Water Board Incumbent Wins Close Race : A political newcomer makes a surprisingly strong showing, in part by identifying himself with the Democratic Party.

Incumbent Lawrence Gallagher kept his seat on the board of the West Basin Municipal Water District by a slim margin Tuesday after a surprisingly strong showing by political newcomer Mike A. Gipson.

Gipson, a former water conservation analyst for retiring state Sen. Bill Greene (D-Los Angeles), placed his name on several slate mailers urging voters to consider Democratic candidates and also sent one mailer of his own. The result, with Gipson garnering 48.2% of the vote to Gallagher’s 51.8%, caused Gallagher to say he might make more use of his Democratic Party affiliation if he chooses to run for office again in four years. The office is nonpartisan.

“I’m grateful for the result. When an election is this close it’s absolutely critical not to take these things for granted,” he said. “I mean, this man came from nowhere and almost put me out. Thirteen hundred votes, that’s not many.”

Gipson said that he is pleased with his showing and that he plans to run again for public office. “I was on his tail all night long,” he said. “I still count it a victory even though I was defeated.”

Gipson said he was running a grass-roots effort because he had little money for a formal campaign. But he still collected enough funds to have his name listed on Democratic slate mailers urging people to vote for Bill Clinton, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein and other candidates and measures favored by the party.

“I will still stay a vital part of this community,” Gipson said. “My shirt-sleeves are still rolled. I will start going to meetings, getting more actively involved than ever.”

Gallagher said Gipson called him the morning after the election to offer his congratulations. “I told him I’d be glad to get him involved with water,” he said.

Now that the election is over, Gallagher said, he will focus his attention on the district’s plans for a water-recycling plant that will take sewage waste water and process it for such uses as cooling of industrial plants and watering highway median strips.

He said that the board will concentrate its efforts on getting a $35-million appropriation from the federal government to help build the $200-million plant and that he wants to move more aggressively to draft a strategic water plan for the region.