33rd District Issues: Dreier’s War Chest, La Rouche’s Ideas

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 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 candidate seek to run against him in November, Dreier said he doesn’t 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-Texas).

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 a supporter of political maverick Lyndon H. La Rouche Jr. In addition, Mike Noonan, 46, a hospital pharmacist who is running unopposed for the Peace and Freedom Party nomination, is seeking write-in votes in the Democratic primary.

District Boundaries

The 33rd District includes Whittier, La Mirada, La Habra Heights, Walnut, Azusa, Bradbury, Charter Oak, Claremont, Covina, Diamond Bar, Duarte, Glendora, Hacienda Heights, La Verne, Pomona, Rowland Heights, San Dimas, 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 persons in other parties and 19,622 who declined to state a party preference.

The chief issue in the Democratic primary has been Jeffrey’s support of the La Rouche political program. Hempel has called upon Jeffrey “to either publicly renounce his allegiance to the neo-Nazi ideas of Lyndon La Rouche 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 La Rouche movement is “tremendously demagogic” and “preys on people’s fears.”

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

But Jeffrey said that as a La Rouche supporter, he believes he is part of a citizens’ movement that is growing in strength. And, he said, it is Hempel, not himself, who should pull out of the Democratic primary “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.”

Soundly Trounced

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

Since then, Jeffrey said, the La Rouche 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 La Rouche 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 La Rouche supporters have circulated petitions to put an initiative on the November ballot to instruct the state Health Services Department to list AIDs 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.

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 La Rouche,” 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 La Rouche movement, including Sen. Alan Cranston, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, and Rep. George Brown (D-Colton).

Seen Attracting Interest

In some ways, the presence of a La Rouche 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.

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.

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 in favor of “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.

Noonan, a former state chairman of the Peace and Freedom Party who lives in Claremont, 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 Rainbow Coalition. Noonan was a delegate to a recent convention of the coalition.

Can’t Match Incumbent

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.”

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 isn’t worried about Dreier’s money. If he wins the Democratic nomination as a La Rouche 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.”

Noonan 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.

Money Rolls In

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

“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.

Might Run for Another Office

He 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 persuaded him that he had to build up his campaign fund to protect himself in the future.

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.