CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : Discouraged by ‘Gridlock,’ State Senator Calls it Quits : Legislature: Sen. Barry Keene says inability to make a difference led to his surprise decision. He hopes to have more influence in private sector.

Discouraged and frustrated, Democratic Sen. Barry Keene, a cerebral veteran of two decades in the Legislature, said Wednesday he is quitting at midterm because he no longer believes he can “make a difference” for a better California.

Keene, author of major legislation ranging from timber conservation to open meeting requirements for public officials to cleanup of offshore oil spills, said in an interview that the political system is so paralyzed in Sacramento that solving major problems is virtually impossible.

“Maybe I can make a difference in the private sector,” said Keene, who noted that he has not lined up other employment. “I have not lost my commitment overnight to public policy. I just don’t want to hang around if I am not going to be making a difference.”

Keene surprised his staff and the Capitol Establishment Tuesday night by announcing he will leave office next month, creating a Democratic vacancy in the Senate that would be filled by a special election for the unexpired two years of his term. He insisted he is in good health.

The special election for the Keene seat in Solano County will be one of several to be held next spring for Senate seats that will open up as a result of Tuesday’s general election where incumbents were elected to other offices.

On the basis of the secretary of state’s semiofficial canvass, it appeared that the Senate lineup, temporarily at least, was unchanged by the election--24 Democrats, 13 Republicans, two independents and one vacancy.

For the past couple of years, Keene, considered by many of his colleagues to be both an intellectual and a smooth political operator, has voiced frustration with the chronic political gridlock that grips the Capitol.

His recent efforts to bring about reform usually ran aground. For example, last summer the Senate debated his unusual proposal to hold a convention to rewrite the state Constitution. Then it shelved the idea.

Reminded that he also could be considered a contributor to government “dysfunction” over his 20 years in the Assembly and Senate, Keene candidly agreed this might be so.

Even so, Keene said, he attempted to enact policy for the betterment of California but recent gridlock so choked off resolution of major issues that “I don’t think it warrants my investing further efforts.”

Keene, 54, an attorney and father of grown children and a new baby, said he also hopes to be paid more in private employment than he earned as a $50,000-a-year legislator.

“I’m very, very disappointed that he is leaving,” said Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys), who had selected Keene as his majority floor leader in 1985. “We’ll miss him.”

In the tightest state Senate contest of Tuesday’s election, veteran Sen. Robert Beverly (R-Long Beach) appeared to be eking out a tissue-thin victory over his Democratic opponent, Brian Finander. In the semiofficial canvass released Wednesday, Beverly was beating Finander by only 1,969 votes, or 0.8%.

However, an unknown number of ballots cast in the race, including some absentee ballots that were hand-carried to precincts, still must be counted and the official outcome may not be known for some time.

Allan Hoffenblum, a campaign consultant to Beverly, said the campaign expected the contest to be very tight because pre-election opinion samplings disclosed that moderate and liberal Republican women would vote against President Bush.

“If Beverly had been running against a woman, we probably would have lost,” Hoffenblum said Wednesday.

Times staff writer Mark Gladstone contributed to this article.