Local Elections : Reelection Hope Seems Bright for Dreier, Roybal

Rep. David Dreier (R-La Verne) has every reason to approach his quest for a fourth term in Congress with confidence.

His 33rd Congressional District, which includes much of the East San Gabriel Valley, is considered safely Republican; he has no Republican opposition in the June 3 primary, and he won by a landslide two years ago. And although two Democrats and a Peace and Freedom Party candidate seek to run against him in November, Dreier said he does not expect to spend more than a fraction of the nearly $900,000 he has amassed in his campaign fund. Federal Election Commission reports show that Dreier has accumulated more money than any other House member except House Majority Leader Jim Wright (D-Tex.).

Reelection prospects are equally bright for Rep. Edward Roybal (D-Los Angeles), whose 25th Congressional District includes the central and northwest portions of Pasadena. Roybal, who has been in Congress since 1963, faces only token opposition in the Democratic primary from a supporter of maverick political leader Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. and will have Republican and Libertarian opposition in November, but he got 86% of the primary vote and 70% of the general election vote two years ago in similar circumstances.

In the 33rd district, the Democratic primary contest involves Monty Hempel, 35, director of the Program in Public Policy Studies at the Claremont Graduate School, and Paul Jeffrey, 34, a masonry contractor who is active in the LaRouche movement. In addition, Mike Noonan, 46, a hospital pharmacist who is runing unopposed for the Peace and Freedom Party nomination, is seeking write-in votes in the Democratic primary.

The 33rd district includes Azusa, Bradbury, Charter Oak, Claremont, Covina, Diamond Bar, Duarte, Glendora, Hacienda Heights, La Verne, Pomona, Rowland Heights, San Dimas, Walnut, Whittier, La Mirada, La Habra Heights and the Antelope Valley communities of Pearblossom, Little Rock and Llano.

Republicans outnumber Democrats 132,059 to 120,600. The total registration of 277,350 also includes 2,841 American Independents, 1,187 Libertarians, 713 members of the Peace and Freedom Party, 328 people in other parties and 19,622 who registered as nonpartisan or declined to state a party preference.

The chief issue in the Democratic primary has been Jeffrey’s support of the LaRouche political program. Hempel has called upon Jeffrey “to either publicly renounce his allegiance to the neo-Nazi ideas of Lyndon LaRouche or withdraw his name from consideration for the Democratic Party nomination.” He said Jeffrey has a right to run for Congress “but not under the label of a party whose basic values and ideals are firmly opposed to his own.”

Noonan said the LaRouche movement is “tremendously demagogic” and “preys on people’s fears.”

And Dreier, too, has joined in criticizing the positions taken by LaRouche and his supporters. Dreier said the movement “represents the extremes of both the left and the right.”

But Jeffrey said that as a LaRouche supporter he believes he is part of a citizens movement that is growing in strength. And, he said, it is Hempel, not him, who should pull out of the race “since it is obvious that his and the party’s goal is not to offer the best candidate to go against David Dreier but instead to stop me.”

Jeffrey got more than 15,000 votes in the Democratic primary two years ago, but lost by a 2-1 margin to former Claremont Councilwoman Claire McDonald.

Movement Has Grown

Since then, Jeffrey said, the LaRouche movement has grown, most recently with surprising primary victories for statewide office in Illinois.

“It is an interesting phenomenon,” Jeffrey said. “We’ve been out there for five years and the votes are finally coming in.”

Jeffrey is in line with the LaRouche organization in advocating a laser beam defense, denouncing the banking system, and contending that “the most important issue facing voters this year is the AIDS epidemic.” Jeffrey and other LaRouche supporters have circulated petitions to put an initiative on the November ballot to instruct the state health department to list acquired immune deficiency syndrome as a contagious and communicable disease and to empower health authorities to quarantine AIDS victims, exclude students and teachers with the virus from schools and make it a misdemeanor to knowingly spread the disease.

Recently Moved

Jeffrey, who recently moved from Glendora to La Verne, attended Glendora High School and Citrus College.

Hempel, who has lived in Claremont for 12 years, has taught government in high school, college and graduate school. He also served as a project manager for Oregon’s coastal zone management program.

Hempel said he has been conducting his primary campaign “as a referendum on LaRouche,” whom he regards as far outside the mainstream of the Democratic Party. Hempel has picked up endorsements from a number of Democratic leaders who share his abhorrence of the LaRouche movement, including Sen. Alan Cranston, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D-Colton) and Illinois gubernatorial candidate Adlai Stevenson III.

In some ways, the presence of a LaRouche supporter as a primary opponent is helpful to his own campaign, Hempel said. “It gives us some new hope in terms of getting people interested,” he said.

Difficult Race

If he wins the nomination, Hempel said he will face a difficult race against Dreier in November. “It’s clearly uphill,” he said, but not impossible. “The political trade winds are awfully changeable,” he said.

