Decision ’96 / Key issues and races in the California vote : Local Races Are Main Attraction in Primary Election

Maybe Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill was right. Maybe, as the late House speaker said, all politics is local. But rarely has that maxim been more clear in a national election year than in Tuesday’s primary, when the Los Angeles County voters who do trudge to the polls will do so largely to decide local races, not high-profile contests.

With the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations decided, the Golden State’s primary lacks the luster of many prior elections. And in Los Angeles County, the nation’s largest, that means voters who cast ballots will be drawn primarily by races for 18 congressional seats, 32 state offices, nine city elections and sundry county contests.

“It’s a totally different cycle,” said Democratic political consultant Rick Taylor, who is managing four local campaigns in California.

“Normally, the draw on the ballot is from the top down. This election, it will be from the bottom up. The interest in the Assembly and Senate and Congress [races] will drive the turnout. . . . The presidential race will bring it down,” Taylor said.

Alan Heslop, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, agrees. His prediction: Less than 20% of the county’s 3.6 million registered voters will cast ballots Tuesday. (Four years ago, when there were 3.3 million registered voters, the turnout was 48.3%).

“Voters are losing interest each day. We’re late in the presidential stakes,” Heslop said. “Californians aren’t used to the March primary.”

Still, in the San Fernando Valley, voters will decide on two open seats for Congress, and elsewhere in the county a number of races are generating intense interest.

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Nowhere has campaigning been more spirited than in south Los Angeles and the neighboring cities of Long Beach, Compton and Lynwood, where many prominent African American officeholders--some in the same families--are furiously vying for seats in Congress and the Legislature. Key races include the following:

* 37th Congressional District: The contest for the seat, left vacant when former Rep. Walter Tucker III resigned after his federal conviction for extortion, is crowded and confusing. Voters will face two ballots: one to fill the remainder of Tucker’s term, another for the right to appear on the November ballot, when a full two-year term will be at stake.

Candidates include five African American officials: state Assembly members Willard H. Murray Jr. (D-Paramount) and Juanita M. McDonald (D-Carson); Mayors Omar Bradley of Compton and Paul H. Richards of Lynwood, and longtime Compton City Clerk Charles Davis. Among the other candidates are Tucker’s wife, Robin, and M. Susan Carrillo, a member of the Water Replenishment District of Southern California and the only Latino in the race. The district covers Compton, Carson, Watts, Lynwood and parts of Long Beach.

* 55th Assembly District: Candidates for the office, vacated by Juanita McDonald in her bid for Congress, include former Democratic Assemblyman Dick Floyd, who lost the seat to McDonald in 1992. Floyd, who is white, hopes to retake the office in much the way McDonald won before. Then, she captured the district’s black vote while Floyd and another former assemblyman, Dave Elder, split the vote of whites. Now, Floyd’s bid may hinge on whether two African American candidates--McDonald’s son, Keith, and Carl E. Robinson, a retired postal worker--split the black vote. The district encompasses portions of Long Beach, Carson and Compton.

* 52nd Assembly District: Left open by Willard Murray’s run for Congress, this office is sought by his daughter, Melinda, a deputy district attorney, and the Rev. Carl Washington, an aide to county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke. Washington is known in the community for helping to broker a truce among gangs in Watts. The district includes Compton, Gardena, Lynwood and Watts.

* 25th Senate District: The race to represent this district, which runs from Marina del Rey to Paramount, is between liberal incumbent Teresa Hughes (D-Inglewood) and Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood). The contest has been so intense that the politically moderate Tucker recently received an unusual $40,000 contribution from state Senate Republican Leader Rob Hurtt.

In addition to some lively local contests, Tuesday’s election includes plenty of familiar political names: Tucker, Murray, McDonald. Even Roosevelt.

In Long Beach, Delano Roosevelt, a Costa Mesa businessman and heir to a presidential dynasty, seemed sure to inherit a council seat from a veteran city councilman. But Roosevelt’s name drew unexpected attention--and other candidates--to the race. Now, the grandson of Franklin Delano Roosevelt is in a tight contest that includes community leader Sandy Blankenship, attorney Dennis Carroll, retired contractor Mike Horrigan and financial consultant Craig Koehler.

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For the first time in almost 30 years, the Long Beach area will have a new state senator with the term limits retirement of Robert G. Beverly (R-Long Beach). GOP contenders are Assemblyman Phil Hawkins of Bellflower and Long Beach businessman Frank Colonna. Democratic candidates are former Assemblywoman Betty Karnette of Long Beach and Brian Finander. The 27th District also includes the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Bellflower, Cerritos and Downey.

In the 36th Congressional District, which runs from San Pedro to Venice, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Rolling Hills) will run unopposed in the primary. But Republicans bidding to challenge her this fall include her 1994 opponent, former Rancho Palos Verdes Rep. Susan Brooks, who lost to Harman by only 812 votes, and onetime Democrat Irwin Savodnik, a Rancho Palos Verdes psychologist who has spent $300,000 of his own money in his bid for the GOP nomination.

And in the Democratic stronghold of the Westside, seven incumbents for state and national office--including 11-term Rep. Henry A. Waxman--will cruise unopposed to victories. Only one, Assemblyman Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles), faces a challenge, and the area’s large number of Democrats could mean that victories Tuesday are preludes to wins in November.

In the San Fernando Valley, where term limits and resignations have pried open a number of seats, Democratic candidates in the 39th Assembly District are battling to succeed veteran Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar). Real estate broker Tony Cardenas, bidding to become the Valley’s first Latino state legislator, is vying with Board of Equalization attorney Valerie Salkin, 29, and former teacher and legislative aide Jim Dantona, 47.

The Valley also has two open congressional seats with the retirements of the 24th District’s Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) and 27th District’s Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale).

In the 24th District, businessman Rich Sybert, who lost narrowly to Beilenson two years ago, appears to have the GOP nomination sewn up. On the Democratic side, State Board of Equalization member Brad Sherman has party support and money but has faced a spirited challenge from attorney Jeffrey A. Lipow, one of six other Democrats in the race.

In the 27th, Democrats Barry Gordon, former Screen Actors Guild president, and businessman Doug Kahn are vying to challenge GOP Assemblyman James Rogan this fall in the heavily Republican district, centered in Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena.

In the San Gabriel Valley, Democratic Assemblywoman Diane Martinez of Monterey Park is facing a challenge in the 49th District primary from a former campaign contributor, Alhambra developer Benjamin “Frank” Venti, over her support for “right to die” legislation.

Perhaps that region’s most bitter contest pits Republican Assemblyman Gary G. Miller against old sparring partner Diamond Bar Councilman Clair Harmony in the 60th District Republican primary. The district covers the southeast San Gabriel Valley and the Whittier area.

Contributing to this report were Times staff writers Henry Chu, J. Michael Kennedy, Duke Helfand and Nancy Hill-Holtzman and correspondents Laura Accinelli, Deborah Belgum and John Cox.