Torres Now on Outside Looking In : Election: After losing the race for insurance commissioner, the state senator from the Eastside says he must find a job. But he does not rule out another run for office.

State Sen. Art Torres, a week after losing his bid for state insurance commissioner, sits at his desk and sifts through mail from constituents, as he has done thousands of times during two decades in the Legislature.

“Here’s one from Yorba Linda, California,” says Torres, distinguished-looking with his graying hair and blue suit. “ ‘Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow. Please don’t give up the cause. . . . Things can change.’ ”

Torres has spent a lot of time thinking about tomorrow since Nov. 8, the day he lost his bid to become California’s second elected insurance commissioner and its first Latino in statewide office since 1876.

A lawmaker with solid accomplishments and a reputation as a skilled orator and tireless worker, Torres gave up his Senate seat to run. He must clear out of his offices by the end of the month.

Torres, at 47 still young for a politician, has ruled out a return to the Legislature--”It’s time to move on.” But he has not closed the door on higher office.

In the meantime, the senator said, he needs a job to pay the bills, including the expense of supporting two children, one of them in college. He is considering several offers but gives no details.

Torres vows to press ahead as a private citizen with his long-held goal of empowering Latinos and the politically weak. That could range from mentoring prospective leaders at college campuses to encouraging minority entrepreneurs.

He said the simple act of voting needs work. He was particularly disappointed that more Latinos did not turn out on Nov. 8. “Forty-five percent of the Latino voters had no clue as to what was at stake, and they stayed home,” he said.

Torres said he will make his base in the East Los Angeles area, which he has represented in the Assembly and the Senate since 1974.

“I may not be in political office, but that doesn’t stop me from going out and talking to young folks,” said Torres, whose former aides include Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles). “If I can just have an impact on one person, I will be doing a lot.”

The senator held to that kind of chin-up attitude during a two-hour interview in his Los Angeles office. But it was clear he was shaken by his loss to Assemblyman Charles W. Quackenbush (R-San Jose), whose campaign was heavily financed by the insurance industry, and by the passage of Proposition 187.

Torres said the two were linked. The Republican wave surely cost him votes. In addition, Quackenbush easily outspent him with about $1.9 million in contributions from the insurance industry.

But Torres said he can’t help thinking that the anti-illegal immigrant fervor surrounding Proposition 187 brought many supporters to the polls who also cast votes against a “Torres.”

As evidence, he cites voting results in some rural counties, such as Fresno County, where Proposition 187 won by a bigger percentage than it did statewide. Torres’ margin of loss in those counties also was higher than statewide.

He theorizes that Proposition 187 was a ploy to get out the conservative vote for Gov. Pete Wilson.

“You’re going to go after those lightning rods that will ignite conservative voters across the state,” Torres said. “What you had here was an initiative that was folly, but that didn’t matter.”

The loss was the second straight defeat for Torres, who ran unsuccessfully for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 1991.

But pundits say Torres, once considered a top contender to be California’s first Latino governor in this century, still has a future in politics.

There is his relatively close finish, 5% behind Quackenbush. And the fact that he was caught in the Republican wave and the Proposition 187 landslide also argues against long-term damage.

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Then there is Torres’ solid legislative record. His accomplishments include a Medi-Cal reform bill that allows seniors to receive care at home and a bill that he claims has kept thousands of children from dropping out of school. He has a strong environmental record and a long history of championing Latino causes. Torres was one of the leaders in the successful effort to keep a prison out of East Los Angeles.

“I don’t think his political career is over, if that’s what he wants to do,” said political science professor Larry Berg at USC. “He’s a very viable candidate. He has a lot of assets.”

Torres, the son of a butcher, worked after graduation as a lobbyist for an organization that pushed legislation to aid the state’s rural poor.

The young lobbyist soon caught the eye of Cesar Chavez, leader of the United Farm Workers Union. Chavez urged Torres to run for the Assembly seat of a Latino legislator who had voted against the union on a key measure.

Torres lost that 1972 election and was hired by the UFW as a lobbyist. Torres ran for the Assembly again in 1974 and won the seat he would hold for eight years.

While he clearly pursued a liberal agenda, which included Latino causes, he sent a strong message in 1980 that he wasn’t going to be anyone’s sure vote.

In a battle over the Assembly speakership, Torres cast his vote for Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), while Chavez backed then-Assemblyman Howard L. Berman. Torres’ vote infuriated Chavez, who had provided more than $100,000 in union funds to support Berman’s bid.

Torres said he voted for Brown because Brown was more likely to end party bickering that had slowed legislative business. Detractors said he was currying favor with an eye toward higher office.

“It was not an easy decision,” Torres said of his vote that shattered his personal, but not philosophical, relationship with Chavez.

Torres tweaked the noses of the Senate Democratic leadership in 1982 when he entered the primary as a young maverick legislator and defeated incumbent Alex Garcia. The win was sweet because Garcia had defeated the young Torres when he first sought public office in 1972.

Torres’ political career shone brightly until 1987, when he was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving, after nearly crashing his car into a parked police vehicle in Sacramento.

The lawmaker pleaded no contest, paid a fine and was placed on probation. But he was arrested again on suspicion of drunk driving in 1989 after leaving a Sacramento restaurant. Torres said he was an alcoholic and completed a treatment program.

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The political damage didn’t keep Torres from winning a third Senate term in 1990. But losing to onetime aide Molina in the 1991 supervisor’s race was another setback. Running with the support of labor, law enforcement and even the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., Torres lost by 11 percentage points to then-Los Angeles City Councilwoman Molina, who ran as a reformer.

Now, after the loss to Quackenbush, Torres will soon be the outsider. But like the pundits, Torres doesn’t discount a return to the political arena.

“If anybody thinks I’ve given up, my God, I’ve had other obstacles that have stopped me temporarily,” Torres said. “I have too much energy inside to retire.”