STATE ELECTIONS / 35TH SENATE DISTRICT : Democrat Vows All-Out Battle Against Johnson : Politics: Madelene Arakelian, who got 7.9% of the vote, is a long shot. Gil Ferguson and Doris Allen face uncertain political futures.

Democrat Madelene Arakelian said Wednesday that she is ready to take on veteran Assemblyman Ross Johnson in a runoff for the state Senate seat in the affluent 35th District, a day after emerging as the top vote-getter for her party in a special election.

“I’m flying today,” said Arakelian, 61, of Newport Beach, an outspoken owner of a small Orange County trash-hauling firm. “I have a real battle to fight, and I’m ready to go full-bore.”

Meanwhile, former Newport Beach Assemblyman Gil Ferguson and Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) faced uncertain political futures after Tuesday’s special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by Marian Bergeson, now a county supervisor.

Ferguson and Allen came in second and third, respectively, behind Johnson in the fierce battle to be the Republican candidate in this staunchly conservative district of 400,000 voters. The 35th District stretches from Seal Beach past Laguna Beach.

Because none of the eight candidates in the race garnered more than 50% of the vote, a runoff between Johnson, who received 31.3% of the vote, and Arakelian, who received 7.9% as the top Democratic vote-getter, will be held May 9.

Johnson (R-Placentia), who is heavily favored to win the Senate seat, outspent his two major rivals. Johnson’s aides said he had spent about $350,000 to about $100,000 each by Ferguson and Allen.

“The results indicate that my message has resonated with the voters,” said Johnson, 55, a 16-year member of the Assembly and one of the most powerful men in the lower house.

Johnson discounted the assertion by some state Capitol pundits that his departure from the Assembly would keep Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) in power longer than Republicans want. Brown was reelected as Speaker on the strength of a one-vote margin that Assembly Democrats mustered.

Johnson predicted that Republicans would soon be elected to replace Richard Mountjoy (R-Arcadia), who left the Assembly in January for the state Senate, and Assemblyman Paul Horcher (I-Diamond Bar), who voted for Brown as Speaker and is facing a recall.

“There will be a window of opportunity for Willie Brown to be replaced as Speaker,” Johnson said. “I believe it will happen sometime in the spring.”

The political future looks particularly cloudy for Ferguson, 71, an ex-Marine lieutenant colonel who spent the past decade in the Assembly before giving up his seat to run for the state Senate. Most observers said he took Tuesday’s defeat particularly hard, and no one answered the telephone Wednesday at either his personal office or campaign headquarters in Newport Beach.

Allen, 58, who will have to leave the Assembly when her term ends in 1996 because of term limits, twice has been able to pull off political upsets in--1982 and 1992--to command an Assembly seat.

“I’m out the door in ‘96,” Allen said.

Now Arakelian will see whether she can stage an upset in a district where Democrats are outnumbered by Republicans 56% to 32%.

Arakelian said she believes Republicans were disenchanted with their candidates, as evidenced by the meager 14.5% of the voters who turned out at the polls Tuesday.