Redrawn Boundaries Prompt Close Races in Northern Districts : Campaigns: Three Assembly members battle anti-incumbent sentiment. Four open seats have produced strong clashes.

SAN FRANCISCO —  From the timber country of the North Coast to the farms of the Central Valley, newly drawn legislative districts and a strong anti-incumbent mood have combined to create an unusually large number of hotly contested Assembly races across Northern California.

At least three Assembly members in the north state are fighting to hang on to their jobs, and four open seats have produced strong clashes. In this tumultuous political year, polls show that a large proportion of voters have yet to make up their minds, leaving the outcome of many Assembly contests in doubt.

One of the closest races is in the northern San Joaquin Valley, where Republican Assemblyman Dean Andal faces a tough challenge from political newcomer Michael Machado, a farmer and Democrat.

Democrats outnumber Republicans in the 17th Assembly District by a margin of 56% to 34%, usually enough to ensure a Democratic victory. But the voters in the district also tend to be conservative, and Andal squeaked into the Assembly in 1990 by beating Democrat Patti Garamendi, the wife of state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi.

Demonstrating the power of an incumbent to raise money, Andal has been outspending Machado by a hefty margin. But that may not be sufficient to win in the district, which has seen unemployment hover around 16% for much of the year.

Another hot race is on the North Coast, where Democratic five-term Assemblyman Dan Hauser is being challenged by Humboldt County Supervisor Anna Sparks, a candidate with strong backing from the timber industry.

Here again, voter registration favors Democrats, by a margin of 54% to 31%, but the voters in the sprawling rural 1st Assembly District also tend toward the conservative.

In the Assembly, Hauser has often attempted to steer a middle course between timber interests and environmentalists, and he may have alienated both camps. His bid for reelection may be undermined if candidates from the Green Party and the Peace and Freedom Party are able to siphon off votes in significant numbers.

Sparks, who has almost kept pace with Hauser in fund raising, is running as a pro-business candidate who favors term limits for politicians and would bring change to Sacramento.

“People want a common sense candidate who votes . . . to support business,” Sparks says.

In the Silicon Valley, three-term Republican Assemblyman Charles Quackenbush is facing a tough challenge from San Jose City Councilman James Beall, a strong campaigner who is spending a lot of time walking precincts.

The 24th Assembly District is almost evenly split, with Democrats holding a lead of 43% to 42% among registered voters. This margin would normally make the seat safe for a Republican, but voters in this district south of San Francisco often tend to be more liberal than their registration suggests.

Quackenbush has the backing of Gov. Pete Wilson, who has made winning a Republican majority in the Assembly a high priority. But Beall has bashed Quackenbush as part of the Sacramento problem and as a player in this year’s unprecedented budget impasse.

“People don’t want ideologues who never built anything in their lives,” Beall says. “They’re looking for practical bacon and eggs. People are worried about budget problems and education, and they’re damn tired of incumbents.”

Four open seats in rural and suburban districts have also produced bruising races. Woman Democrats are running in three of the contests on a platform of change. In the other race, lawyer and farmer Lon Hatamiya could become--along with Republican candidate Nao Takasugi in the Oxnard area--the first Japanese-American elected to the Assembly in more than a decade.

Hatamiya is running in the 3rd Assembly District centered in Chico against video store owner Bernie Richter, who has made himself something of a celebrity over the years with television commercials portraying him as “Crazy Bernie.”

Hatamiya, whose family members were held in an internment camp in the district during World War II, contends that Richter is too conservative for the district.

The sprawling district is almost evenly split in party registration, with Democrats claiming 43% of the voters to the Republicans’ 42%--a lineup that should be favorable for Richter.

Richter, a former Butte County supervisor, hopes to defeat Hatamiya by linking him to Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, who appointed Hatamiya to an economic development advisory committee. Richter, who has taken the lead in fund raising, has the support of Gov. Wilson.

In the 10th Assembly District, Republican candidate Larry Bowler, a Sacramento sheriff’s lieutenant, appears to be making headway over Democrat Kay Albiani, a member of the Elk Grove School Board.

Bowler, who has received large contributions from the religious right, has far outpaced Albiani in fund raising. The Sacramento Valley district is also favorable to Bowler in registration, with Democrats holding a lead of only 47% to 42%.

Albiani tried to appeal to moderates by turning her back on the Democratic Party and endorsing Ross Perot when he was first in the presidential race. And in the “Year of the Woman” in politics, she ignored NOW and did not bother to fill out a questionnaire for the group’s endorsement.

Bowler, a strong anti-abortion candidate, has problems of his own. He was busted from captain to lieutenant as a result of allegations he sexually harassed a female subordinate.

In the wine country, the 7th Assembly District is sure to send a woman to the Legislature, either Sonoma Vice Mayor Valerie Brown, a Democrat, or former Sonoma County Supervisor Janet Nicholas, a Republican. And in the closing week of the campaign, Brown appears headed for victory.

Incumbent Republican Assemblywoman Bev Hansen decided not to run for reelection after reapportionment made the district more Democratic. Democrats recently signed up 22,000 new voters in the district and Republicans trail in voter registration 56% to 32%.

Similarly, Democrats appear to have a strong hold on the 6th Assembly District, where Democrat and interior decorator Vivien Bronshvag is facing Republican Marin County Supervisor Al Aramburu, who is also backed by Wilson.

If elected, Aramburu would be the first Republican Latino in the Assembly since 1914, but he has a distinct disadvantage: The district in liberal Marin and Sonoma counties is 53% Democratic and 31% Republican.

Aramburu, who has a better environmental record than his Democratic opponent, has sought to make an issue of the fact that Bronshvag’s physician husband is a workers’ compensation doctor with ties to Assembly Speaker Brown. But the issue is unlikely to undermine Bronshvag’s strong fund-raising lead--including nearly $300,000 of her own money.

Contributing to this story were Times special correspondents Mark Anstendig, Michael S. Arnold, Sara Catania, Brian Fowler, Sam Green, Ron Nissimov and Mary Pols.