CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / 35TH SENATE DISTRICT : Veteran Insider Faces Outsider at the Polls

California’s newest state senator either will be a dauntless government critic and business owner from the Balboa Peninsula or an attorney and veteran assemblyman who has become one of the most powerful legislators in the state.

Democrat Madelene Arakelian--the critic--and Republican Assemblyman Ross Johnson will vie in a runoff election on May 9 for the state 35th Senate District, the seat Marian Bergeson vacated when she joined the county Board of Supervisors in January.

Although Johnson bought a townhome in Irvine only last fall to meet the residency requirement, he has a big advantage: Republicans outnumber Democrats by 54% to 32% in this affluent district that stretches from Seal Beach south through Laguna Beach and inland to La Palma and Tustin.

Johnson’s party stature makes him the heavy favorite, but he insists he is treating the race seriously. He has distributed a pair of campaign mailers and will have a fund-raiser Thursday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach.

“I’m taking nothing for granted. We are running a full-fledged campaign,” said Johnson, 55, an attorney and veteran of more than 16 years in the Assembly, including a stint as floor leader of the state’s lower house from 1988 to 1991.

Arakelian, a principal in a family-owned trash-hauling business, hopes to graduate to elected office from her longtime role as a critic of the county Board of Supervisors. She said she is bankrolling her own campaign, which so far has consisted of telephone banks and speeches to local groups.

Her status as a long shot and a political outsider keeps her going, she said.

“I’ve spent at least two Tuesdays out of every month for the past 18 years at supervisors’ meetings trying to get them to change our industry . . . to finally allow competitive bidding,” said Arakelian, 61. “The people are angry and want honest politicians who represent them. That’s the only reason I’m running.”

Her key to a major upset, Arakelian said, may be what she calls Johnson’s opportunistic move into the district to run for state Senate and escape term limits that would have ended his legislative career. Arakelian is also hoping for a better turnout than in the March primary, when less than 15% of the district’s 400,000 registered voters showed up at the polls.

Perhaps many disgruntled voters will back her and not a newcomer to the area, she said.

“Instead of stepping down, powerful politicians like Johnson are moving to a new district so they can continue to be a legislator,” Arakelian said. “I know a lot of Republicans who don’t believe this is right. It’s terrible.”

In the primary, Johnson, with a campaign fund of more than $350,000 from party members around the state, successfully defended those same charges of carpetbagging when he defeated two well-known local Republicans: Assemblywoman Doris Allen of Cypress and former Assemblyman Gil Ferguson of Newport Beach. It was a bitter campaign, however, with candidates trading insults that left everyone fuming.

Although he is hoping to shift his political base from Fullerton, Johnson counters the carpetbagger charge with his status as “a lifelong Orange County resident” and staunch conservative who attended Orange Coast College and served in the Navy Reserve in Los Alamitos.

“I think it matters a whole lot less where a district line falls than what kind of quality legislation you will provide,” Johnson said. “I am a product of the Orange County community and an accurate reflection of the Orange County community.”

Arakelian has been a resident of the Balboa Peninsula for the past 18 years, since she and her husband moved their business, South Coast Refuse, from the Inglewood area.

She labels herself a “lifelong Democrat,” but her independence has kept her from winning an endorsement and financial aid from the party Establishment. Some Democrats say they resent that her firm’s approximately 50 employees are not affiliated with a union.

“I’m not against the unions; we were a union company for seven years,” she said. “I think there is a purpose for unions, but my husband chose not to be in it. . . . He’s a Republican.”

Johnson and Arakelian agree on one critical issue currently facing county voters: Both oppose Measure R, the proposed half-cent sales tax on the June 27 ballot.

Both also agree on the need for reform in the legal system, although they differ on specifics. Arakelian wants to focus new legislation on “outlawing frivolous lawsuits” but says attorneys should be able to reform themselves.

Johnson prefers legislation that would limit damages collected from lawsuits because the system “is too much of a lottery now.”

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35th State Senate District

Candidates in a special election May 9 to fill the remaining portion of Marian Bergeson’s term.

Madelene Arakelian * Party: Democrat * Age: 61

* Family: Married, four children, four grandchildren * Residence: Newport Beach * Education: Los Angeles High School * Occupation: Owns South Coast Refuse, a trash-hauling firm

WHERE THEY STAND ON THE ISSUES

Measure R (proposed half-cent increase in county sales tax for bankruptcy recovery) Opposed. “If we knew the revenues could be designated to go to a specific place-- for labor or health and welfare services, for example--that we absolutely need, I would feel comfortable about it. But we have never seen the supervisors do what they said they would do.” Commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station

Opposed. “I have always been against it. Again, I don’t believe it will do what we have been told it will do. I watched the area around Los Angeles Airport deteriorate.

Raises for state legislators (Salaries increased 37%, to $72,000, last year; scheduled to increase 5% more in December)

Opposed. “I definitely don’t think that legislators deserve that kind of a raise. Absolutely not. It’s outrageous. Private enterprise doesn’t give those kinds of raises.”

Welfare reform at the state level

Opposed. “I don’t think the federal government should be giving block grants to the state. The money will be used to balance the state budget and feather the politicians’ own nests. Welfare should stay at the federal level.”

Orange County bankruptcy

“I want the supervisors to resign. I want them out of there. Five and a half months later and I don’t believe anything is moving forward.”

Ross Johnson * Party: Republican * Age: 55 * Family: Married, two daughters * Residence: Irvine * Education: Anaheim High School, Orange Coast College, Cal State Fullerton * Occupation: Attorney; assemblyman since 1978

WHERE THEY STAND ON THE ISSUES

Measure R (proposed half-cent increase in county sales tax for bankruptcy recovery) Opposed. “I just don’t believe that everything has been looked at in terms of alternatives.”

Commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station

Neutral. “It has been my position right along that the communities surrounding El Toro have to have their concerns taken into account. Their legitimate concerns about the environment and the quality of life have to be addressed adequately.”

Raises for state legislators (Salaries increased 37%, to $72,000, last year; scheduled to increase 5% more in December)

Supports. “I intend to take the salary increase” because it was sanctioned by a commission that sets legislative salaries.

Welfare reform at the state level

Supports. “There’s not a doubt in my mind that California and our sister states could do a better job, provided we are given the resources with no strings attached.”

Orange County bankruptcy

“This situation, as bad as it is in Orange County, offers us an opportunity to be creative and rethink the relationships among the government bodies. Like what are the appropriate levels of service and who they should be provided by.”

Sources: Madelene Arakelian, Ross Johnson, Times reports; Researched by LEN HALL / Los Angeles Times