Herschensohn: Anonymity in N. California

It’s getting wild out on the campaign trail for Republican U. S. Senate candidate Bruce Herschensohn. One of his opponents called him a liberal, another branded him a right-winger, and the other night he found himself quoting the cartoon character Popeye in a San Jose church.

But wildest of all was what Herschensohn encountered on a recent campaign swing through Northern California--anonymity. The man who cannot walk across a parking lot in Southern California without being recognized met almost no one up north who had any idea who he was.

This phenomenon was confirmed by the latest Los Angeles Times Poll, which found that virtually 100% of Herschensohn’s support--he is one of the front-runners in the crowded GOP primary election race--comes from Southern California.

“Most of you may not know him, but Bruce is a very familiar face to me because I used to see him every night on TV when I lived in Southern California,” said a woman who introduced Herschensohn to a small group of Republicans in Nevada County on Tuesday.

She went on to praise Herschensohn, whose eight years as a commentator for KABC-TV in Los Angeles made him so well known in the Southland that he cannot eat a meal in a restaurant there without being interrupted by people who want to cheer or challenge his conservative views.

The Nevada County Republicans stared blankly at Herschensohn and then attacked their lunch with such gusto that his speech could barely be heard over the din.

“Well, at least they asked a couple of questions,” Herschensohn said afterward as he headed for the tiny airport where his campaign plane was tethered.

Things are so wacky in Nevada County that Herschensohn was driven to the airport by the local campaign chairman for one of his rivals, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

That favor did little to soothe Herschensohn’s irritation with Antonovich, who has begun to attack the former commentator as they battle for the hard-core conservative vote in the June 3 primary.

Antonovich got so carried away the other day that he told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that Herschensohn was a “liberal on domestic policy” because Herschensohn opposes the Gramm-Rudman Act’s automatic spending cuts and calls for an adjustable flat tax that, Antonovich charges, will give Congress a blank check on spending.

Herschensohn does not like Gramm-Rudman because it cuts spending for defense--a conservative, not a liberal, position. On the flat tax idea, he wants the government to come up with a budget each year and then tell the taxpayers what it will cost them to meet it. The taxpayers will pressure Congress to spend prudently, he argues, once the budget is expressed in those terms.

But Antonovich really infuriated Herschensohn when he pointed out in the newspaper interview that one of Herschensohn’s heroes is a Kennedy--John F. Kennedy, to be precise, who was President when Herschensohn made films for the U. S. Information Agency.

“I thought about trying to explain to Mike that John Kennedy was strongly anti-Communist and believed in tax cuts, but, oh, what’s the use,” Herschensohn sighed as he gazed somberly out the plane window at the California countryside.

Barely Hides Disdain

A foreign policy expert who has visited 90 countries and has amazing recall on congressional legislation, Herschensohn can barely hide his disdain for some of his less worldly opponents in the Senate race.

“I would be glad to criticize Mike’s ideas--if he had any,” snapped Herschensohn when editors of the San Francisco Chronicle asked him about Antonovich’s attacks.

About the time that Antonovich was calling Herschensohn a liberal, another Senate race rival, Rep. Ed Zschau (R-Los Altos), was charging that Herschensohn would not be able to beat incumbent Democratic U. S. Sen. Alan Cranston in November because “he is on the extreme edge of the right wing of our party.”

That got picked up by Northern California reporters, who greeted Herschensohn with the charge at every place he stopped earlier this week.

One reporter got a lecture for his efforts.

‘Pejorative Label’

“I’m a conservative, so if somebody calls me a conservative that’s a compliment,” Herschensohn responded. “I’m Jewish, so if someone calls me a Jew, that’s a compliment. But if somebody calls me a right-winger, that’s a pejorative label with all kinds of connotations.”

When a reporter asked why he wasn’t spending more time in Northern California, Herschensohn complained, “I have to get invitations. I can’t simply land at San Francisco Airport and bang on the doors of TV and radio stations.”

In Southern California, radio debates have helped the candidates get their views out, but there have been no such arrangements in the north so far.

Herschensohn campaign aide Rick Minyard believes that this especially hurts Herschensohn, who not only is skilled on radio and television but is the least known in Northern California of all the contenders for the GOP Senate nomination.

Herschensohn spends his time in the north going around to tiny gatherings of Republican women and luncheon groups, who respond politely, if at all.

But if Northern Californians showed little interest in him, Herschensohn expressed little curiosity about what he saw as his campaign plane flew over fertile valleys, thick forests and high-tech industrial parks.

‘Who Cares?’

When a reporter asked another passenger which valley they were flying over, Herschensohn burst out laughing and said, “Who cares? Do you really think that is going to change your life?”

He returned to reading a newspaper article about South Africa’s recent raids on rebel bases in neighboring countries. This brought a scowl to Herschensohn’s face, for he fears that condemnation of such actions and other pressures on South Africa could lead to a revolution there and the rise of a Communist government.

He began to write out a fresh speech in his notebook: “Congress doesn’t need a magnifying glass to look at the daily newspapers. It needs a telescope to look beyond these events.”

Herschensohn is so serious in public that his advisers wish the campaign could somehow project the man they see--the funny, self-deprecating fellow who in private comes across more as a professional entertainer than as an aspiring public official.

Quotes Popeye

There was a glimpse of this the other night when a member of a San Jose church group asked Herschensohn if he had any apologies for being a conservative.

“What was it Popeye the sailor said?” replied Herschensohn. “I am what I am.”

On the campaign plane, aide Minyard clasped Herschensohn on the shoulder and said, “Bruce, do you realize you just quoted Popeye at that last event?”

Herschensohn exploded in laughter and said, “All of a sudden those words just came out of my mouth. I was mortified. I couldn’t stuff them back in. I can just hear those folks as they’re driving home--’My God, that guy was quoting John Kennedy and Popeye all in the same speech.’ ”