

Filante, who has lost the use of his left arm and leg, is suffering from a glioblastoma tumor, his campaign announced 20 days after he underwent brain surgery.

Attempting to quell talk of a Republican write-in substitute, Filante campaign manager Gordon Poole said the 62-year-old doctor-politician will wage a campaign by relying on surrogates to deliver his moderate message.

However, a Stanford University specialist in brain tumors said Filante’s condition is fatal 99% of the time and that the average life span even with treatment is less than a year.

“It is almost always fatal,” said Dr. John R. Adler, an assistant professor of neurosurgery at Stanford. “There are rare cases in which people have been cured of the tumor, but they are very rare.”

The same kind of fast-growing, highly malignant tumor--which cannot be entirely removed by surgery--killed 40-year-old GOP strategist Lee Atwater in 1991, he noted.

For nearly three weeks, questions surrounding the Greenbrae assemblyman’s condition had thrown the 6th Congressional District race in Marin and Sonoma counties into turmoil. With Democrats targeting the district as a high priority, even some of Filante’s fellow Republicans questioned his ability to campaign to succeed Democrat Barbara Boxer, who is giving up the seat to run for the U.S. Senate.

Filante’s Democratic rival, Lynn Woolsey, has expressed sympathy over his condition but has continued to mount a vigorous campaign highlighting her experience as a former welfare mother, a successful businesswoman and a Petaluma councilwoman.

Although Filante’s time is taken up with radiation treatment to slow the cancer and physical therapy to restore the use of his limbs, he is reported determined to continue in his bid for Congress.

“I was with him for 2 1/2 hours yesterday, and he was very emphatic about having the campaign go forward,” Poole said. “Bill is a hell of a campaigner, but he can’t do it right now so, goddamn it, it’s our job to do it for him.”

The campaign, which had earlier been vague about the nature of his illness, issued a brief statement from Filante’s doctor, Ralph Johnson, chairman of physical medicine and rehabilitation at UC Davis Medical Center, saying that apart from the brain tumor, Filante is “otherwise in exceptional health.”

“Dr. Filante’s recovery is on schedule,” Johnson said. “It is too early to identify Bill’s response to the physical rehabilitation and radiation therapy. We anticipate the current phase of therapy will conclude in two to three weeks. At that time, a further assessment will be made as to when Bill will resume campaign and legislative activities.”

Among those recruited to campaign in Filante’s place is Assemblywoman Bev Hansen (R--Santa Rosa), a close Sacramento ally who said she is not surprised by his determination to run.

“He’s a very driven, hard-working, intense, focused person,” she said. “He’d never give up. That’s just Bill.”

Hansen said her job will be to show the contrast between Filante--a supporter of the death penalty and opponent of big government--and Woolsey, who favors social programs for the needy and a national health care program.

“He believes he will be able to serve once he is elected,” Hansen said. “It would be a shame if people voted for Lynn Woolsey because they had doubts about Bill’s health.”

Filante, who carved out a reputation in Sacramento as an independent-minded Republican, already faced a tough race in the liberal district, which has a voter registration of 53% Democrat and 33% Republican.