Freshmen Congressmen Winning

The San Fernando Valley’s two rookie congressmen, targeted by their rival parties and shadowed by the controversy surrounding President Clinton’s possible impeachment, appeared on their way to reelection Tuesday night.

Reps. James Rogan (R-Glendale) and Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) were leading a stampede of victorious Valley incumbents who appear likely to return to Congress and the California Legislature after Tuesday’s election.

Assemblyman Jack Scott (D-Pasadena) survived an early scare from Republican upstart Ken LaCorte, a medical supply dealer. Scott held a 52%-to-43% lead late Tuesday, with one third of the vote counted. LaCorte’s bid for the 44th Assembly District received a major, last-minute infusion of cash from backers of Proposition 5, the Indian gaming initiative.

With 21% of the vote counted in the 27th Congressional District race, Rogan, a freshman Republican, was leading with 56.3% of the vote to Democratic challenger Barry Gordon’s 41% late Tuesday.

“I have never expected to win big,” Rogan said earlier in the evening from his Glendale campaign headquarters at the Red Lion Inn. “A huge win for us would be 51% or 52%.”

Still, Rogan was comfortable enough to go to bed upstairs about 11:30 p.m., according to his campaign manager, Jeff Lennan.

In the 24th Congressional District, Sherman was leading Republican Randy Hoffman by 16%, with just over 11% of the vote counted. Sherman had 56.4% compared with Hoffman’s 40.2%, election returns showed.

Hoffman conceded the race to Sherman at 11:45 p.m. The Republican congratulated Sherman for running a good campaign, and lamented the disappointing Republican showing nationwide.

“It’s clear this is a national trend. This was not the year of the Republican,” Hoffman said.

The Rogan race attracted national attention as a possible bellwether to voters’ reaction to the Clinton scandal and the Republican-controlled Congress’ push for impeachment, but Rogan insisted his campaign was based more on his own integrity and effectiveness in Congress.

During the campaign, Gordon, an actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild, accused Rogan of joining a partisan vendetta to bring down the Clinton presidency. Rogan voted in favor of the GOP proposal to launch an impeachment inquiry, and he is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, which will conduct the investigation.

“My life as a congressman doesn’t revolve around these issues,” said Rogan, a former prosecutor and Municipal Court judge. “I wasn’t elected to . . . look into the president’s personal life.’

The 27th Congressional District includes Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank and communities wedged between the Verdugo and San Gabriel mountains.

Gordon spent much of Tuesday night watching returns from a second-story room of the Democratic headquarters in Pasadena. By about 11 p.m. it was becoming clear that he was behind as he nervously waited for the tally, as other Democrats were claiming victory.

Rogan voted in favor of the GOP impeachment proposal and advised House Speaker Newt Gingrich on how the House should act on independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s report accusing the president of perjury and obstruction of justice.

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Rogan has maintained Congress has an obligation to investigate the allegations against Clinton, but also said the president must be afforded a “presumption of innocence” if Congress expects the public to believe the process is fair and just. Rogan tried to steer the focus of the campaign to other issues, emphasizing the accomplishments of the GOP-led Congress--with delivery of a balanced budget for the first time in three decades and tax relief for families topping his list.

Rogan switched to more bruising tactics in the final week of the campaign, sending a mailer criticizing Gordon’s shaky personal finances over the past 15 years, including four tax liens and a bankruptcy filing.

Gordon cast Rogan as a far-right Republican closely aligned with Gingrich, a position Gordon said is “out of sync” with voters. Gordon’s campaign mail ripped Rogan’s positions against abortion rights and a ban on assault weapons.

The final was much more vicious in the race for the 24th Congressional District, which pitted Sherman against Hoffman, a millionaire high-tech businessman from Thousand Oaks. The district includes Sherman Oaks, Woodland Hills, Malibu, Calabasas and Thousand Oaks.

“If these results hold,” Sherman said of his early lead, “it will be extremely difficult for Newt Gingrich to come out and recruit another millionaire to run against me.”

As Sherman’s lead over Hoffman grew throughout the night, his supporters’ confidence at an election party in Tarzana grew as well.

