Latinos Emerge as Southeast Political Force : Council races: For the first time, voters in South Gate, Maywood and Cudahy give candidates from the largest ethnic group majority control of their cities.

The political evolution of Southeast Los Angeles County seems nearly complete as cities throughout the region transferred more power to Latinos and ousted more of the few remaining white elected officials in last week’s election.

Voters in the Hub Cities region, where Latinos have been the majority for most of the last two decades, shifted council leadership for the first time to Latinos in South Gate, Maywood and Cudahy. Following a countywide trend, incumbents were ousted in six of seven races.

Latino council members began winning seats in scattered elections more than a decade ago, but last week’s results mark the first time in the area’s history that most of the region’s cities will be presided over by Latino majorities.

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Some winners said their victories demonstrated voter frustration with lack of leadership reflecting the ethnic makeup of the cities, but others denied race was an issue.

In Maywood, a city that is more than 93% Latino, white incumbents Rose Marie Busciglio, a 16-year council veteran, and Mayor Thomas H. Engle, who has been a council member for 20 years, lost to grass-roots challengers Elvira Moreno, an HMO representative, and Tomas Martin, a hotel food attendant.

Voters “were looking for Latino leaders,” said Martin, who hopes to lead efforts to build a recreation center and expand programs for the city’s youth. “They want people speaking the same language as they speak on the street. No one goes to council meetings now. Maybe this will help people become involved.”

Busciglio said the vote was split by candidate Salvador Contreras, who she said campaigned on “racial issues.”

“It was definitely ‘Get the gringos out,’ ” she said. But she blamed her loss on poor voter turnout and effective use of absentee ballots by her opponents, which “killed us,” she said.

Martin, like many candidates throughout the area, encouraged voters to use absentee ballots and had garnered 25% of the vote before polls opened on election day. Voter turnout of 38% was slightly above average for a general election, a city election official said.

Also in Maywood, City Clerk Sam Pena won a landslide victory over write-in candidate Judy Tallman. City Treasurer Michael Williams ran unopposed.

In the 11-candidate South Gate race, newcomer Bill Martinez, an insurance salesman, and Henry C. Gonzalez, who returns to the council after serving six years during the 1980s, defeated first-term incumbent Larry R. Leonard and Johnny Ramirez, a quality-control specialist. Mayor Mary Anne Buckles was reelected to her second term, winning the third council seat with 13% of the vote. Leonard lost by about 50 votes, while Ramirez ran a poor eighth.

“The news media tries to make this a Latino thing, but we had a combination of supporters,” Gonzalez said. “If it had only been Latino we wouldn’t have won.”

Martinez agreed. “We were not running on a Latino or a la raza ticket. I don’t think this is a victory for the Latino community, I think it’s a victory for the people of South Gate.”

Leonard also claimed that ethnicity was not important in the campaign but would not comment on reasons behind his loss.

“I’ll leave that to the experts,” he said. Ramirez could not be reached for comment.

Cudahy voters overwhelmingly rejected a fourth term for Councilman Joe Graffio, who ran a distant seventh in the nine-candidate race for three seats. Parks Commissioner George Perez and Larry Galvan were voted in, and incumbent Alex Rodriguez retained his seat. Councilman Jack Cluck vacated his seat, leaving longtime Councilman John O. Robertson the only remaining white council member.

Voter turnout in the city was about 40% higher than in 1992, said City Clerk Jack Joseph.

“I think there was heavier Latino participation because of the Latino candidates,” he said.

In Huntington Park, the election gave the council a 4-1 Latino majority. In a race where only one of nine candidates was white, ethnicity was not an issue, but perhaps gender was.

Rosario Marin, a former legislative aide to Gov. Pete Wilson, and Jessica Maes, a realtor and hospital outreach director, won seats to become the city’s first female council members.

They will replace Councilman Luis Hernandez, whose candidacy was dogged by violations from his first campaign, and William P. Cunningham, who is retiring after 17 years on the council. Councilman Raul Perez was the top vote-getter, winning his second term with 22% of the vote.

“I think the community was ready for a woman,” said Marin, who stressed basic values and family issues in her campaign. Hernandez did not return calls for comment.

In Bell Gardens, Maria Chacon and Ramiro Morales, leaders in the historic 1991 recall of four white council members who were accused by activists of racism, won in landslides on the strength of absentee votes. They defeated incumbents Josefina Macias and Rosa Hernandez by margins of more than 2 to 1.

The winners ran on a ticket supported by the No-Rezoning Committee, which organized the 1991 recall and initially helped get Macias elected.

