By JON NORDHEIMER Special to The New York Tams

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., March 6—Robert Lagomarsino, the only Republican winner in four recent special Congres-sional electrions across the na-tion, cautioned the national party leadership today against interpreting his victory as a vote of confidence in President Nixon.

"I'm sure the Republican Na-tional Committee will take heart from my election as a sign that Republicans can still be elected under the right condi-tions," said Mr. Lagomarsino, who won a majority of votes against a field of seven Demo-crats in a special election yes-terday to fill the seat left va-cant in the 13th California Con-gressional District by the death of Representative Charles M. Teague, a Republican who held the office for 19 years.

"But I would caution them not to interpret it as a vindica-tion of the President," Mr. Lagomarsino said in an inter-view. "I don't think he won anything in this race."

Mr. Labomarsino, a State 'Senator, narrowly escaped being forced into a runoff by carrying 53 per cent of the vote in a district normally con-

' sidered safe for local Republi-cans, despite a nearly equal split in registration between the parties.

Actually, his legislative dis-trict, where he carried 65 per cent of the vote less than 18 months ago, is identical with the 13th Congressional Dis-trict, spread over the farm-lands and coastal ranges of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties north of the Los An-geles urban sprawl.

His inability to match his past levels of support inside

the district, despite that fact that his Democratic opponents were for the most part without political experience, could be attributed directly to the issue surrounding the national Ad. ministration — Watergate, the fuel shortage and other eco nomic problems, Mr. Lago marsino explained.

"When I made the decisior to make this race, I was fairl3 confident that I could win han dily without the need of a fun-off," he continued. "By the time the first •returns came it yesterday, I was sweating bul• lets."

Even in Ventura, where his family has lived for three gen-erations and operates a large wholesale liquor distributor-ship, the 47-year-old legislator's winning edge fell to a paper-thin 50.4 per cent, in an area where he has always carried by two-to-one majorities.

Meanwhile, local Democrats were frustrated by the failure to stop Mr. Lagomarsino at a time when the death of Mr. Teague and the public concern over national issues presented the party with its best oppor-tunity in a generation to elect-a Congressman from the con-servative district.

`Could Have Won' "We could have won here,

and we should have won here," asserted Shirley Gitterman, head of the Ventura County , Democrats. "All we needed was $5,000 and 100 more campaign workers, and we could have pulled it off."

She said the Democratic ef-fort, because of the number of candidates who opposed Mr. Lagomarsino, was fragmented, and failed to focus sharply on the national issues that have won Congressional seats for

Yi MAR 7 ¶914

THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 192

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Associated Press State Senator Robert J. Lagomarsino and his wife, Norma, greeting well-wishers in Ventura, Calif., Tuesday night. Mr. Lagomarsino, a Republican, won seat in House.