Although Dreier says he believes he represents “the mainstream of thought not only in my district but in the United States of America,” Hempel said he believes many voters would be surprised to learn how far to the right Dreier’s voting record is.

“His voting record is out of step, not just with Democrats, but with many Republicans,” Hempel said. He said Dreier has voted against social programs and for “every kind of weapon system made.”

Hempel said he takes the broader view that national defense requires not just weapons but attention to such matters as education, roads, agriculture and industry.

Peace and Freedom

Noonan, a Claremont resident and a former state chairman of the Peace and Freedom Party, said he is directing his appeal for Democratic write-in votes to those who believe that the party should be moving in the direction of Jesse Jackson’s so-called Rainbow coalition. Noonan was a delegate to a recent convention of the coalition.

All of Dreier’s opponents concede that they cannot match him in fund-raising. Candidates must report to the Federal Election Commission when they have raised more than $5,000 and neither Hempel nor any of Dreier’s other challengers had reached that point by the reporting period ending March 31.

Meanwhile, Dreier, in the 15-month period ending March 31, raised $334,324, spent $70,795 and had $870,013 in the bank.

Hempel described Dreier’s accumulation of funds as “campaign overkill.” He said, “Common sense, vision and integrity--not fund-raising ability--should be the key qualifications for public office. My campaign will emphasize people over money and principles over politics.”

‘Can Rely on Ideas’

Hempel, who said he has not put any emphasis on fund-raising in the primary but has collected about $5,000, said “there’s no ineffable law that the candidate with the most money wins.” Let Dreier rely on money, he said, “we can rely on ideas.”

Jeffrey said he is not worried about Dreier’s money. If he wins the Democratic nomination as a LaRouche supporter, Jeffrey said, “The press will make our campaign for us.”

But Noonan, who received 2,371 votes, or slightly more than 1% of the total when he ran for the same office two years ago, said the huge cash hoard held by Dreier creates such political imbalance as to be “disgraceful.” He said he finds it ironic that Dreier complains about a lack of democracy in Nicaragua when “his idea of democracy in the 33rd Congressional District” seems to be that he has all the money and his opponents have little or none.

Dreier said his fund-raising efforts have been low-key despite the money that has rolled in.

No Computer Mailings

“I don’t send out a plea saying the Republic will fail if you don’t send money,” Dreier said. “We don’t have the $250-a-person receptions for lobbyists in Washington that many others do. We don’t send out computerized mailings. What I have done is a good job in the district.”

Dreier said he was elected to reduce taxes, limit the cost of government, build a defense second to none and ensure economic opportunity for all, and that his record of accomplishment has attracted supporters, many of whom regularly send him donations.

Dreier said he has built up his campaign fund because he might run for another office in the future or his congressional district might be reapportioned. He said “quite a few people have encouraged me to run for the U.S. Senate,” and he would need a huge war chest if he ever runs for statewide office.

First elected to the House in 1980 by upsetting incumbent Democrat Jim Lloyd, Dreier, 33, received a severe political test in 1982 when reapportionment threw him into a race against a fellow Republican congressman, Wayne Grisham. Dreier defeated Grisham decisively, but he said his difficulties in raising funds for that election convinced him that he had to build up his campaign fund to protect himself in the future.

An Easy Winner

Dreier was an easy winner in 1984, gaining 70% of the vote.

A graduate of Claremont McKenna College, Dreier was a college fund-raiser and a marketing employee before winning election to Congress. In his 1980 race, Dreier made a promise to work for closure of the BKK landfill in West Covina his major local issue. Since then, he has emphasized opposition to waste-to-energy incineration projects proposed in his district, charging that they would damage the environment. Dreier said he believes he has built a strong record as a protector of the environment. He also has billed himself as a champion of consumers on the House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee.

In the 25th Congressional District, Roybal is being challenged in the Democratic primary by Dorothy Andromidas, who lists herself on the ballot as a housewife and lives in Los Angeles. Andromidas, who has been involved in the LaRouche movement, declined to discuss her campaign.

Gregory L. Hardy, a field representative for Assembly Republican leader Pat Nolan (R-Glendale), is unopposed for the Republican nomination. He lives in Glendale. Ted Brown, an insurance claims adjuster of Los Angeles is the only candidate in the Libertarian Party.

25th District

The 25th Congressional District has 157,479 voters, including 109,930 Democrats, 32,419 Republicans, 1,401 American Independents, 1,077 members of the Peace and Freedom Party, 675 Libertarians, 797 members of other parties and 11,180 nonpartisans and others who declined to state a party preference.

Roybal, 70, was first elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1949 after working as a public health educator. He remained on the council until his election to Congress in 1962.

In Congress, he has taken a leading role in debate on immigration issues and has fought for housing and medical care for the elderly. He is a founder of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.