ELECTIONS / REDONDO BEACH : 4 Candidates Challenging Parton for Mayor’s Seat : Politics: Three other City Council positions and the city attorney’s job will be on the March 2 ballot. Five propositions also will be decided.

Just two months after being beaten in a rancorous race for the state Assembly in which he was criticized for his ties to Christian activists, Redondo Beach Mayor Brad Parton now faces opposition to hold onto his seat as mayor.

Former City Councilman Ron Cawdrey, who has been waging a court battle against the city’s two-term limit on serving on the council, is considered the strongest of four candidates challenging Parton in the March 2 municipal election.

Also running for mayor are Robe Richester, 43, a marketing administrator and member of the city’s Youth Commission; Dean T. Francois, 35, a broadcast news analyst and chair of the city’s Traffic Commission; and Chris Boyle, 34, an accountant.

Cawdrey, 56, is a labor representative who served as a councilman between 1982 and 1991.

Incumbents Barbara J. Doerr and Terry Ward also face opposition. Councilwoman Kay Horrell has served two terms and cannot seek reelection; the seat is being sought by eight people.

Also up for election is the city attorney’s post, being vacated by three-term incumbent Gordon Phillips. Four people are seeking that job.

Voters will also be asked to approve five propositions, including one that would raise the utility users tax by 1% for city services and another that would change the wording of the City Charter to allow school board members to receive compensation for their services, up to a maximum of $240 a month.

The Assembly race last fall pitted Parton, a Republican, against Debra L. Bowen, a Democrat, in a bruising match that included an exchange of nasty brochures. In one mailer, Bowen accused Parton of having ties to right-wing fundamentalists. In another, Parton compared Bowen’s campaign tactics to those used by “the brown-shirted fascists of Nazi Germany.”

Bowen, of Venice, won the race by a surprisingly large margin, garnering 54.6% of the vote against Parton’s 40.7%. Parton, a 32-year-old businessman, failed to carry his hometown in the district, which includes Torrance and coastal areas stretching from Venice to Palos Verdes Estates.

In an interview this week, Parton said he would prefer to have more time to recover from the November contest before plunging into the mayor’s race. But even his opponents doubt that his Assembly defeat will hold much weight with voters in his mayoral bid.

“Brad is known for the term he has served down here,” said Valerie Dombrowski, president of the Redondo Beach City School District. “He has built a constituency and a track record that he can use, and that is something other candidates don’t have, except Ron Cawdrey.”

City activist and former Councilman Archie Snow agreed: “I don’t think it (Parton’s failed Assembly bid) will have much bearing on this race. People are more concerned about what happens at home.”

Doerr, 49, the council member running for reelection, also works as a land planner and is being challenged by Joseph C. Dawidziak, 46, a small business owner.

Ward, 55, the other incumbent running, is being opposed by three people: Victoria Arendain, 41, an aerospace planner; Robert Pinzler, 43, a marketing consultant, and Eva Snow, 70, president of the American Legion Auxiliary, Post 184. She is also a former South Bay Hospital District board member and is married to Archie Snow.

The eight people vying for the open seat are Rick Abelson, 32, a city planner who also chairs the Redondo Beach Harbor Commission; Bob DeLoyd, 41, a security guard; Stephen R. Garfield, 48, a manufacturers’ representative and member of the city’s Environmental and Utilities Commission; Harold S. (Hal) Hawkins, 65, a retired clergyman and former chair of the Redondo Beach Harbor Commission; Greg Hill, 34, a gas utility manager and member of the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission; Bill MacAlpin, 56, owner of a database business; Vanessa Poster, 29, director of development at the South Bay Free Clinic, and Sal Princiotta Jr., 44, an independent contractor and a massage therapist.

In the city attorney’s race, the contenders are Larry W. Peterson, 48, a municipal law attorney; Jerry Goddard, 49, assistant superintendent and legal counsel for the South Bay Union High School District; Marilyn Wiczynski, 50, an attorney, and Stuart Scudder, 60, a college professor and Garden Grove’s former city attorney.

The following propositions will also be on the ballot:

* Proposition A, which would increase the utility users tax by 1% to support city services.

* Proposition B, which would amend the City Charter to change the name of the Redondo Beach City School District to the newly formed Redondo Beach Unified School District.

* Proposition C, which would change the City Charter to allow members of the school board to receive compensation up to $240 a month for their services.

* Proposition D, which would change wording in the City Charter regarding absentee voters to conform with state law.

* Proposition E, which would amend the City Charter to allow the board of education of the newly formed Redondo Beach Unified School District to stagger its members’ initial terms of office.