ELECTIONS / LEGISLATURE : 2...

Despite redrawn districts and a crowd of fresh political faces, only a few of the South Bay’s six races for Assembly and state Senate have the potential for surprises on Nov. 3.

Two of the area’s four Assembly contests--in the 51st and 55th districts--feature Democratic candidates running without Republican opposition. And in one of the state Senate races--for the 25th District--voter registration is so overwhelmingly Democratic that the Republican challenger plans to spend less than $1,000 on pursuing the seat.

But at least two intriguing showdowns exist, observers say--a battle featuring the abortion issue in the coastal 53rd Assembly District and what could amount to a referendum on Sacramento incumbents in the meandering 27th Senate District.

Although Republicans would normally sit squarely in the driver’s seat in both contests, experts say the vicissitudes of this election year have bolstered the chances of underdog Democrats.

“The whole political picture has been mixed up, with this huge amount of redistricting coming on top of the general anti-incumbent, pro-change sentiment,” said Philip Klinkner, an assistant professor of political science at Loyola Marymount University.

“You’ve clearly got a case where the Republican Party in California is doing very poorly,” he said. “There is a lot of dissension in the ranks. In some areas that previously would have been thought of as guaranteed Republican wins, it’s a real tossup.”

The following is a district-by-district roundup of the South Bay state legislative races to be decided in the Nov. 3 general election.

51st Assembly District

As incumbents go, Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood) is clearly not on the endangered list in his bid for reelection in a district that includes Inglewood, Hawthorne and Lawndale.

Although Tucker has no Republican opposition and only one minor-party opponent--Libertarian Clark W. Hanley--he says he has continued campaigning since the June primary.

“Any election worries me. . . . You have to go to the people and say, ‘Gee, can I stay?’ ” Tucker said. “I do all the block clubs and the candidate forums and everything that comes up. . . . I want to hear what they’re saying, what they’re thinking in the district.”

Jobs and crime are the central voter concerns, Tucker says, asserting that the two issues go hand in hand.

“Give us jobs and people won’t feel that they have to break the law in order to survive,” he said.

Tucker hopes to use the political momentum created by the city’s spring unrest to attract businesses to areas in need of revitalization.

Hanley says that approach would be a good start, but he adds that he would prefer rolling back regulations and restrictions throughout the state, rather than in a few designated areas.

Making his first bid for public office, Hanley plans to spend no more than $500 on a race that he said is aimed primarily at educating voters about the Libertarian Party.

“People are starting to realize that they have choices besides just the Democrats and Republicans,” he said. “The Libertarian platform should carry well.”

A third candidate, Xenia G. Williams of the Peace and Freedom Party, was forced to withdraw from the race after she learned of a federal law barring county employees from running for state office. Williams, whose name will still appear on the ballot, is a county eligibility worker.

53rd Assembly District

This race is perhaps more likely than any other in the South Bay to go down to the wire.

After surviving a bruising, six-candidate Republican primary, Redondo Beach Mayor W. Brad Parton expects to win with help from the GOP’s conservative wing. But his Democratic opponent, environmental attorney Debra Bowen, says the district’s future is far from certain.

The new district--which stretches along the coast from Republican-leaning South Bay communities to the liberal Westside--includes enough Democratic and independent voters to make for a competitive race.

For a moderate GOP candidate, the district might have been safe territory, Loyola Marymount’s Klinkner said. For Parton, however, it could prove tougher.

“He’s very conservative and there are probably going to be a lot of Republican crossovers in that race,” Klinkner said. “Parton has really staked out a hard right position . . . and he’s pro-life in a pro-choice area. It’s going to be interesting.”

Parton says he believes that abortion is not a pressing issue in the district and that he will not push for greater regulation of the procedure.

“Most of my supporters are pro-choice, but I am not,” he said. “California is a pro-choice state and that’s not going to be changing. . . . My goal is jobs. California’s economy is just in a sad state and that’s totally where my concentration will be.”

If elected, Parton says, he would overhaul the state workers’ compensation program by, among other steps, banning stress disability claims for all but public service employees. He says he would also champion welfare reform by eliminating aid to illegal residents and limiting government assistance for new California residents to the amount they were receiving in their home state.

