No Word From Governor on Picking Roth Successor : Replacement: Support builds among local officials for Orange City Councilman William G. Steiner.

Gov. Pete Wilson was mum Tuesday on whom he might appoint to replace Orange County Supervisor Don R. Roth, but a wave of support began building among local officials for the governor to pick Orange Councilman William G. Steiner.

Dan Schnur, the governor’s spokesman, said Wilson hoped to make a choice “as quickly as possible” after interviewing “at least a small number of persons he feels are qualified,” but cautioned that a list of candidates has yet to be drawn.

Among most politicos in Orange County and Sacramento, however, Steiner emerged as a clear front-runner in the hours after Roth’s announcement that he would step down from his seat on the Board of Supervisors.

Others being raised as possible contenders to fill out the remaining 20 months of Roth’s term were Orange County Clerk Gary Granville, who announced Tuesday that he plans to run for the supervisorial post in 1994 even if he isn’t appointed, and Ravinder Mehta, the governor’s deputy appointments secretary and a former staff assistant to Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez.

Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly, a Democrat considered by many to be a top potential candidate for the Board of Supervisors in 1994, was also mentioned as a long shot for the appointment.

Those taking themselves out of contention for the spot were former U.S. Sen. John Seymour, an erstwhile Anaheim mayor and state legislator whose district roughly paralleled that of Roth’s.

Seymour, who was recently appointed by Wilson to head the California Housing Finance Agency, said he was committed to remain in that post and suggested that Steiner has the edge to replace Roth.

“The strongest name I’ve heard is Bill Steiner,” Seymour said. “He’s a very qualified fellow. He’s everything one could possibly ask for in a community leader.”

Steiner, 55, is executive director of the Orangewood Children’s Foundation, which operates a home for abused children in Orange. A resident of the city for the past 24 years, he was an Orange Unified School District trustee from 1983 until 1988, the year he was appointed to the Orange City Council to fill out a vacant term. He was elected to the council in 1990.

In recent years Steiner has developed close ties to Pete Wilson. He is a policy adviser to Maureen DiMarco, Wilson’s secretary of education, and has served on the governor’s commission for child care programs since 1986. Steiner earned the backing of Wilson when he made an unsuccessful run for Assembly in 1991 against Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange).

Steiner said he “certainly would be interested” in becoming a county supervisor and noted that his years of service on the school board and council have given him an understanding of the “nuts and bolts of local government.”

He acknowledged that he would not believe he had Roth’s spot sewn up until he gets official word from the governor. In 1987, Steiner was mentioned among the candidates to replace departing Supervisor Bruce Nestande, but the nod went to Vasquez.

“It’s a long road to the appointment,” Steiner said. “I’m not holding my breath because I’ve been down this road before.”

Meanwhile, Granville said he held a Valentine’s Day fund-raiser in anticipation of running for the supervisorial seat if Roth had resigned. Although he lives a mile outside the district, Granville said he planned to move today into his daughter’s home inside the boundary lines and register to vote there.

“If there’s a really strong appointment, someone like a John Seymour, then I would have to reconsider running in ‘94,” Granville said. “But if there’s someone else appointed who I feel I could contend with, then I would run.”

Granville, 63, was named county clerk in 1985 and has won reelection twice since then. He was a staff assistant to former Supervisor Ralph Clark in 1984, after working as a newspaper editor in Orange County since 1969.

Mehta, 33, was named by several Orange County politicos as a possible successor to Roth in part because of historical precedent. In 1987, Vasquez was serving in the same post that Mehta holds now--the governor’s deputy appointments secretary--when he was named by then-Gov. George Deukmejian to fill out Nestande’s term.

A former deputy district attorney, Mehta went to work for Vasquez as an administrative assistant in 1989. He developed ties with Wilson during the 1990 gubernatorial campaign, when Mehta served as state finance co-chairman during the race. After a stint with a private law firm, Mehta assumed his post in the governor’s office in November, 1991.

Mehta said that he hadn’t given the supervisor’s job much thought, but that “it sounds like an intriguing opportunity. I would want to consider all the implications before I made a decision.”

Daly, who once served as Roth’s administrative assistant, said he was “not going to get too involved in the appointment process. . . . I’m too busy with Anaheim. My primary focus is doing a good job in Anaheim.”

Daly won the mayor’s seat last November in a tough race against Councilman Fred Hunter and has said in the past that his political aspirations may go beyond City Hall. But even his biggest supporters admitted that Daly’s chances of replacing Roth appear bleak because Wilson would be hard pressed to name a Democrat at a time he is trying to mend fences with conservative Republicans.

Hunter was among a slew of local officials who said they either had no interest in Roth’s seat or were backing another candidate for the job. “The scuttlebutt I’ve heard is Wilson is going to appoint Bill Steiner of Orange,” Hunter said. Orange Councilman Mike Spurgeon, who was also mentioned by some, said he hopes Steiner gets the job.

State Sens. John Lewis (R-Orange) and Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) were rumored to be possible candidates because of the new state term-limits law, but both said they aren’t interested. Dana Reed, an Orange County Transportation Authority board member and the attorney who is representing Roth, also snuffed out speculation that he would consider accepting the seat on the board.

Times staff writer Matt Lait contributed to this story.