CENSUS LIKELY TO GIVE STATE 1 HOUSE SEAT DATA RELEASE TO LAUNCH REAPPORTIONMENT FIGHT.

Byline: Bill Hillburg Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - California expects to gain one new House seat when the U.S. Census Bureau announces its 2000 Census reapportionment totals Dec. 28, officials predicted Tuesday.

The addition would boost the state's House delegation, already Congress' largest, to 53 members and create challenges for the Democrat-dominated state Legislature, which next year will redraw congressional district boundaries for the 2002 elections.

``There had been talk of two added seats (for California), but the realistic number is one,'' said Sherry Greenberg, Washington lobbyist for the state Assembly and Speaker Robert M. Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys. ``There are a lot of other growing states that are also in line for new seats.''

Greenberg cited a study by Election Data Services, a Washington-based consulting firm, which estimated that Georgia, Arizona and Texas each would gain two seats. Single-seat gains would be posted by California, Colorado, Florida and Nevada.

EDS forecast that New York and Pennsylvania will each lose two seats, while single losses will be suffered by Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.

The House total has been set by Congress at 435 seats since 1910. Since then, growing states have gained seats at the expense of those with falling or static populations.

State officials charged in 1990 that a severe Census undercount of Californians, particularly Latinos, Asians and African-Americans, cost the state at least one House seat. California did gain seven House slots as a result of the 1990 count.

Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt on Tuesday expressed confidence that the reapportionment data, based on population totals for each state, ``will be the most accurate in history.''

Prewitt declined to disclose any reapportionment details, saying the data are still being reviewed and will stay under wraps until Dec. 28, when the agency makes its official report to President Clinton.

Prewitt said state legislatures will receive the detailed 2000 Census data needed for reapportionment in early March. Those reports will include population numbers - down to the city-block levels - and data on race.

According to officials familiar with the upcoming redistricting, some of the toughest boundary-setting challenges could involve the eastern San Fernando Valley and South and Central Los Angeles - areas with growing Latino populations.

In the new Congress that will take office Jan. 4, the East Valley region will be represented by Reps. Howard Berman, D-Mission Hills, and Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, who are both white.

The new census is also expected to show that Latinos have gained statistical majorities in Los Angeles districts represented by Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters, Julian Dixon and Juanita Millender-McDonald, who are all African-American.