Incumbents in California locked in tight races

The embattled incumbents in California congressional and legislative districts sweating out the ballot counting Tuesday night included Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez, who in preliminary returns was pulling ahead of wth Republican Assemblyman Van Tran for a central Orange County seat, and Republican Rep. Mary Bono Mack, who was fending off a strong challenge from Democrat Steve Pougnet in a Palm Springs-based district.

In Northern California, two targeted Democratic congressmen were trailing their GOP challengers early in the ballot counting. Rep. Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton, considered by some to be the state’s most vulnerable Democratic House member, was running behind attorney David Harmer, and Rep. Jim Costa of Fresno was losing to Hanford cherry farmer Andy Vidak. Republican Rep. Dan Lungren of Gold River was leading his Democratic challenger, physician Ami Bera.

Among Southern California races for the Assembly, Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor was far ahead of Democratic businessman Phu Nguyen for the central Orange County seat being vacated by Tran. In a sprawling district split between Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, conservative Republican businessman Tim Donnelly jumped to a strong early lead over Democrat Darcel Woods, a Chaffey College professor with a long career in criminal justice.

And for an open South Bay seat, Democrat Betsy Butler, a former fund-raiser for a trial attorneys organization, narrowly trailed Republican engineer Nathan Mintz of Redondo Beach after an unexpectedly vigorous race in the strongly Democratic seat.

In a Sacramento-area race heavily targeted by Democrats hoping to add to their lower house majority, Democrat Richard Pan was leading Republican attorney Andy Pugno, chief counsel for the group behind Proposition 8, the gay-marriage ban approved by voters but overturned by the courts.

On the state Senate side, Sen. Louis Correa was handily holding off a challenge from Republican challenger Lucille Kring, an Anaheim councilwoman. And a special election in Long Beach seemed likely with voters favoring returning late Sen. Jenny Oropeza to office. Oropeza died Oct. 20.

The congressional races were particularly hard fought, part of the widely watched campaigns around the nation as the two major political parties battled for control of the House and Senate. The parties and outside groups alike poured money into targeted races. Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, a group backed by Republican consultants Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, spent nearly $338,000 on a TV ad attacking Costa; the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent nearly $347,000 for a spot opposing Vidak, Costa’s Republican challenger.

In the high-decibel contest between Sanchez, the only Democrat holding a congressional seat in Orange County, and Tran, national figures from both parties entered the fray: former President Clinton campaigned for Sanchez while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich rallied support for Tran. The presence of political newcomer Cecilia Iglesias on the ballot as an independent added another dimension of uncertainty and Sanchez supporters suspected — and Iglesias denied — that she had been encouraged to run to take votes from Sanchez, another Latina.

In a district where Latinos and Vietnamese Americans form the biggest ethnic voter groups, ethnicity became an issue when Sanchez, who has courted Vietnamese voters since first winning the seat in 1996, appeared on a Spanish-language television station and said “the Vietnamese” and Republicans were trying to take “this seat from us.” Tran called her statement “offensive” and “divisive.” Sanchez said she was referring only to Tran and his supporters in the Vietnamese community, not to Vietnamese voters in general. But Tran did not let the issue drop and the matter dogged the campaign.

As with other contested congressional districts, the race became a referendum on the Obama administration’s and Democrats’ handling of the economy, healthcare and other policies.

“What you have is a clash of ideas,” Clinton told a rally of Sanchez supporters in Santa Ana last month.

That was certainly the case in the Riverside County district fight between Bono Mack, the widow of entertainer and former Rep. Sonny Bono and now the wife of another congressman, and Pougnet, the openly gay mayor of Palm Springs. Bono Mack initially built a campaign around criticizing Democratic policies and tying them to Pougnet. Pougnet portrayed Bono Mack as an elitist out of touch with the her constituents and the district’s high unemployment rate.

In the Legislature, gerrymandered districts drawn a decade ago to protect incumbents of both major parties eliminated contentious races for all but a smattering of seats. Most of the competitive battles were in Northern California, including the Central Valley race to succeed state Sen. Jeff Denham, who gave up his seat to run for Congress.

Several Los Angeles-area Democrats were unopposed in Tuesday’s balloting, including Assembly Speaker John A. Perez, Assemblyman Mike Davis and Assemblyman Ed Hernandez, making a Senate bid.

In the South Bay district which Butler was strongly favored to win, the California Democratic Party was worried enough about Mintz, founder of a local tea party group, to include attacks on him in two political mailers. One labeled him “a 27-year-old with no history of involvement in our community.” Mintz said his time in the district has been filled with community activities and service.

In the district that spans parts of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, Democrat Woods received no party financial help in her underfunded campaign against Donnelly, a Minuteman member who vowed to press for a legislation similar to Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

Tuesday’s elections provided some unusual twists. Oropeza’s death prompted Republicans to urge voters to elect her GOP opponent, John Stammreichwhile Democrats said reminded voters they could choose another Democrat in a few months if Oropeza is reelected posthumously.

jean.merl@latimes.com

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com