SACRAMENTO -- — Mervyn Dymally, Jerome Horton and Roderick Wright have all burnished their political reputations in the gilded chambers of the state Assembly.
Their Los Angeles County constituencies have overlapped. On many issues, the three Democrats' voting records have been identical. They have sat together at political rallies and legislative hearings.
Now they are battling one another for a single seat in the state Senate in a game of musical chairs triggered by term limits. "I'd prefer that we didn't have to compete," said Horton, whose six years in the Assembly overlapped the tenures of Dymally, who is still serving, and Wright, whose term ended in 2002. "We are friends," Wright said.
Things might have been different if voters had changed term limits by passing Proposition 93 on the Feb. 5 ballot. But the measure failed.
Partisan candidates for the June 3 primary election in districts where the incumbent is termed out have until 5 p.m. today to file their papers. That deadline also applies in races where the incumbent is seeking reelection. In other districts, where the incumbent can seek reelection but does not, the deadline is Wednesday. But so far there are nearly three dozen wide-open legislative races with political veterans -- many of them recent allies -- competing against one another.
A quarter of state Senate districts and 30% of the Assembly's will have no incumbent in the primary. That means an election "more vibrant" and "a lot less predictable" than it might have been otherwise, said Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles).
Because the state's lawmakers have created voting districts that lean heavily Democratic or Republican, candidates who win the dominant party's primary are often shoo-ins in the November general election.
Dymally et al are lining up in a mostly Democratic district in the Inglewood area, where incumbent Sen. Edward Vincent is being forced out by term limits. Dymally must leave the Assembly this year for the same reason. Another Southern California contest features Assemblyman Lloyd Levine of Van Nuys running against former Assemblywoman Fran Pavley of Agoura Hills, two Democrats running for the Senate seat now held by Sheila Kuehl of Santa Monica.
In a San Gabriel Valley district drawn to favor Republicans, there is a race to replace termed-out Sen. Bob Margett. Potential GOP contenders include Assemblyman Bob Huff of Diamond Bar and former Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy of Monrovia.
