GOP Senate Race Hopefuls Get to Issues, Differ Sharply

The crowded Republican U.S. Senate field has been chafing to move beyond the Bobbi Fiedler-Ed Davis dispute for more than a month. And it began to happen at the party’s weekend convention here.

In press conferences and speeches, the candidates offered views that make it clear that Republican voters in the June 3 Senate primary election will have some stark choices on a variety of issues.

Should the U.S. Army, for instance, be stationed at the California-Mexico border to capture illegal aliens? Or should the border be opened, allowing immigrants to compete for jobs in the free marketplace?

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich said he would deploy U.S. troops to help beef up the border patrol.

Fiedler, the three-term congresswoman from Northridge, also liked that idea, as did Assemblyman Robert W. Naylor of Menlo Park--although both were more cautious about it than Antonovich.

“We are already paying these people (U.S. troops) so why not use them to help control our border with Mexico?” said Antonovich, who added, “Illegal aliens are having a strong negative impact on California.”

Not so, said economist Arthur Laffer in his press conference.

“If you look at the areas with large numbers of undocumented workers you’ll see low unemployment rates, rapid growth and prosperous economies,” said Laffer, who gave as his example the seven Southern California counties.

Get Them Together

Immigration policy should get U.S. employers and Mexican and Central American workers together, not keep them apart, Laffer said, adding:

“Once you allow people to work here legally they won’t be slipping across the border. . . . There should be no troops on the border.”

Naylor, who like Antonovich recently toured the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego, said that illegal immigration is reaching a crisis level and that Mexico should be pushed to develop its own border patrol to keep its people inside the boundaries.

Another issue: Should the United States stick by its allies even if they are repressive?

Absolutely, said former television and radio commentator Bruce Herschensohn, who told the Republican delegates that the United States should follow one simple rule in its relationships with other countries: Are they friends or foes?

“Why should it be difficult to know how to treat a friend,” Herschensohn said, recalling the words of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat when he gave the Shah of Iran refuge.

“That says it all about foreign policy,” said Herschensohn, who believes that the United States has a record for letting down its friends, from the Shah to former Nicaraguan leader Anastasia Somoza and former South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu.

That blunt assessment makes most of the other Republican Senate candidates uneasy. Their position is best summed up by Naylor: “You have to walk a fine line to get your friends to adopt reforms and to head off Marxist takeovers.”

Herschensohn is also at odds with his rival candidates over the recent change of government in the Philippines. He is “skeptical” about new President Corazon Aquino and terms her rise to power “a revolution,” not a return to democracy. The other candidates have cheered the turn of events in the Philippines.

What about military spending? Herschensohn and Naylor are heatedly at odds with Rep. Ed Zschau of Los Altos on that issue.

Favor MX Missile

Herschensohn and Naylor believe that a Republican senator should back President Reagan’s plan to build the MX missile and fully fund the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Zschau opposes the MX, supports a lower funding level for the Strategic Defense Initiative and says the Pentagon has been too wasteful in the 5-year military buildup.

Naylor and Zschau might be surprised to learn that they agree on one issue: Both said in separate interviews that they would consider closing some military bases in California as a budget-balancing measure.

To air their views, the candidates had to resort to a string of long press conferences because of the surprisingly limited visibility they were given at the formal convention session. They were allowed only five minutes each in front of the delegates, and many of the candidates groused openly about the restriction.

If many of the Senate candidates felt they were making progress in broadening the dimensions of the Republican race, state Sen. Ed Davis of Valencia clung to what he says is the only issue that matters--political ethics.

Prompted Charges

“The system is rotten,” said Davis, who last year set off an investigation of Fiedler and her top aide, Paul Clarke, on charges that they tried to entice him out of the race with a campaign contribution. The indictments of Fiedler and Clarke were thrown out in February.

But Davis’ speech was received cooly by the delegates and very few of them showed up at his hospitality suite--a vivid contrast to the crowds that jammed the suites of the other candidates.

Fiedler’s own speech also drew a flat reception. Her message was that the real issue for the Republicans is pragmatic politics--more specifically, which candidate is best positioned to defeat Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston in November.

Asked in an interview to discuss some of the matters addressed by the other candidates, Fiedler commented briefly about immigration and balancing the federal budget but returned persistently to the issue of who can beat Cranston.

The issue, Fiedler insisted, “is my ability to beat him.”