Candidates’ Last-Minute Filings Show Frantic Shuffle Forced by Term Limits

Faced with a filing deadline, last-minute legislative candidates signed up Wednesday for the March primary, presenting the clearest picture yet of the frantic shuffle taking place as a result of term limits approved by voters five years ago.

In the 80-member Assembly, 25 members are automatically out at the end of next year. In the 40-member state Senate, 10 members must leave.

But not all are likely to leave Sacramento. At least 11 “termed out” Assembly members are running for state Senate seats--permissible under the term limit provisions--while one senator, Bill Leonard (R-San Bernardino), hopes to stay in office by running for an Assembly seat.

Meanwhile, outright retirement by several other legislators further helps to create a record number of open seats.

When the 1997 Assembly convenes, 30 of its members will be new to their jobs. One of the contenders is Lou Papan, a moderate Bay Area Democrat who left the Assembly in 1986 after serving 14 years and says he wants to return to unite “middle-of-the-road Democrats and middle-of-the-road Republicans” to end the lower house’s notorious divisiveness.

Also seeking a comeback: former Assemblyman Tom McClintock, a fiscal conservative from Thousand Oaks who left the Assembly in 1992 in a failed bid for Congress. In 1994 he lost the race for state controller. He is running in the Republican primary in a district that straddles Ventura and northern Los Angeles counties.

Typical of the political shake-up brought on by term limits, McClintock and several of his GOP rivals are facing off in a district that presents new opportunities as a result of an incumbent forced from the field, Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills).

But Boland is not a goner yet--again, thanks to term limits. She will run for the state Senate seat being vacated by Newton R. Russell (R-Glendale). The best-known of those competing against her is Wilbert L. Smith of Pasadena, who ran for state superintendent of public instruction last year.

Russell, meanwhile, is a goner from the political scene as of the end of next year. Russell says he plans to become a mediation expert helping settle business and other disputes.

The March 26 primary will set the stage for a general election made far more heated than normal because of the tight nature of the balance of power in the Legislature. Republicans hold a 41-39 margin in the Assembly and Democrats hold a 21-17 margin over the GOP in the state Senate, with two independents also seated.

That means that a shift of one seat in the Assembly--or two in the Senate--could alter the majority. Most political observers in the state expect the houses to remain narrowly held, no matter which party ultimately wins.

Wednesday was the deadline for most legislative candidates to file declarations of intent to run in the primary. In 35 races, however--about a third of the total--the deadline extends to Monday for candidates running in districts where the incumbent is stepping down or is late in declaring his candidacy, according to the secretary of state’s office.

But enough candidacies had been declared by Wednesday to get a sense of the vast changes that are coming to the Legislature, a development that authors of the authoritative Target Book election guide have called a “political earthquake” in the making.

Contributing to the rumble, open races among both Democrats and Republicans are in many cases free-for-alls, with as many as six candidates from the same party seeking the same Assembly or Senate nomination to run in November.

Curt Pringle of Garden Grove, the Assembly Republican leader who tracks candidates and races to figure out where to productively invest campaign funds, said that in virtually all Republican Assembly primary races he is standing back and not taking sides.

But Pringle singled out as “big battles” the McClintock race and another contest in Northern California, in a Sierra district east of Sacramento, where Assemblyman David Knowles (R-Carnelian Bay) is stepping down because of term limits.

The race to succeed Knowles features Steve Sax, a former baseball big leaguer who played second base for the Dodgers, facing a stiff field of competitors. Among them is Kirk Uhler, son of Lew Uhler, who is the head of the National Tax Limitation Committee, and a businessman, Rico Oller, who is heavily outspending Sax and other rivals in amassing campaign funds, according to Pringle.

In the Los Angeles area, the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Robert Beverly promises another high-profile battle involving Republicans Frank Colonna and Phil Hawkins. Colonna recently lost a race for mayor of Long Beach, while Hawkins won his first term in the Assembly last year in this always contested Bellflower-area district.

Former Assembly member Betty Karnette is also making a stab at revival, running as one of three Democrats in the race.

Among the most interesting Democratic primaries will be the Senate clash between incumbent Teresa Hughes and Assemblyman Curtis R. Tucker Jr., who is losing his seat because of term limits. Both are from Inglewood in the hugely Democratic district.

Republican consultant Allan Hoffenblum, author of the California Target Book, says some of the hottest turf will be the San Gabriel Valley and southern Los Angeles County, where incumbents Beverly and Russell have served their maximum terms, and where other incumbents are opting to move up.

Vanzi reported from Sacramento and Decker from Los Angeles. Also contributing were Times staff writers John Schwada and Ken Weiss and researcher Nona Yates.