ELECTIONS : Moorhead Hangs On to His Seat

Despite voter sentiment for term limits, veteran Glendale Congressman Carlos J. Moorhead won reelection Tuesday, but it wasn’t as decisive as he would have liked.

In the Legislature, Sen. Newton R. Russell and Assemblyman Pat Nolan, both Glendale Republicans, won reelection. Republican Bill Hoge of Pasadena will be the region’s new representative in the Assembly.

In retaining his 27th District seat, Moorhead, a veteran of 20 years in Congress, was held to under 49% of the vote by Democrat Doug Kahn, an Altadena businessman, and three minor party candidates.

California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 164--which restricts House members to three terms in office and Senate members to two. That sentiment, reapportionment and a surge in Democratic registration aided Kahn, who ran a spirited campaign to capture more than 40% of the vote.

Kahn, who vowed to run again in two years, said his only regret was that he did not get into this year’s race earlier. He started running 11 months ago but should have been working six months before that to take on an entrenched GOP incumbent, he said.

“I’ll be back,” Kahn said. “I’m running right now.”

Kahn said he spent more than $100,000 but could not keep pace with Moorhead’s expensive mailings and radio and television commercials.

Moorhead, 70, said he spent more than $400,000 on his campaign, although other estimates placed his expenditures much higher. The congressman said he had to run well ahead of President Bush in his district to win reelection.

“I’m sure (Bush) didn’t carry our district,” Moorhead said. “We were swimming against the trend.”

Russell attributed the relative narrowness of his victory over political newcomer Rachel Dewey, a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, in part to Bush’s weak showing.

“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 from past campaigns who were going to vote for Democrat Clinton or maverick independent Ross Perot this time.

In addition, Russell said, he was running as a long-time office-holder when voters were angry at incumbents and 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.

Still, Russell won with better than 49% of the vote to just over 44% for Dewey, with the rest 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 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 and covering La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta and part of Glendale.

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 rest going to a Libertarian candidate.

“We got outspent and the coattails (of Clinton) weren’t as strong as we had hoped,” Fuhrman said. He estimated that he spent $17,000. Hoge spent more than $300,000.

Hoge could not be reached for comment.

In the 43rd Assembly District, Nolan was an easy winner over Democrat Elliott Graham, capturing more than 55% of the vote to retain his seat.

Nolan, who has been in the Assembly since 1978, ran in a reapportioned district with about 1,500 more Democrats than Republicans. His previous district had a strong GOP majority, with about 15,000 more Republicans than Democrats.