CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : Latinos, Gays Savor Results in Legislative Races

Buoyed by Tuesday’s legislative balloting, Latino politicians are poised to add to their numbers in Sacramento, while gays are excited about the prospect of electing the Legislature’s first openly gay politician.

In the Inland Empire, the Christian right rallied around the candidacy of conservative Republican Assemblyman Ray Haynes, who scored a surprisingly easy primary victory in the 36th state Senate District primary. His win sets the stage for a high-stakes November general election tussle with a popular Democrat.

Bill Lockyer, the leader of the Senate’s Democratic majority, on Wednesday was seeking to head off Republican gains next fall by portraying Haynes and several other GOP nominees as out-of-step extremists.

“The question for the fall is: Do the voters want religious extremists to be their elected representatives?” said Lockyer, whose party has controlled the Senate for 23 years.

In the Assembly, GOP Leader Jim Brulte said he has high hopes of cutting into Assembly Speaker Willie Brown’s Democratic majority by two or three seats. Such gains would still fall short of the number of seats needed to oust Brown; Democrats now hold a 47-33 edge over Republicans in the Assembly.

All 80 seats in the Assembly and half the Senate’s 40 seats were contested in Tuesday’s party primaries. In most races, capturing the party nomination virtually assured victory in November. But, depending on how much money candidates can raise, spirited battles could be joined in a few Senate and perhaps as many as 20 Assembly districts.

One Democrat Republicans would love to beat is longtime Sen. Ralph C. Dills (D-El Segundo), 84, who--despite running in a district extensively reconfigured by reapportionment--survived a primary challenge from three Democrats by a comfortable margin Tuesday. The flamboyant Dills serenaded backers with a celebratory series of saxophone solos as returns showed him headed for victory.

In November, Dills will square off against Republican nominee David Barrett Cohen, a Redondo Beach lawyer. Cohen, who is half Samoan, and other local GOP officials pledged an aggressive race against Dills, saying that he remains a new face for many of the voters in a district that extends from Compton to Venice.

But in Sacramento, Senate Republican Leader Ken Maddy on Wednesday did not list Dills among the most likely Democrats that he will target for defeat in November.

The legislative race that galvanized interest within the gay community occurred in the Westside’s 41st Assembly District, where Sheila James Kuehl, a women’s rights attorney and former actress in the old “Dobie Gillis” television show, scored an impressive win in the Democratic primary for an open seat.

Kuehl had publicly announced that she is a lesbian shortly before entering the race, in part, she said, to defuse her sexual orientation as an issue. But as her victory became apparent Tuesday night, she said, “I am very aware of how many gay and lesbian people in this state have an enormous pride about this election. Symbolically, it makes people joyful.”

Indeed, gay activists savored Kuehl’s primary win and suggested that it would be an encouraging sign to other politicians.

“I think if Sheila gets elected, it will send a signal to the many closeted elected officials in California that the voters are more intelligent than they give them credit for,” said Roger Coggan, legal services director of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center.

In another closely watched contest for an open Westside Assembly seat, Wally Knox, a Los Angeles community college trustee, defeated six other candidates in the 42nd District.

Nearby, in the 47th Assembly District, attorney Kevin Murray edged out eight other Democrats for his party’s nomination. If elected in November, Murray would join his father, Assemblyman Willard H. Murray Jr. (D-Paramount), as the first father-son duo to serve in the lower chamber at the same time.

Murray attributed his win to his family and community ties. “I got a lot of response from people who actually knew me since I was a kid,” he said. “In the end, we pushed the family thing.”

Ethnic overtones surrounded an Assembly race in northeast Los Angeles, where Antonio Villaraigosa beat Bill Mabie for the Democratic nomination for the 45th District seat that has been held by Richard Polanco, who won the Democratic primary for a state Senate seat. Polanco endorsed Mabie, who is white and had been a Polanco aide, while other Latino leaders favored Villaraigosa, a community activist.

Several Latino leaders who normally are allied with Polanco either steered clear of taking a stand on the Assembly race or backed Villaraigosa, arguing that a Latino should continue to represent the district.

Elsewhere, Latinos were building on gains made in the 1992 elections.

Latino candidates captured Democratic primaries in two Northern California Assembly districts previously held by whites.

And in the 24th Senate District that comprises several San Gabriel Valley communities, Assemblywoman Hilda L. Solis (D-El Monte) captured the Democratic nomination, putting her in position to become the first Latina in the upper chamber.

As a result of Tuesday’s contests, the 12-member Latino caucus could add several new members and possibly gain greater influence. Assemblyman Joe Baca (D-San Bernardino) said that with more members, the caucus “can have a stronger voice,” especially on such issues as immigration policy.

In one of Tuesday’s surprises, Marilyn Brewer, a moderate who favors abortion rights, clung to a small lead in the Republican primary for an open seat in the 70th Assembly District. The district has favored more conservative candidates in the past.

Brewer declared victory, but her closest foe, Thomas Reinecke, refused to concede because not all absentee ballots have been counted. He is the son of former GOP Lt. Gov. Ed Reinecke.

In the Inland Empire Senate race expected to draw major attention from both parties, Haynes will square off against Kay Ceniceros, a longtime county supervisor.

Riverside County Sheriff Cois Byrd, who lost to Haynes on Tuesday, blamed lower voter turnout for his defeat. “The general electorate is disgusted (and doesn’t vote), and they don’t have the fire in their belly as the religious right does. That hurt me,” Byrd said.

Times staff writers Jerry Gillam, Tom Gorman, Rick Holguin, Nancy Hill-Holtzman, Ted Johnson, Robert Lopez and Deborah Schoch contributed to this story.