Vasquez Will Not Run for Vacated State Senate Seat : Politics: He cites family considerations for his decision not to try to succeed John Seymour.

County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, considered by some to be the strongest potential candidate to fill the vacancy left by state Sen. John Seymour’s appointment to the U.S. Senate, said Friday he will not run for that office.

Vasquez said family considerations were the biggest factors in his decision not to pursue the 35th Senate District seat in a March special election. He did not rule out, however, the possibility of future candidacies for either statewide or national positions.

“I have made a decision that I will not be a candidate, having weighed the impact this would have on my family and the disruptions a commuter lifestyle would bring to our life,” Vasquez said.

His decision not to run leaves the contest to two declared candidates--Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) and Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Fountain Valley). They might soon be joined by Dana Reed, chairman of the Orange County Transportation Commission, who has said he will run only if Vasquez and Supervisor Roger R. Stanton do not enter the race.

Stanton said Friday he has not yet made a decision whether to run.

An aide to Assemblyman John R. Lewis (R-Orange), who expressed interest in the race earlier this week, said Lewis also has not yet decided whether to enter the brewing contest.

Vasquez had been highly regarded by many political experts as the likeliest successor to Seymour, whose crescent-shaped senatorial district encompasses almost 584,000 people in Anaheim, Villa Park, Orange, Tustin, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach.

Vasquez, who is about to take over the chairmanship of the Board of Supervisors, had been considered for the U.S. Senate seat to which Seymour was appointed. He also has a campaign chest of $200,000 that would have given him an advantage over any of the other possible candidates.

“If Gaddi runs, Gaddi wins,” political consultant Harvey Englander said in assessing the supervisor’s chances.

But Vasquez said that after consultations with political advisers and his family, including his 11-year-old son, he decided to stick with his current job.

“I have a tremendous attachment to local government,” he said. “As somebody who’s lived in Orange County all his life, I feel that I can make a difference here.”

He would not say whether he is holding out for a higher office--for example, a run for a new congressional seat that is expected to be created as a result of the 1990 Census.

Meanwhile, Allen said she has been working the telephones the last couple of days to gather support for her own campaign. Allen, whose own district overlaps part of the 35th Senate District, said she looks forward to a four-year position instead of a two-year post such as her Assembly seat.

“I’ve been in the Assembly eight years, and it’s time I go to the Senate,” she said. “The timing is right. (It would be) a nice fit for me.”

She said she is proudest of her successes in outlawing gill-net fishing, which protects dolphins, and various measures relating to education.

Frizzelle’s district also partially overlaps the 35th. He vowed that he would make transportation a central issue in his campaign.

“I’ve decided I’m going to run,” Frizzelle said. “I’ve crunched the numbers, and I’ve decided I’d be crazy not to.”

Reed, who has been chairman of the Orange County Transportation Commission since July, calls himself a “Reagan pro-choice Republican” and a “tried and true conservative.”

Once treasurer of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., Reed said he would expect most of his support to come from people who sympathize with that organization, although he takes credit for helping to pass Measure M, which will raise taxes for transportation.

“I supported its passage because I believed in the project,” he said. “But I am not a libertarian. I am not anti-government. I am not planning to go to Sacramento to vote no on everything.”