[0] VOTERS FAVOR STADIUM, ANTI-DUMP MEASURES.

Byline: Associated Press 

In early returns around California, a measure to prevent the creation of a large landfill was passing as was a measure to privately fund a new San Francisco baseball stadium.

In San Bernardino County, absentee voters were approving a measure to prevent establishment of a big dump for Southern California's garbage for the next century. Measure L, which asked voters to reject the dump in the high-desert pit stop of Amboy, was leading 52.5 percent to 47.4 percent. Opponents claim the dump could pollute underground water.

Orange County voters faced questions about their supervisors.

Voters were rejecting 56.7 percent to 43.3 percent Measure T, which would shift some of the power from the board to a chief executive officer and convert some elected positions into appointed posts. Backers said the measure would streamline a government struggling to deal with bankruptcy. Opponents said the measure would give bureaucrats too much power.

On another issue, the complicated Measure S would throw a roadblock in front of plans to build a commercial airport when the military checks out of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. That measure was losing 45.4 percent to 54.6 percent.

In San Francisco, the National League baseball Giants' proposal to build and arrange financing for a new waterfront ballpark took a commanding lead in absentee returns tabulated after polls closed Tuesday night.

Proposition B was winning approval by a sizable margin with 21,581 in favor or 63 percent to 12,835 opposed or 37 percent.

Approval of the measure was needed for the team to escape windy, aging Candlestick Park, the team's home since 1960, and set in motion plans for a $255 million, 42,000-seat ballpark in the city's China Basin section, one of the city's sunniest neighborhoods.

The proposal was the Giants' fifth stadium-related ballot measure to go before Bay Area voters in nine years but the first promising to privately finance ballpark construction.

Primary competition was fierce for many of the 31 open seats in the Assembly and 11 in the Senate and in one of the two special elections also held Tuesday to fill Senate and Assembly vacancies.

In a vacant Senate race, Assemblyman John Burton was ahead of San Francisco Supervisor Angela Alioto. Burton, D-San Francisco, had 12,578 votes or 66 percent to 6,485 votes or 34 percent for Alioto, with 1 percent of the vote counted.

Another vacancy, created when former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown Jr. was elected mayor of San Francisco, attracted only a single candidate, Democrat Carole Migden, a San Francisco supervisor. She becomes the Legislature's second openly gay member.

In congressional races:

Kim, the nation's first Korean-American member of Congress, was leading securities broker Bob Kerns by a margin of 64 percent to 36 percent in the GOP primary in Southern California's 41st District. Democrat Richard Waldron, an Anaheim lawyer, was unopposed.

Investigators are looking into whether Kim illegally used funds from his engineering firm to help finance his first race for Congress in 1992. Kim has denied wrongdoing and hasn't been charged. Three Korean companies have pleaded guilty to making illegal contributions to Kim and were fined a total of $1 million.

Twelve candidates were vying for the South Central Los Angeles seat of former Democratic Rep. Walter Tucker, who resigned last year after he was convicted of bribery-related charges.

State Assembly member Juanita McDonald was ahead with 27 percent of the vote. The other hopefuls trailed, including Tucker's wife, Robin.

Voters in the heavily Democratic 37th District had to pick someone for the remainder of Tucker's term and choose nominees for a new two-year term. Republican businessman Mike Voetee was unopposed.