Sherman said that when he ran for Congress two years ago he benefited from Clinton’s coattails. But Sherman said this time voters “knew me and knew what kind of job I was doing in Congress.”

“My race is independent of what’s going on statewide and nationwide,” Sherman said.

Sherman said he believes voters were responding to his positive mailers, stressing his record on the environment and education, unlike Hoffman, who Sherman said relied mainly on his wealth.

The two candidates, who both held themselves out as fiscal conservatives and social moderates, flooded Valley mailboxes with a stream of sometimes nasty charges and countercharges. In the final days, Hoffman even criticized Sherman for voting in favor of a limited impeachment inquiry of the president.

Hoffman’s campaign also accused Sherman of helping Russia and China sell nuclear-missile technology to Iran, and Sherman accused Hoffman’s company of supplying military equipment to Arab enemies of Israel.

The Republican Party considered Sherman, a freshman and former member of the state Board of Equalization, one of the most vulnerable Democrats in Congress. The GOP flew in some of the party’s top muscle to help raise money for Hoffman--former presidential nominee Bob Dole, former Vice President Dan Quayle and House Majority Leader Dick Armey. Actress Heather Locklear headlined a Hoffman fund-raiser in Westlake Village.

Hoffman, worth between $2 million and $7 million, pumped nearly $900,000 of his money into the campaign. He stepped down as president of Magellan Systems Inc., a high-tech San Dimas company that makes personal satellite navigation systems, to run for office.

In other congressional races, the incumbents appeared to have the advantage.

Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon was expected to easily be reelected to a fourth term. For the first time the Santa Clarita Republican faced no major party opposition.

And Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills) faced a similar situation. After fighting off San Fernando Mayor Raul Godinez, a Democrat, in the primary, Berman faced three alternative-party candidates Tuesday.

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McKeon was cruising in early returns with 77% of the vote. Berman, who has served 16 years, was leading with 82% of the vote.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon, the Democratic nominee for the state’s 20th Senate District, declared victory at 11:40 p.m. in his contest against Republican Ollie McCaulley.

As the night wore on, Alarcon’s lead over McCaulley continued to grow. By 11:15 p.m. with 9% of the precincts reporting, Alarcon had 60.6% of the vote compared with McCaulley’s 32.4% share.

“I’m very excited to be the next senator of the San Fernando Valley,” Alarcon said. “As a former teacher my priority will be trying to contribute to education, and with a Democratic governor in office I’m expecting to be able to move ahead aggressively on a broad range of issues. I also don’t want us to forget about the issue of crime. We need to maintain a strong posture and also continue to work on issues of economic development.”

Alarcon’s apparent win Tuesday came after a bitter primary battle with fellow Democrat Richard Katz. It was a contest marked by charges of race-baiting, a recount and lawsuits.

On the opposite end of the campaign spectrum, Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) faced no challengers Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) led with 66%. Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) had a comfortable lead with 82%, and Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), speaker pro tem, led her reelection bid with 58%.

Democratic Assemblyman Scott Wildman of Los Angeles had 56% in the 43rd Assembly District to put him ahead of Republican challenger Peter Repovich, a police officer. Repovich’s hopes of reclaiming the Assembly seat for his party were dashed when it was revealed he had been disciplined for sexually harassing a female officer and for picking up a handcuffed shoplifting suspect by the hair.

While the controversial issue of Valley secession from Los Angeles wasn’t on Tuesday’s ballot, it was close by. Petitioners from Valley VOTE, the group leading the drive for a study and possible vote on the issue, stationed themselves at polling sites to collect signatures.

“We expect to get another 6,000 to 10,000 signatures,” Valley VOTE President Jeff Brain said.

The group needs to collect signatures from 25% of the registered voters in the Valley--about 135,000 signatures--to trigger the secession study. Valley VOTE leaders hope to gather 200,000 signatures by the Nov. 27 deadline, which they believe will be enough to ensure the petition’s success even if some signatures are disqualified.

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Times staff writers Andrew Blankstein, Jeff Leeds, Antonio Olivo and Martha L. Willman contributed to this story.