Hoping for a ‘Miracle’ : GOP Senate Underdogs: High Aims, Low Profiles

The Republican U.S. Senate nomination may appear to be beyond their grasp, but six underdog GOP candidates are reaching nonetheless, hoping lightning will strike and ignite their campaigns before the June 3 primary.

Joseph W. Knowland, for instance, brings what was once one of the most potent names in California Republican politics to the race, but that name has lost much of its luster, and the former Oakland Tribune publisher sees his chances as “an unknown factor,” saying “it all depends on identity.”

Former Black Panther Party firebrand-turned-conservative Republican Eldridge Cleaver says name recognition is not a problem for him, and he predicts that he will score an upset “and win this nomination.”

A Miracle to Win

Harvey Mudd College government professor Bill Allen flashes a knowing smile before noting that “for us to win will take what looks to everybody else like a miracle.”

Few GOP insiders would take issue with Allen’s assessment--whether it is applied to him, Knowland, Cleaver or the three other lightly financed candidates in the crowded field of 13 seeking the Republican nomination in what is still an open race.

The other three are Westwood attorney George Montgomery, Santa Ana oceanographer John W. Spring and Mill Valley psychologist William H. Pemberton.

While no candidate has yet attracted more than 14% of Republican voters in public opinion polls, political observers have divided the field into seven contenders who have money for media and professional campaign staffs and six long shots who have mounted campaigns fueled mainly by political conviction, enthusiasm and a willingness to keep bone-wearying speaking schedules.

Despite that division, so-called long shot Knowland, who has raised just over $5,000, has just as much support among GOP voters (2% in the most recent Los Angeles Times Poll) as two of the “contenders”--economist Arthur Laffer, who has raised $972,000, and Assemblyman Robert Naylor of Menlo Park whose campaign has attracted $515,109. That same poll shows Cleaver with 1%, although he, too, has only raised about $5,000.

Reagan’s Coattails

With the exception of Pemberton, the six GOP long shots generally have taken a firm hold on Ronald Reagan’s coattails, energetically professing their support for the President and his policies.

“This country has a strong leader and is a strong country because of him,” Knowland, 55, declared at a recent candidates’ forum in La Crescenta.

And Montgomery told the same audience, “I’m very proud of being a political conservative, and I want to continue the Reagan tradition when he leaves office.”

In a later interview, Pemberton, a Republican liberal, chided his fellow candidates for being “so busy trying to seduce the conservatives.” He said he bolted the Democratic party 35 years ago “to challenge political and religious fundamentalists infiltrating the Republicans.” Republican audiences, however, only want to know whether I’m backing Reagan or not.”

Cleaver also supports Reagan, and the old urban guerrilla’s presence in the race has provided some ironies and a measure of just how far he has moved away from the philosophy embraced by the Oakland-based Black Panthers in the ‘60s.

A convicted rapist who discovered radical politics in prison, Cleaver joined the Panthers in 1966 and became a revolutionary celebrity two years later with the publication of his book “Soul on Ice.”

Cleaver’s Odyssey

He was involved in a shoot-out with Oakland Police in 1968, and fled first to Cuba in an odyssey through Communist countries that was to last until 1975 when he returned to the U.S. embracing fundamentalist Christianity and conservative Republicanism.

Knowland was an executive at the Oakland Tribune, then owned by his family, when the Panthers were at the height of their public notoriety. And state Sen. Ed Davis of Valencia, another GOP Senate candidate, was Los Angeles’ police chief back in the ‘60s when Cleaver and several other Panther members were arrested in Los Angeles after exchanging gunshots with police.

“I would much rather fight Mr. Cleaver with ballots rather than bullets,” Davis said at a Newport Beach Republican gathering.

For his part, Cleaver, 50, says he has “walked away from hatred,” and his speeches have moved Republican audiences to rise to their feet in enthusiastic applause.

Just such a standing ovation at the Republican State Convention in Fresno, however, generated what Cleaver sees as an attack from Allen, also a black conservative.

Defense of Past Sins

“When you defend past sins as if they were virtues . . . and when the Republican Party applauds . . . then we have lost our senses,” Allen wrote to Cleaver.

“Bill Allen is the only (candidate) who attacks me,” Cleaver said.

“He attacked me for being what I was in the ‘60s and saying what I’m saying now. He exploits that to show that he’s always been a faithful black Republican.”

Allen traces his conservative credentials back to Barry Goldwater’s ill-fated campaign for President in 1964, and he argued that he did not attack Cleaver, but “attacked the party for its thoughtless behavior (in giving him a standing ovation).”

Nonetheless, Cleaver answered Allen’s rebuke with a broadside of his own, denouncing Allen’s conservative Republicanism during the turbulent ‘60s.

‘Stand Up and Fight’

“I just say this: A man who wouldn’t stand up and fight for his own people can’t be trusted to stand up for this country,” Cleaver said.

Allen called that comment “a logical leap that would defy even an elementary school classroom.”

Despite Allen’s outrage at Cleaver’s defense of “past sins,” intrigued Republicans still seek out Cleaver at campaign stops, getting his autograph and posing with him as friends snap photographs.

Cleaver, who lives in Berkeley, makes his living these days from lectures, trimming trees and selling flower pots.

Despite whatever tensions that may have arisen between Cleaver and Allen, the two men share many political positions. For instance, they both oppose affirmative-action programs, minority “set asides” on federal construction projects and abortion.

