Ethnic Diversity Is an Election Winner : Representation: Candidates of Latino and Asian heritage who stressed mainstream issues fared well, in most cases replacing Anglos.

SAN GABRIEL VALLEY —  On a day when ethnic voters were asserting themselves in municipal elections across the county, Latino and Asian candidates increased their numbers in city councils across the San Gabriel Valley and even pulled off some stunning upsets.

In Baldwin Park, El Monte, Rosemead, Monterey Park, Azusa, West Covina and South Pasadena, first-time minority candidates, all of them emphasizing mainstream concerns rather than ethnic issues, took their places on city councils. In most cases it was minorities replacing Anglos.

But most of the new council members attributed their success to hard work in their campaigns, rather than to shifting demographics in the region or appeals to minority voters.

“The fact is I wasn’t elected by Latinos but by longtime residents, senior citizens, every type of voter,” said Fidel A. Vargas, a newcomer to politics who was elected mayor in the historic Baldwin Park election.

Vargas, newly elected Councilman Raul Martinez and incumbent Martin Gallegos constitute the first-ever Latino majority in a city whose population is 72% Latino. Vargas’ defeat of Mayor Bette L. Lowes and Councilman Bobbie Izell for the mayoralty astonished City Hall veterans.

Lowes, groping for explanations, attributed her loss to outside forces. “This political machine moved into town,” she said. “They were all over the place and they convinced people that this young man was great.” She said that she had heard that Vargas was assisted by political consultant George Pla.

The 23-year-old Harvard graduate and business consultant, who says he has returned to his beleaguered hometown to help it regain stability, denied that he had the help of major power brokers such as Pla.

“It’s a compliment to me and my volunteers to say that I was backed by a big political machine,” he said.

Vargas acknowledged that the new Latino dominance of the council was historic. “It stares you in the face,” he said.

But the central issues cut across ethnic lines, Vargas said. “People are concerned with their community,” he said. “They’re tired of not having what they need.”

In El Monte, where 72% of the population is Latino, voters elected Ernest G. Gutierrez to what had been an all-Anglo council for the past two years. Gutierrez, a guidance counselor at a Cerritos high school, had served two terms on the council in the 1980s but he was defeated in 1990.

Latino voters will assert themselves increasingly in El Monte, Gutierrez said. “It’s going to happen more and more,” he said.

In fact, the election of Councilwoman Patricia A. Wallach as El Monte’s mayor could open another council seat to a Latino. Maria F. Avila, 66, a program coordinator, was a close third in the council election, in which Gutierrez and Tom Millett won the two open seats.

Gutierrez said he would push for the council to appoint Avila to fill Wallach’s council seat for the two years remaining in her term.

In Rosemead, with a 50% Latino population, Joe Vasquez edged out Mayor Jay T. Imperial, a 12-year council veteran, for the third council seat.

“It wasn’t only Latinos,” Vasquez said Wednesday. “Asians also wanted a minority voice on the council.”

During the campaign, Vasquez tried to draw a fine line on his ethnicity, speaking vigorously of the need for a minority voice on the council, but presenting himself as the candidate of all residents.

And, like other minority candidates, Vasquez attributed his victory to eight- and 10-hour days walking the streets of Rosemead, rather than to his appeals to minority voters. “I did a lot of walking,” he said.

In Monterey Park, whose population is more than 31% Latino, the election of longtime community volunteer Rita Valenzuela means that she joins Fred Balderrama as the second Latino on the council, along with Asian-Americans Judy Chu and Sam Kiang.

Valenzuela comfortably outdistanced Bonnie Wai, who mounted an expensive campaign and whose supporters hoped for an Asian-American majority on the council.

It wasn’t all successes for minority candidates Tuesday.

In San Marino, physician Allan K. Yung, the first Asian-American to run for the council, was last among four candidates for two seats. Yung raised and spent more than any council candidate in the city’s history--at least $37,252.

“We gave it our best shot,” said Yung, who contended that his aggressive door-to-door campaigning forced other candidates to do the same. “We got them worried.”

Yung, comforting his two teen-age sons Tuesday night after the returns were in, suggested that he may run again.

“Look, you guys are competitive tennis players,” he said. “You know that just because you have lost one game you don’t quit in the match.”

In South Pasadena, an Asian replaces a Latina on the council. In a bitterly contested campaign, Councilwoman Evelyn Fierro was nudged off the council by Paul Zee.

The Chinese-born Zee downplayed the fact that he was the first Asian-American to run for council in South Pasadena. But he said that he was proud to have been the first one elected and “to participate in this true democratic system” since in many countries, such as China, that opportunity is not available.

Fierro had charged that much of the more than $31,000 Zee spent--the most ever spent in a South Pasadena council campaign--came from outside interests, including ones that would like to build developments in South Pasadena. She said Zee was trying “to buy the election.”

But Zee had said that 75% of his donations came from South Pasadena residents, many of them non-Asians. Zee also said that he had been the target of “not subtle racism” but “blunt racism” because of suggestions equating his Asian heritage with a pro-development stance.

In Azusa, though Mayor Eugene F. Moses edged out challenger Inez Gutierrez for the mayoralty, defying the predictions of local pundits, Cristina Cruz Madrid was the top vote-getter among six candidates for two council seats. “I’ve been planning all my life for this,” said Cruz Madrid, an attorney who is the daughter of former councilman Lucio Cruz.

The elder Cruz was defeated four years ago by Harry L. Stemrich, who was himself ousted Tuesday.

In West Covina, restaurant owner Ben Wong became the first Asian-American to win a council seat. Wong was one of the few minority candidates to acknowledge that his appeal had been largely to minorities.

He said that he had done a target mailing to the 10% of the electorate with Asian surnames. He also requested that his statement of qualifications be sent to voters in Spanish as well as in English.

“Minorities are a political force to be reckoned with,” he concluded.