2 Mavericks Qualify as Write-In Candidates for Local Races : Election: A Laguna Beach physician and a computer analyst from Orange hope to stir up political waters.

A 1992 contender pulled in only a single vote, and no local write-in candidate has won an election since 1986. But a Laguna Beach physician and a computer analyst from Orange are braving the odds that voters remember their names come June 7.

Eugene R. Atherton and Huu Chung Nguyen were the only two to qualify with the county Registrar of Voters as write-in candidates for local races by the 5:30 p.m. Tuesday deadline.

They may not come anywhere close to winning, but the maverick candidates hope to stir up some political waters.

Atherton, who has unsuccessfully run for office before, will challenge state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) in her previously uncontested bid to succeed retiring county supervisor Thomas F. Riley in the 5th District.

Nguyen, 38, is up against six other Democrats vying for a chance at the 46th District congressional seat held by Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove).

But Nguyen’s goals are decidedly modest, and he says he already has accomplished many of them. Nguyen, who says he is the first Vietnamese American locally to run for a congressional seat, simply wants to mobilize his community to get more involved in politics.

“I want to get people involved in the American process, to get out and to vote,” he said. “One way to do that is to get somebody to run for office.”

Nguyen, who came to the United States in 1978 and now works as a computer analyst for the Los Angeles County Superior Court while pursuing a master’s degree in business, said he has spent weeks registering people to vote at supermarkets in Little Saigon. He also has been working a phone list of about 7,500 Vietnamese American voters in the district--5,000 of them Republicans--with the hopes of swaying their party affiliations.

Nguyen had hoped to get his name on the ballot but switched his party affiliation from American Independent to Democrat in January, too late to qualify under the March filing deadline, he said.

Nguyen’s six opponents are Madelene E. Arakelian, a businesswoman from Laguna Hills; John M. Ivler, a systems analyst from Los Alamitos; Don Payne, an engineer from Anaheim; Robert John Banuelos, a senior citizens counselor from Santa Ana; Mike Farber, a Santa Ana businessman; and Norman Z. Eckenrode, a Placentia councilman.