“What separates us,” Allen said, “is an entirely different position on what’s at stake and what the heritage of this country is.”

Allen As Stump Speaker

Allen, 42, is an articulate stump speaker, and his resonant baritone swells dramatically as he tells audiences:

“We need to reclaim the strength of the American Way, which reposes in its people’s willing acceptance of the obligations of self government.”

And he touches a responsive chord when he calls for a country “strong enough so that American property won’t be blown out of the sky.”

In addition to working in the Goldwater campaign, Allen was president of Pepperdine College’s Young Republicans and an officer in both Los Angeles County and California Young Republicans as a student. In 1966, he chaired Los Angeles County’s Youth for Reagan, and two years ago he was Southern California chairman of Scholars for Reagan.

Polished Campaign Style

A Fulbright scholar, Allen has developed a polished campaign style. When a woman introducing him at a candidates’ forum noted that she had relatives attending Harvey Mudd College, Allen immediately proclaimed that he was proud to teach at an institution “with the world’s finest students.”

Allen favors eliminating federal involvement in public welfare, Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, prayer in public schools and a 19% flat rate income tax.

He draws appreciative laughter when he explains how the flat tax would work. Pulling a postcard from his pocket, he explains that individuals would be able to file their taxes on the card’s 10-line form. Businesses would be able to file on the other side, he says smiling as he flips the card over.

Allen crisscrossed the state in a mobile home for six weeks after declaring his candidacy and set up 40 individual committees to work on his behalf. The idea is to run what he likens to 40 Assembly races across the state.

Knowland, too, is steadfastly out on the hustings, carrying his campaign to candidates’ forums where, he said, he is sometimes the only candidate to show up. He complained that the well-heeled candidates are now skipping these forums.

‘Raising Bucks’

“It looks as though they’re saying, ‘We don’t need this,’ ” he said. “They’re out raising bucks to saturate the media.”

Heir to a famous political name, Knowland’s grandfather, Joseph R. Knowland, was a U.S. Representative who wielded considerable clout in California Republican politics as owner of the once-powerful Oakland Tribune.

His father, William F. Knowland, was appointed to the U.S. Senate by then-Gov. Earl Warren in 1945 and went on to win election to two additional terms, rising to majority leader during the Eisenhower Administration.

When his father committed suicide in 1974, Knowland was named publisher of the Tribune. His first editorial was a Page 1 refusal to continue printing all the demands of the Symbionese Liberation Army, which had kidnaped Patty Hearst.

Television and radio stations picked up the signed editorial, and newspapers across the country reprinted it. Three years later, however, Knowland, who only owned a small percentage of Tribune stock, was fired after a cousin engineered the paper’s sale to Combined Communications Corp. of Phoenix.

“That was a terribly traumatic experience,” he said of his ouster.

Acting Roles

For the past eight years he has pursued his avocations of writing and acting, with appearances in the television series “Dynasty” and the upcoming feature film “Star Trek IV.”

His campaign literature points out that his “heritage is one of service to community, state, nation and the Republican Party,” and he says he entered the race because none of the other candidates “show the leadership, integrity and courage of conviction for the principles which I support. . . .”

Those principles are the same ones this country was founded on--equal rights, human rights, he said. He is opposed to the abuse of power, he added, and that is why he opposes the retention of California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird.

“I would say I’m a Republican who is progressive,” he said. “I believe in basic Republican principles, but I’m thinking of tomorrow--what must be done today for tomorrow. There is no simple panacea solution to any of the complicated problems today.”

George Montgomery brings nothing like the Knowland family’s political legacy to the race, but he likes to point out that none of the candidates “has been a United States senator. We all start even.”

An attorney and businessman for 26 years, Montgomery says he entered the race to gain public recognition that could help him challenge Rep. Mel Levine (D-Los Angeles) two years from now. He adds that he’s “committed to a program of removing terrorists from Central America, and I support immediate aid to the (Nicaraguan) freedom fighters.”

John W. Spring, 47, teaches oceanography part time at Irvine Valley College, and he says he entered the race because he wasn’t “satisfied with what he was hearing from many of the known candidates.”

Felt More Qualified

Spring says he studied the race for more than a year with the intention of supporting the most qualified candidate, but despite “their experience in public office, my background and expertise made me feel more qualified.”

For the past 25 years he has been writing letters to the secretary of state and to several presidents, dating back to Eisenhower, he said.

“I like to consider all aspects of any given issue,” he said. “In many respects, I am not only a conservative, but close to a constitutionalist.”

His concern, he says, is for “the so-called little man, the person who doesn’t have wealth or influence. I want to make sure his rights and concerns are looked after just as well as any other individual’s.”

Psychologist Pemberton, 74, is the maverick in the Republican field. He ran in the GOP Senate primary four years ago, and said with a trace of defiant pride that he finished last.

He describes himself as a “modern St. George slaying the atomic dragon,” and says that he is running as a one-term liberal. “I wouldn’t even accept a pension,” he said.

Pemberton says he is pro-life when it comes to nuclear power and pro-choice on abortion. A specialist in conflict resolution, he said “we’ve got to talk about the way we talk. Conflict resolution strategies will assure non-military solutions to the Middle East and Central American crises.”

In Los Angeles last week, he unveiled his “blockbuster,” a “preposterously magnificent idea” that could “cut the roots from terrorism in the Middle East”: sell Israel, buy Baja California and move Israelis there.