CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : Democrats Win 10-Seat Edge in Congressional Delegation : Politics: Anti-incumbent fervor never materializes, and remapping fails to give GOP candidates an expected edge at polls.

As if Republicans didn’t have enough to fret about Wednesday, California voters handed Democrats a stunning 10-seat majority in a state House delegation that is about to become the largest in history.

All but one of the 36 California House members up for reelection were returned to Washington as the anti-incumbent fervor that was expected to sweep the state never materialized.

The House Bank scandal and the Republican-controlled remapping of congressional districts had been expected to help the GOP overcome a seven-seat deficit heading into Tuesday night’s election. Instead, California Republicans now find themselves trailing Democrats in the 52-member House delegation, 31-21. The final outcome of three close races could change the margin.

“This has to be a great, if not a crushing disappointment, for the Republicans,” said James Fay, political science professor at Cal State Hayward. Democrats ended up controlling the day, Fay said, because of a superior registration drive and get-out-the-vote push, coupled with President Bush’s decision to write off California.

“I never would have imagined we would actually have won 31 of 52 seats,” said Rep. Howard Berman (D-Panorama City). “I just keep remembering (Gov.) Pete Wilson’s strategy on reapportionment. It’s not often that accountability comes to one’s mistakes so quickly.”

The lone incumbent defeated was Rep. Frank Riggs, a one-term Republican who lost to Dan Hamburg, a former Mendocino County supervisor who collected unemployment insurance for part of the campaign.

Republicans won four of the seven new districts created by the once-in-a-decade reapportionment process. But they took a drubbing by losing six of the eight seats vacated by incumbents who either retired or ran for the Senate.

In an election that featured an extraordinary number of competitive races, three battles were being decided by small margins.

In Fresno, five-term Democratic incumbent Richard H. Lehman clung to an 888-vote lead over newcomer Tal Cloud. Lehman, who declared victory on election night, acknowledged his celebration was premature and worried that the estimated 14,000 uncounted absentee ballots could favor his Republican opponent.

“It shows the arrogance of the incumbency that (Lehman) could announce when only 55% of the vote was counted,” Cloud said.

In the San Joaquin Valley, rancher Richard W. Pombo barely led the better known Democrat, Patricia Garamendi, wife of California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. A mere 915 votes separated Pombo from Garamendi, with as many as 20,000 absentee ballots pending. Pombo would jump to Congress having served less than a full term on the Tracy City Council.

Democrat Mark A. Takano declared victory over GOP candidate Ken Calvert in Riverside County’s new 43rd District. But Calvert refused to concede the election with only 1,200 votes separating the candidates out of 175,000 votes cast.

Voters added to the delegation’s diversity by electing five new women, bringing the number of female members to seven with the reelection of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). The state congressional delegation currently has three women.

Anna Eshoo beat a fellow member of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors to become the first Democrat to represent the district that spans San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and takes in Stanford and parts of the Silicon Valley.

Eshoo’s victory was cheered by Assyrians, many from around the Central Valley town of Turlock. She evidently will be the only member of Congress of Assyrian descent, her campaign aide said.

Republican Mayor Jay C. Kim of Diamond Bar became the first Korean-American elected to Congress when he won the 41st District.

Reapportionment, personal wealth, presidential coattails and abortion rights all played a role in Democratic attorney Jane Harman’s resounding seven-point upset victory over Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores.

The contest was one of only three congressional races in the nation that pitted a woman who supports abortion rights against one who does not. But observers said the district’s defense-based economy probably played more of a role in the outcome.

Hamburg, the one Democrat to knock off an incumbent, won by echoing Democratic themes of improving the environment while boosting the economy. He will give something of a counterculture cast to the California delegation with his support for abolishing laws against possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Explaining his victory, Hamburg said, “There just aren’t enough wealthy people up here to be represented by a Republican.”

Several longtime Democrats who were thought to be jeopardized by the electorate’s anti-incumbent sentiment all won reelection.

In San Bernardino County, veteran Democratic Rep. George E. Brown Jr. overcame a newly drawn 42nd District and a feisty GOP opponent, former fighter pilot Dick Rutan, to win a 16th term.

Rutan, a political newcomer and Vietnam fighter pilot best known for his 1986 flight around the world in the aircraft Voyager, seemed tailor-made for anti-incumbent voters. But Rutan was outspent 2 to 1 by Brown in a Democratic-leaning district.

“I looked at it as a combat mission,” said Rutan, while pledging to return in two years to again challenge Brown. “We took out our plane, got some bombs aboard and dropped them. But we didn’t totally destroy the target. So we will have to go after them again with new bombs and get him next time.”

Democratic Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson spent Wednesday taking congratulatory calls in his Tarzana office. He defeated Republican Assemblyman Tom McClintock by a surprising 18-point margin.

Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento), considered the most powerful member of the California delegation, survived an early scare from former state Sen. H. L. Richardson before winning comfortably.

Many Republicans blamed the disheartening House results on the poor showings of President Bush and Senate candidates Bruce Herschensohn and John Seymour.

“In many cases, (the voters) went anti-Republican,” said California GOP Chairman Jim Dignan. “‘There definitely was a Bill Clinton tidal wave. It went all the way down. Right now, we’re in a building mode.”

Only days earlier, Dignan was among several leading GOP officials in California who predicted that Republicans would at least attain parity with Democrats in the congressional delegation.

“Everything was poised for Republican victory,” said Ed Costantini, political science professor at UC Davis. “Redistricting and anti-incumbency should have redounded to them.”

The outlook was so bleak for Republicans that they were resigned to claiming victory by adding two members to the expanded House delegation.

“The California Republican Party has its congressional House races as its brightest light,” said Rep. David Dreier (R-La Verne). “That light may not be as bright as we would have wanted, but it is the one glimmer of hope there was.”