Bowen, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, says the abortion issue will help her pry Republican votes from Parton because, like her, many in the GOP strongly support abortion rights.

Like Parton, she says she would focus much of her effort on workers’ compensation reform but adds that she hopes to help the area’s flagging high-tech industry by creating tax credits to encourage start-up businesses and long-term research and development.

“We need to do all we can to assure that industry develops here which can create the high-paying jobs that we have come to expect as part of life in this area,” she said. “We have a tremendous amount of talented and highly educated people in the South Bay. . . . We need to make sure they can stay here.”

Libertarian candidate William N. Gaillard said he is focusing his campaign on getting government “out of my paycheck, out of my face and out of my gun cabinet.”

“I haven’t been able to do that from the outside. Maybe I can do it from the inside,” he said. “I want to win. Reality street says I’m looking at 10% to 15%, depending on the mood of the voters.”

54th Assembly District

The going will be easier for incumbent Assemblyman Gerald N. Felando (R-San Pedro).

Although Felando will face two opponents, Democratic Party activist and teacher Betty Karnette and American Independent Party candidate Joseph G. Fields, observers believe the 14-year assemblyman will cruise to an easy victory.

He remains cautious, just the same.

“The voters have elected me time after time because I’m a no-nonsense type of guy. I persevere and I don’t give up,” he said. “My job now is to present my record, which will show them that I take care of my district, and I am a very conservative voter who is very tough on the fiscal issues and who is anti-tax.”

Felando’s district changed during reapportionment, but much of his former South Bay base, including the Palos Verdes Peninsula and San Pedro, remained with him when new lines shifted the district south.

Karnette hopes to capitalize on the anti-incumbent fever that has been sweeping the state.

“It’s an uphill battle, I know that, but I think there are changes in the wind,” she said. “This is a moderate district and I’m a moderate Democrat. . . . I’m a woman in the Year of the Woman. He’s anti-choice and I’m pro-choice. People are sick and tired of what’s been going on for the last 14 years, and they are looking for a change.”

To end the area’s economic slide, Karnette said she would like to create tax credits for small businesses trying to get started in the district. In addition, Karnette wants to change the rules governing distribution of sales tax revenue so that cities with few large shopping malls are not penalized when their residents go elsewhere to shop.

Fields said he is primarily interested in closing California’s border with Mexico, halting progress toward a free-trade agreement and blocking new gun control regulations.

He also would champion a measure requiring welfare recipients to sign a contract agreeing not to bear more children while receiving aid.

55th Assembly District

Although she is making her first run for state office, school administrator and Carson Councilwoman Juanita McDonald has been enjoying a general election race any incumbent would envy.

After handily trouncing two veteran assemblymen in a nasty Democratic primary, McDonald now faces a single opponent--Libertarian Shannon Anderson--in November.

She has not exactly been resting on her laurels, though.

“We’re still going to run like we’re running from behind,” she said. “We want people to get to know more about me, and I want to get to know them and their ideas too.”

As in the rest of the South Bay, voters in the largely minority, blue-collar district encompassing Carson, Wilmington and part of Harbor Gateway are primarily concerned about the economy.

McDonald says she plans to tap the manufacturing community for ideas about how her district can attract--and retain--business.

She readily admits she has few specific proposals at this stage.

“I can’t really talk about exactly what I’m going to do until I get in there and start working,” she said. “We have plummeted too far and we need to get back a thriving economy. . . . I’m asking people for their ideas on how to accomplish that.”

Acknowledging that he stands little chance of winning the race, Anderson said he instead is trying to tell people more about the Libertarian Party while urging McDonald to adopt some of the party’s ideas.

“I would urge her to look at regulations that make it difficult for poor and under-educated people to work, either in their own business or through whatever means they can find,” he said. “There are all these rules and regulations and fees payable to practice a trade. We need to get rid of those.”

27th Senate District

Ordinarily, Sen. Robert G. Beverly would have little trouble winning reelection.

A moderate Republican with labor support, Beverly is known as a savvy lawmaker and has easily held his state Senate seat since 1976.

But reapportionment has shifted Beverly’s district southeast into new territory, the summer’s state budget stalemate has left a bad taste in voters’ mouths, and the economy is in a tailspin.

