ELECTIONS : Brooks, Sen. Dills Triumph in Key Primary Battles : Congress: Rancho Palos Verdes councilwoman wins bitter race to become the Republican nominee in the 36th District. She will face Rep. Jane Harman.

Rancho Palos Verdes Councilwoman Susan Brooks narrowly won the 36th Congressional District Republican primary early Wednesday after a bitter race that left opponent Ron Florance doubting whether he would support her in the general election.

Brooks, 44, will face Rep. Jane Harman (D-Marina del Rey) in November. Harman was unopposed in the primary.

“Now is the big job, guys; the real job is ahead of us,” Brooks said to the remnants of her campaign staff at about 1:40 a.m.

Their race was the liveliest of four South Bay congressional primaries. Rep. Walter R. Tucker III (D-Compton) trounced his only Democratic challenger, Rancho Palos Verdes businessman Lew Prulitsky. He has no Republican opposition in the fall.

In the 38th District, incumbent Steve Horn (R-Long Beach) easily defeated John B. Duke and will face Democrat Peter Mathews, a Cypress college professor. In the 35th District, incumbent Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) will face Republican businessman Nate Truman. Both had no primary opposition.

Republicans say they have the best hopes of gaining Harman’s seat. Democrats have a slight edge in registration in the district, but Republicans traditionally are more likely to go to the polls and vote for their party’s candidate, according to political analysts.

But the bruising primary race may have divided Republicans in the district, which stretches from San Pedro to Venice. Florance, in a sharply worded speech conceding the race, said he was not ready to support Brooks. He outspent her by more than 2 to 1 by late May, but Brooks was able to cast doubt on Florance’s business background through mailers in the final days of the campaign, he said.

“It’s a sad commentary on the political world,” said Florance, a real estate financier and former Palos Verdes Estates councilman. “It’s despicable. It’s repugnant. This was a campaign of smear and character assassination that is beyond reproach.”

Throughout the race, Brooks defended her use of character as an issue--to the dismay of some Republicans on the Palos Verdes Peninsula--as a necessary component of a primary.

“People think this is a high tea here,” Brooks said last week. “This is politics. I’m not running for Jackie Kennedy’s job.”

Brooks’ campaign conducted extensive research on her opponent’s legal history, which included more than 40 lawsuits over the last nine years that named him or one of his companies as a defendant. Brooks tried to use the information to paint a picture of Florance as a tight-fisted millionaire with a “tainted business background.”

But Florance fought back. He called most of the lawsuits frivolous. Disputes, he said, come with the territory of owning a real estate firm that would do 1,500 transactions a year. He characterized Brooks as reckless in not checking the facts before attacking.

“Let me say, I can look at myself in the mirror in the morning and say that I ran a clean and honest campaign,” he said Wednesday. “I can live with myself. This woman has got a lot of things to learn.”

Florance, however, did send out a mailer in the final days of the race that quoted peninsula residents questioning Brooks’ qualifications.

“He was constantly looking under every rock to find what he could on me, and he couldn’t find anything,” Brooks said.

In fact, Brooks has argued that her pugnacity will prove an asset when campaigning against Harman. Possibly foreshadowing the battle to come, Brooks filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Monday, claiming that Harman and Hughes Aircraft Co. improperly raised funds for Harman’s campaign. Harman and Hughes deny the charges and have produced campaign receipts to show that they did not violate election laws.

Harman already has a hefty campaign war chest and has lined up support among top executives at many South Bay aerospace companies.

Brooks and Harman differ sharply on many issues. Brooks co-authored a report for the Southern California Assn. of Governments that supported the North American Free Trade Agreement. Despite pressure from President Clinton, Harman voted against the pact. In addition, Brooks has criticized Harman for supporting the President’s deficit reduction plan last year, which Brooks maintained might raise taxes.

Harman signaled that she is prepared for a rough-and-tumble battle with Brooks. “I will not let unsubstantiated charges lie,” Harman said. “I’m prepared to do what I have to do to get my true record out.”

In the 37th District, Tucker easily outdistanced Prulitsky. Tucker is seeking his second term in a district that includes Compton, Carson and Hawthorne. He faces one challenger, Libertarian Guy Wilson, a seaman from San Pedro, in November.

In the 38th District, Horn was recuperating from surgery during the final weeks of the campaign and unable to wage a strenuous political battle. Nevertheless, Republican voters gave him a healthy win over Duke, a quality assurance consultant.

But Horn may face a tough battle in November to keep his seat for a second term in a district where less than half the voters are Republicans. His Democratic foe, Peter Mathews, captured more votes than any other candidate, including Horn, in the primary. Mathews, a college government professor who lives in Long Beach, was unopposed in the Democratic primary. The district includes San Pedro, Long Beach, Lakewood and Paramount.

Community correspondent Psyche Pascual contributed to this report.

* ASSEMBLY RACES: 4

* FINAL RESULTS: 5