Pringle, Green Hold Slim Leads in Legislative Races

Republican Curt Pringle was holding onto a narrow lead as the vote was counted late Tuesday night in a bitter, multimillion-dollar legislative race in Orange County that was considered paramount to Democrats fighting to maintain their control of the Assembly.

In an even more costly and equally rancorous battle, Orange County’s only Democratic lawmaker, Cecil N. Green of Norwalk, clung to a lead over Republican Don Knabe of Cerritos in the 33rd Senate District.

Green and Knabe poured a total of $2.7 million into that race, just short of the record $3 million spent on the special election Green won last year. About a quarter of the district is in Orange County, and the rest is in Los Angeles County.

In the 72nd Assembly District, Pringle and his Democratic opponent, Christian F. (Rick) Thierbach had spent a total of about $2.1 million on their campaigns by election day.

The two legislative seats were key targets for both parties as they looked toward the redistricting that will follow the 1990 census. Currently, Democrats hold a 43-35 edge in the Assembly, where two seats are vacant, and control the Senate by a 24-15 margin. There is one Independent in the Senate.

The 72nd Assembly District and the 33rd Senate District also were considered crucial to the efforts of Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) to keep their powerful posts.

In other legislative races, all the Republican incumbents whose districts are within or partly within Orange County were winning easily in the early returns.

State senators who appeared headed for victory were Marian Bergeson of Newport Beach, John Seymour of Anaheim and William Campbell of Hacienda Heights.

Assembly incumbents who took early commanding leads were Gil Ferguson of Newport Beach, Nolan Frizzelle of Huntington Beach, Doris Allen of Cypress, Ross Johnson of Fullerton, John R. Lewis of Orange, Dennis Brown of Signal Hill and Robert C. Frazee of Carlsbad.

Pringle was selected for the GOP candidacy in the 72nd District after Assemblyman Richard E. Longshore (R-Santa Ana) died the day after the June 7 primary. But even before Longshore’s death, the contest had promised to be hard fought.

The seat was held by six-term incumbent Richard Robinson, a Garden Grove Democrat, until he left it 2 years ago to make an unsuccessful run for Congress. Longshore’s victory was considered an embarrassment to Democrats, who treasured it as their only hold on a legislative district wholly in heavily Republican Orange County.

In July, after an acrimonious search for a replacement candidate, the Orange County Republican Central Committee selected Pringle, a Garden Grove resident, to run in Longshore’s stead against Thierbach, an Anaheim resident and a prosecutor with the Riverside County district attorney’s office.

Huge Contributions

It was a bitter political fight, fueled by huge contributions from state Republican and Democratic leaders.

The district includes the cities of Santa Ana, Westminster and Stanton and portions of Garden Grove and Anaheim.

The $2.1-million price tag on the race illustrates the political importance both parties placed on winning the 72nd.

Assembly Speaker Brown did not campaign personally in the 72nd District, but Republicans injected him into the race, contending that Thierbach would be a puppet for Brown.

Thierbach, 38, also painted Pringle, 29, as a tool of partisan power brokers, and linked the drapery manufacturer to Assembly Minority Leader Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) and Assemblyman Frank Hill (R-Whittier). Nolan and Hill are among the targets of an ongoing FBI corruption investigation in Sacramento. Both contributed to Pringle’s campaign.

For weeks, the campaign was waged largely through political mailers, but on Tuesday both sides concentrated on making sure supporters went to the polls, with a heavy emphasis on phone work.

Most Expensive Race

As he continued to trail Pringle in the vote count early Wednesday, Thierbach stood on the balcony of his 14th-floor hotel suite, peering into the misty Anaheim night. “Don’t jump,” his campaign manager, Bob Lavoie, joked.

The race in the 33rd Senate District, according to the latest records available, was the single most expensive legislative contest in the state.

Green, Orange County’s only Democratic lawmaker, raised more than $1.54 million, while Knabe, an aide to Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana, raised about $1.1 million, the latest available records show. State leaders in both parties considered the seat crucial. A total of more than $1 million was funneled to the two candidates by state party leaders in the campaign’s final two weeks.

At a Knights of Columbus hall in Norwalk, Green arrived at his post-election party Tuesday night with both hands held high over his head. He was wearing a green tie and handkerchief, and his voting receipt was attached to his lapel with a pin that read, “union yes.”

Hundreds of union members from around the state worked for Green on Election Day, and by the time the polls closed many of them had filled the Norwalk hall to drink beer and eat hot dogs.

As he held onto his lead into the early morning hours, Green said he was pleased with his showing. “It may be late, but I’m going to win,” he predicted.

Green, 64, captured the seat in a May, 1987, special election after Paul Carpenter (D-Cypress) vacated it upon his election to the State Board of Equalization. Green was helped in that election, and again this year, by Roberti, the powerful Los Angeles Democrat who believed the 33rd District was a must-win to protect both his powerful leadership post and the Democratic majority in the Senate.

Roberti, underscoring the significance of Green’s reelection, poured more than $510,000 from his campaign accounts or political committees he controls into the race this year. Several key Roberti aides also were on loan to Green’s campaign.

Wanted to Run Before

Not to be outdone, the state Republican Party rallied behind Knabe, contributing $625,000 to the two-term former Cerritos councilman. Knabe, 45, wanted to challenge Green a year ago but was asked by Gov. George Deukmejian to step aside so that Assemblyman Wayne Grisham (R-Norwalk) could run. Knabe acquiesced only to watch Grisham go down to defeat.

Knabe, tired but smiling, joined about 150 supporters who cheered him as he arrived at the Lakewood Country Club about an hour after the polls closed.

Knabe, a staunch conservative who campaigned on crime and family value issues, has hammered away at the freshman senator in an aggressive mail effort. He also walked precincts in the district, which reaches across northwest Orange County and southeast Los Angeles County.