California Congressional Elections 1992

Given a chance to voice their anti-incumbent sentiment, California voters Tuesday took the first step toward overhauling the state's congressional delegation by nominating dozens of new faces to run in the fall election. A total of at least 30 Republican and Democratic newcomers were chosen to represent the two major parties in November and compete for 15 open seats in California.

The conventional wisdom of January has become the debunked political myth of June: that California's voters were unlikely to nominate two women to run for the U.S. Senate in 1992 let alone elect two Democratic women to fill both of the Senate seats in November. Today, Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are basking in political stardom after impressive June 2 primary election victories over well-financed and well-known male opponents.

Two rallies this weekend brought home the rapidly changing nature of Southland politics. One of them was for Democratic women candidates, especially two running for Senate, Rep. Barbara Boxer and former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein. The other was sponsored by Latino politicians campaigning for Charter Amendment F, the measure to increase civilian control of the Los Angeles Police Department. Rallies are an antiquated form of political communication.

Firing the first salvo in what is expected to be a long and grueling campaign for the U.S. Senate, John Seymour aired a television commercial Monday that attacks opponent Dianne Feinstein as an insider who has favored higher taxes and lower criminal penalties. Seymour, who has served in the Senate for the last 17 months, uses the 30-second spot to call for term limits, and he vows to "shake things up in Washington."

California's four U.S. Senate nominees may have enough frequent-flier miles to go around the world, and they may be bone-tired from the long primary campaign, but none was leafing through travel brochures Thursday or headed for private hideaways. The primary campaign shifted into the general election campaign with barely a pause for celebrating victories in Tuesday's balloting by Democratic nominees Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and Republicans John Seymour and Bruce Herschensohn.

Robert J. Lagomarsino is a veteran congressman from Ventura with loyal friends throughout the Republican Party. Michael R. Huffington is a political newcomer from Santa Barbara, a baby boomer who is among the nation's wealthiest donors to the GOP. Republicans from here to the nation's capital have tried without luck to avert a primary contest between these two candidates.

Facing a tough reelection fight in a new district this fall, Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles) overcame his longstanding reluctance to solicit campaign funds in non-election years and raised $102,178 in the second half of 1991--outstripping his would-be Republican rivals. Beilenson's take, nonetheless, paled next to those of two San Fernando Valley-area Democratic colleagues, Henry A. Waxman of Los Angeles and Howard L.

An election-year ritual begins Monday when U.S. Senate candidates who have been campaigning for office for a full year or longer stage formal tours of California to officially announce that they are running for the Senate. The tours constitute something of a formal opening of the 1992 election campaign. Monday is the opening of the legal filing period for the two U.S. Senate seats at stake in California in 1992.

In 1988, Vice President George Bush came to Southern California and, like many visitors, headed for Disneyland. There, dozens of TV cameras--on hand to cover his presidential race with Michael Dukakis--captured him riding on a float, his face beautifully back-lit by the setting sun. The reporters accompanying those cameras knew that the picture had been set up by Bush's staff to enhance his image.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores announced Monday she will run for Congress in a Republican-leaning coastal district stretching from San Pedro to Venice. Flores joins four other Republicans competing in the newly drawn 36th Congressional District--among them Maureen Reagan, former President Ronald Reagan's daughter. Reagan, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, entered the race for the open seat last week, armed with the endorsement of her father.