‘92 SAN GABRIEL ELECTIONS : STATE SENATE, ASSEMBLY : 3 Latina Democrats Among Newcomers to Sacramento : 2 Republican incumbents in Assembly and 2 in Senate retain their seats. One blames Bush’s weakness as an obstacle that had to be overcome.

Two incumbents will be joined in Sacramento by five newcomers, including three Latinas, in a revamped San Gabriel Valley Assembly delegation that resulted from Tuesday’s election.

Along with GOP Assembly members Richard Mountjoy of Monrovia and Paul V. Horcher of Diamond Bar, Republican state Sens. Frank Hill of Whittier and Newton Russell of Glendale were also retained.

The five newcomers to the state’s lower house will be Democrats Hilda Solis of El Monte, Diane Martinez of Monterey Park and Grace Napolitano of Norwalk, and Republicans Bill Hoge of Pasadena and Fred Aguiar of Chino.

In the Senate races, Hill was an easy winner, capturing more than 55% of the vote, despite a determined effort by Democrat Sandy Hester. The incumbent said he was very pleased by his showing, considering that 60% of the district was new to him because of reapportionment and that President Bush gave up on California 30 days before the election.

Russell also blamed Bush’s weakness in California as an obstacle he had to overcome to score a comparatively narrow victory over political newcomer Rachel Dewey, a scientist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

“California was overwhelmingly for Clinton. That hurt,” Russell said.

In trying to recruit block captains for the GOP campaign this year, Russell said, political workers kept encountering volunteers who had helped in past campaigns but were going to vote for Democrat Clinton or maverick independent Ross Perot this time.

In addition, Russell said, he was running as a longtime officeholder at a time when voters were angry at incumbents, and he was facing a woman in a year in which women had gained political prominence. Beyond that, he said, Democrats did a superior job of registering voters.

Russell won with better than 49% of the vote to 44.4% for Dewey, with the remainder divided among minor party candidates.

“I didn’t overwhelm them,” Russell said.

Dewey said she received the vote she expected, given the fact that she only had about $12,000 to spend on the campaign and was a political newcomer.

“It would have taken a lot of money, and you can’t raise that when you have to spend the first few months (of the campaign) introducing yourself to the Democratic regulars,” she said.

Democrats also did better than usual--but not well enough to achieve a victory--in the 44th Assembly District, centered in Pasadena. Democrat Jonathan Fuhrman lost to Hoge, a Pasadena insurance broker, by about 8,000 votes. Hoge got nearly 51% of the vote and Fuhrman about 45%, with the remainder going to a Libertarian candidate.

“We got outspent, and the coattails (of Clinton) weren’t as strong as we had hoped,” Fuhrman said.

Fuhrman estimated he spent $17,000. Hoge spent more than $300,000.

In the 61st Assembly District at the eastern edge of the San Gabriel Valley, Aguiar was a surprisingly easy victor over Democrat Larry Simcoe, a Los Angeles County firefighter. The district, which takes in part of Pomona and extends east to Ontario, gave Aguiar more than 58% of the total vote.

Aguiar attributed his victory to voter recognition of his achievements during 15 years in office in Chino.

“They looked at my accomplishments,” he said.

Both Aguiar and Simcoe campaigned as political moderates.

The election of three Latinas gives the San Gabriel Valley three women representatives in Sacramento for the first time. In fact, the only other woman ever elected to the Legislature from the region is Assemblywoman Sally Tanner (D-Baldwin Park), who is retiring this year.

Tanner will be succeeded by Solis, a member of the Rio Hondo College board, who outpolled her Republican opponent, Citrus College board member Gary Woods, by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. Her 57th Assembly District stretches through the middle of the San Gabriel Valley from Azusa to Hacienda Heights.

Joining her will be Martinez, who shares Solis’ interest in education. A member of the Garvey school board, Martinez defeated Republican Sophie C. Wong, a member of the Alhambra school board, by 56.4% to 39.8%, with the remaining votes going to Libertarian Kim Goldsworthy.

Martinez said she intends to make education her major interest in Sacramento and will seek a seat on the education committee.

The new 49th District assemblywoman accused Wong of disseminating misinformation in mailers during the closing days of the campaign. She said one mailing falsely accused her of violating campaign laws two years ago.

Wong said she sent out nothing that was not documented. She said she was pleased by the results, which saw her running ahead of Republican registration, even if she lost. Only 28% of the voters in the district are Republican.

The area’s third Latina in the Assembly is Napolitano, a member of the Norwalk City Council. Napolitano, who garnered more than 64% of the vote, will represent the 58th Assembly District, which stretches from Santa Fe Springs to South El Monte.

In the 59th Assembly District, which extends from Arcadia to Claremont, Mountjoy won his eighth term against a determined bid by Arcadia attorney Louise Gelber, who put at least $84,000 of her own money into her campaign. Mountjoy won nearly 55% of the vote.

In the 60th Assembly District, which includes West Covina and Diamond Bar, Horcher, completing his first term, also received about 55% of the vote. His Democratic opponent, Stan Caress, waged a quiet campaign but still tallied 37% of the vote, well ahead of Robert Lewis, the American Independent Party candidate, who received 8%.

The campaign ended on a bizarre note when Horcher sent independent voters a mailer implying that he, not Lewis, had the support of many AIP members and local supporters of maverick independent presidential candidate Ross Perot. The mailing was strongly denounced by Lewis, leaders of the AIP and a local Perot campaign organization that had endorsed Lewis.