“We have won three elections before,” Morales said. “The people know us and they trust us. After all the turmoil on the council, the people want a change.”

But Macias, once a Chacon ally, questioned the No-Rezoning victory.

“I think the use of absentee ballots was thoroughly abused,” she said, adding that she planned to ask for an investigation.

Ironically, when Macias was elected in 1992 as a No-Rezoning candidate, voters also cast unusually large numbers of absentee ballots, and losers in the race alleged voter fraud.

City of Commerce voters elected Parks Commissioner Sylvia Munoz, 51, and Jesus Cervantes, a community service commissioner, over Mayor Ruth R. Aldaco, a two-term councilwoman. James Dimas will retire after 20 years on the council.

While the rest of the region voted for change last week, the city of Bell bucked the trend. It was the only city in the area to reelect all of its incumbents.

George Mirabal, a funeral director and former city clerk, was the top vote-getter. First elected in 1986, Mirabal stepped down in 1990 and was appointed to the council last year after Mayor Jay Price died. George Bass, a retired fire chief, was elected to his second term and teacher Rolf Janssen won his third term. Key to Election Tables

-- An asterisk (*) denotes an incumbent candidate.

-- Elected candidates and approved measures--or those leading with 99% of precincts reporting--are in bold Results are not official and could be affected by absentee ballots.

-- 0% indicates returns were unavailable at edition time or only absentee ballots have been counted.

-- Uncontested races are not included in the tables.

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-- Contributing to The Times’ Election Coverage:

-- Technical assistance: Deputy systems editor James D. Angius, systems architect Victor I. Pulver.

-- Contributing: Lilia Beebe, Rossana Ellefson, Todd Frealy, John Hernandez, Christina Kelch, Anthony Kelker, Roshawn Mathias, Cecilia Rasmussen, Rachel Vargas.

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Bell

City Council 3 Elected 100% Precincts Reporting: votes (%) George Mirabal*: 710 (23%) Rolf Janssen*: 677 (22%) George F. Bass*: 634 (21%) Al Rios: 613 (20%) Victor Bello: 246 (8%) Allen L. Caddy: 179 (6%)

Bell Gardens

City Council 2 Elected 100% Precincts Reporting: votes (%) Maria Chacon: 1,012 (32%) Ramiro Morales: 962 (30%) Rosa Hernandez*: 482 (15%) Josefina Macias*: 308 (10%) Hugo Escalera: 297 (9%) Maria Victoria Martinez: 105 (3%)

Commerce

City Council 2 Elected 100% Precincts Reporting: votes (%) Sylvia Munoz: 676 (23%) Jesus Cervantes: 533 (18%) Ruth R. Aldaco*: 477 (16%) Lela R. Leon: 422 (14%) Frank Guerrero: 346 (12%) Rosalina Garcia Lopez: 322 (11%) Anthony Jude Thorpe: 159 (5%)

Cudahy

City Council 3 Elected 100% Precincts Reporting: votes (%) Alex F. Rodriguez*: 383 (19%) George A. Perez: 352 (17%) Larry Galvan: 278 (14%) Gil Malijen: 241 (12%) Joseph R. Fregeau: 218 (11%) Glenda J. Norwood: 175 (9%) Joseph Graffio*: 172 (8%) Marjorie Santarpia: 159 (8%) Michael Borrego: 68 (3%)

Huntington Park

City Council 3 Elected 100% Precincts Reporting: votes (%) Raul Perez*: 1,234 (22%) Rosario Marin: 1,165 (21%) Jessica R. Maes: 850 (15%) Luis M. Hernandez*: 793 (14%) MariCarmen Medrano: 529 (9%) Maria M. Vargas: 384 (7%) Manuel V. Avila: 338 (6%) Tom Guggerty: 250 (4%) Agustin Delgadillo: 122 (2%)

Maywood

City Council 2 Elected 100% Precincts Reporting: votes (%) Tomas Martin: 532 (26%) Elvira Moreno: 510 (25%) Rose Marie Busciglio*: 346 (17%) Thomas Engle*: 334 (16%) Salvador Contreras: 325 (16%)

South Gate

City Council 3 Elected 100% Precincts Reporting: votes (%) Henry C. Gonzalez: 1,667 (17%) Bill Martinez: 1,381 (14%) Mary Ann Buckles*: 1,280 (13%) Larry R. Leonard*: 1,234 (12%) Ron Busch: 927 (9%) Jean Heinl: 861 (9%) Alex Vargas: 760 (8%) Johnny Ramirez*: 677 (7%) Gaby Pacheco: 515 (5%) Ted Moore: 400 (4%) Khalil Nino: 330 (3%)