Green’s Health Could Affect His Reelection Bid : Politics: The state senator is suffering from emphysema and may not feel up to a tough challenge.

State Sen. Cecil N. Green (D-Norwalk) is suffering from emphysema, which could be a factor in his decision about whether to run for reelection this year.

Green’s condition came to light earlier this month when the Legislature reconvened in Sacramento and Green, under doctors’ orders to lighten his load, began using an electric-powered cart to get around the Capitol.

An aide, Bill Gage, acknowledged that Green, 67, may not be up to the challenge of a “major� campaign. But the two-term lawmaker is awaiting the outcome later this month of the final state Supreme Court reapportionment map before deciding whether to retire.

Under the court plan, Green’s 33rd District, which straddles the Los Angeles and Orange County line, would be eliminated. The district would be carved up and his home base of Norwalk placed in a heavily Latino district that would stretch into the San Gabriel Valley. Currently, the district, which Green has served since 1987, includes Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Downey, Hawaiian Gardens, Lakewood, Norwalk and Santa Fe Springs in Los Angeles County as well as Buena Park, Cypress, La Palma, Los Alamitos and part of Garden Grove in Orange County.

Gage said that, partly to keep his political career alive, he has moved his home to Buena Park, where he could run in a newly drawn Orange County Senate district. But the prospect of a tough challenge could prompt him to retire instead.

“It would take too much out of him to run a major campaign,� Gage said. If he faced an easy election, Gage said, Green might be physically up to another campaign.

Green has a history of respiratory problems. He said he has suffered from several bouts of pneumonia over more than a decade. In 1976, his first bid for the state Senate ended in a hospital bed when pneumonia cut the campaign short.

Gage said Green was hospitalized again last May. Since then, Green, who gave up cigarettes five years ago, stopped smoking cigars and was urged to use the cart to get around the Capitol.

Green said the chronic lung condition is not affecting his ability to handle legislation or attend committee or Senate floor sessions.

He said the cart makes it easier for him to attend to his duties.

“This makes me mobile. . . . It takes the load off,� he said.

In Sacramento, the senator figures that he sometimes walks as many as 5 or 6 miles a day in the long corridors of the Capitol, often darting back and forth between committees meeting simultaneously but in different parts of the building.

Gage said the senator’s physician diagnosed the condition as emphysema and told Green that when the legislative session resumed this month it probably would be best for him to stay off his feet and use a cart to zip from one part of the Capitol to another.

Gage estimated that the electric vehicle cost more than $2,000. He said Green’s lawyer told him that the cart was an appropriate use of campaign funds because it is strictly to allow Green to get around the Legislature and is not for personal use. Many personal uses of campaign funds are prohibited by law.

Carol Thorp, a spokeswoman for the state Fair Political Practices Commission, said she was unaware of the cart purchase. But she said it sounded as if it would be allowed under the state Political Reform Act.

“As long as he’s using it for political, legislative or governmental purposes, we don’t have a problem,� Thorp said. “As long as he’s using it in the Capitol, we don’t have a problem with it.�

Robert Forsythe, press secretary to Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), said he was unaware of any other senator using a similar cart, at least during the past six years. He noted that last year Sen. Ruben S. Ayala (D-Chino) used crutches and a cane to get around after breaking his leg.