Roberti Plans to Keep Firm Grip on Senate Leadership Post : Politics: He counters rumors that he is on the verge of being replaced by saying he plans to remain president pro tem until he retires in 1994.

SACRAMENTO —  Despite rumors that he is on the verge of being replaced, Senate Leader David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) said Monday he intends to remain the president pro tempore of the upper chamber until he retires from the Legislature in December, 1994.

“I’m in it for the long haul,” Roberti said, in an apparent attempt to squelch the ambitions of Senate colleagues who reportedly are assessing their support to succeed him.

In an interview, Roberti, who ousted Sen. James Mills (D-San Diego) as president pro tem 12 years ago, told The Times he has not “even contemplated stepping down” as leader before the end of his term, his last in the Legislature.

The question of who would succeed Roberti has circulated since even before the 53-year-old lawmaker won a special election to a two-year term in June. Under voter-approved term limits, Roberti is prohibited from seeking another Senate term in 1994.

Potential contenders to replace Roberti include veteran Senate Democrats Bill Lockyer of Hayward, Art Torres of Los Angeles and Henry J. Mello of Santa Cruz. Although handicappers have tended to give Lockyer an edge, he has said repeatedly that he supports Roberti as long as Roberti wants the post.

Even though Roberti has not talked publicly of stepping down early as the most powerful member of the state Senate, the Capitol rumor mill has spun out one scenario after another on who his successor might be.

But on Monday, in answer to a question about his intentions, Roberti declared flatly that he has no intention of stepping down.

Lockyer has said he would like to see Roberti create a system that will provide for an orderly replacement process when he does step down. This could avert a potentially nasty fight among would-be successors.

In the Senate, one of the most important functions of the president pro tem, the leader of the majority party, is to raise campaign contributions for fellow party members and thus assure continued dominance of their party.

One of the questions circulating over Roberti’s tenure is whether he will energetically continue to raise campaign contributions for Senate Democrats in 1994 as his term is expiring, or whether he will concentrate on raising money for himself in case he seeks another political office. Roughly a dozen of the 20 Senate seats up for election in two years are held by Democrats.

Asked whether he will remain an aggressive fund-raiser for Senate Democrats in the next two years, Roberti said: “I want to leave a legacy. I want to leave (the Senate) with Democrats in control.”

More immediately, Roberti said, there will be a series of special elections in the spring to fill at least three seats, two occupied by Republicans and one by a Democrat.

“I’m going to do whatever I can for the maximum (Democratic wins) in the special elections,” Roberti said. “When I am elected president pro tem (next month), I intend to go the full two years of my Senate term.”

At stake soon will be the North Coast district seat of Sen. Berry Keene (D-Benicia), who announced his retirement effective Dec. 4; the Orange County seat of Sen. Ed Royce (R-Anaheim), who was elected to Congress, and the seat of Sen. Don Rogers (R-Tehachapi), who was elected to a term in a newly reapportioned district.