LaRouche Candidates Hooted at Convention of County Democrats

Ignoring boos and catcalls, four LaRouche Democrats tried Saturday to explain to delegates at Orange County’s Democratic Convention why they were running for state and congressional office.

“Somehow you think I am a goddamn neo-Nazi. Well, I am not a neo-Nazi,” said Maureen Pike, a Los Angeles housewife and LaRouche follower who is a candidate for the 39th Congressional District seat now held by Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton).

Before the hostile crowd, Pike outlined what she said were major issues for her and other LaRouche supporters: eradicating AIDS, halting automatic cuts in the federal budget as required by the Gramm-Rudman Act, and “addressing the question of dope, of children dying in the streets because of dope.”

“Obviously the voters of Illinois responded to these issues, no matter what the (Democratic) Party says,” Pike said, referring to the upset victory of two LaRouche candidates in Illinois’ Democratic primary on Tuesday.

Their winning nomination as the Democratic candidates for secretary of state and lieutenant governor threatens mainstream Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson III’s hopes of becoming governor in November. Under Illinois law, the governor and lieutenant governor must run as a team, but Stevenson has said he may form a new party rather than run with the “bizarre and dangerous” LaRouche candidates.

They follow the philosophy of Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr., a Virginia writer who advocates a laser-beam defense system and who says that global conspiracies affect American politics.

Several Thousand Candidates

Over the last 10 years his National Democratic Policy Committee claims to have fielded several thousand candidates for public office on both Republican and Democratic tickets.

LaRouche became an issue in Orange County last week when Democratic leaders discovered that his followers had filed for at least 14 Democratic seats in the June primary. Besides Pike, LaRouche follower Art Hoffmann, 29, of Santa Ana was running unopposed on the party ticket in the 40th Congressional District, a seat now held by Rep. Robert Badham (R-Newport Beach). La Rouche Democrats had also filed for the 58th, 64th and 67th state Assembly races and 10 LaRouche followers were seeking election to the county central committee.

But party leaders saw Hoffmann as their most serious threat. As the only Democrat on the June ballot for that seat, he would automatically win a place on the county and state party central committees.

Recruiting Write-Ins

County Democratic leaders were hoping to prevent that, however. On Friday and again at Saturday’s convention, they were actively recruiting mainstream Democrats as write-in candidates against Hoffmann. At one point Saturday, party Chairman Bruce Sumner asked the delegates for volunteers. By midday, Sumner said he had the names of four possible candidates and would narrow it to one early this week.

Also, as the convention began, former county party Chairman Howard Adler confronted Hoffmann in a hallway.

“My concern is that you take your orders from Lyndon LaRouche. . . . That’s the totalitarian way and that’s not the way we do things in the Democratic Party,” Adler said. He suggested that Hoffmann’s real goal in running was “to overthrow the Democratic Party.”

“It’s not to overthrow. It’s to fill a vacuum,” Hoffmann responded, noting that no other Democrat had filed for the seat.

Convention organizers debated Saturday whether to allow Hoffmann and three other LaRouche followers to address the delegates alongside other Democratic candidates. But convention Chairman Harry Hiner said that he eventually decided they should be allowed to speak.

Delegates Walked Out

Hoffman, Pike and two other LaRouche Democrats--Marion Hundley of Yorba Linda, a candidate for the 67th Assembly District, and Peter Dimopoulos of Fullerton, a candidate for the 64th Assembly District--got about 10 minutes each to discuss such proposals as the need to quarantine AIDS victims and the laser-beam defense. But when they began to speak, many of the convention’s 400 delegates walked out or interrupted their comments with boos.

For all the concern about the LaRouche candidates, the county convention provided a place for mainstream Democrats to discuss their campaigns and recruit campaign workers for the June election.

Delegates at the party’s second county convention heard from county Democrats seeking county, state and congressional offices. They also heard speeches by major statewide candidates--by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who is running for governor; Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, who is seeking reelection; attorney general John Van de Kamp, who is seeking reelection; and state Sen. John Garamendi (D-Stockton) and Assemblyman Gray Davis (D-Los Angeles), both Democratic candidates for controller.

‘Alive and Kicking’

Most of the candidates said they were impressed by the convention.

“I congratulate you. I applaud you. You have demonstrated that the Democratic Party in Orange County is alive and kicking,” Bradley told an enthusiastic crowd.

Attendance Friday and Saturday fell below the 700-delegate figure that county Democrats reached for the first such gathering in 1982. But since Saturday was a sunny “beach day” and this was an off-year election, convention organizers said they weren’t disappointed.

Besides, noted Democrat David Vest, a candidate for the 39th Congressional District: “It’s good to be able to get together with fellow Democrats . . . . I would have liked to see more people here. But I realize Democrats in Orange County are just on their way back.” He was referring to the fact that Democrats are still working to become a majority party in a county whose registered voters are mostly Republican.