Beverly’s Democratic opponent, Brian Finander, has been working to exploit all three developments.

Finander, a small-business consultant active in the Long Beach Jewish community, has gone on the offensive, labeling Beverly an “out-of-touch career politician.” In a stream of press releases in recent weeks, he has also accused Beverly of lacking vision and “doing nothing” to help the local economy.

“What has happened (to the local economy) has happened on Beverly’s watch,” Finander said. “I fault Beverly for doing nothing in the face of economic disaster.”

Finander has called for use of the “peace dividend” to retool manufacturing plants for domestic use such as transportation and environmental projects. He favors more funding for school classrooms and says he “is lifetime pro-choice and proud of it.”

Beverly was out of town and could not be reached for comment, but his chief of staff, Tom Martin, summed up what is likely to be Finander’s greatest obstacle.

“Who is Brian Finander?” Martin asked. “He has never held elective office, he has no voting record and is completely unknown. . . . At least people know that Beverly is a Marine Corps veteran (and) a city attorney by profession. He has a long voting record and we can run on that record.”

Beverly considers the economy a key issue, Martin said, and has carried legislation this year to keep the Los Angeles Air Force Base and its $7 billion in contracts by providing low-cost housing. In addition, Beverly has co-authored legislation to repeal the tax on ship fuel, supports workers’ compensation reform and supported an Assembly bill to create tax credits for parts of Long Beach damaged during the spring riots.

“I think Mr. Finander’s charges are off the mark,” Martin said.

Beverly, who has been endorsed by the California Abortion Rights Action League, supports abortion rights, but he also favors laws mandating parental consent for minors and a 24-hour waiting period.

Minor party candidates in the race are David J. Rosen, Libertarian, and Peace and Freedom candidate Patrick McCoy, a teacher and cable television producer.

McCoy accused both major party candidates of ignoring the poor and people of color and of being bound to corporate interests.

His platform calls for a transfer of military funds to clean up the environment, nationalized health care, raising taxes on the wealthy, increasing funding for education and abortion rights.

25th Senate District

The Democratic candidate in a district with only 17% registered Republicans, Assemblywoman Teresa Hughes has reason to be confident she will move to the state Senate this winter.

Hughes, a 17-year member of the Assembly, is not worried that anti-incumbent fever will harm her campaign.

“I know there’s a public sentiment against incumbency, but my constituents sent me back time and time again, and there’s a feeling out there that the new constituents want to hire me,” she said.

Instead of seeing her Republican opponent as a threat, Hughes says she hopes to work with Cliff McClain someday.

McClain--who says he has raised “far less than $1,000” for his campaign--calls himself a Republican in the tradition of 19th-Century human rights leader Frederick Douglass.

Citing unemployment as the major problem confronting the district, McClain advocates reinstating the federal Works Projects Administration established by Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the 1930s.

Roosevelt, McClain says, was a Republican at heart.

A consultant for the Compton Unified School District, McClain also advocates education reforms at the administrative level.

Hughes agrees that economic development and jobs are the key issues confronting voters and says job training and making California more attractive to industry are her goals.

“Businesses will have to invest themselves in their communities and go into partnership with public education,” Hughes said. “If we can set up training programs for workers, companies will want to stay in California.

“We can save this state in spite of itself.”

Peace and Freedom candidate Hattie Marie Benn could not be reached for comment.

Assembly Districts

52nd District (Incumbent Willard H. Murray Jr. faces no opposition).

Demographics*

Dist. No. Dem. Rep. Anglo Latino Black Asian Assembly 51 70% 20% 33% 35% 36% 8% Assembly 53 42% 43% 81% 13% 3% 11% Assembly 54 43% 45% 76% 19% 6% 9% Assembly 55 68% 21% 35% 41% 23% 18%

* Numbers may add up to more than 100% because Latinos are sometimes counted in more than one category.

State Senate Districts

28th District (Seat not up for reelection until 1994)

Demographics

Dist. No. Dem. Rep. Anglo Latino Black Asian Senate 25 74% 17% 28% 42% 36% 8% Senate 27 46% 43% 71% 20% 6% 12%

* Numbers may add up to more than 100% because Latinos are sometimes counted in more than one category.