LaRouche’s Allies Play Losing Role in Primary

Devotees of political mischief-maker Lyndon LaRouche came up largely empty-handed in Tuesday’s primary elections, beaten or behind in all 24 congressional and legislative races in which they were entered.

LaRouche candidates, however, won at least a smattering of seats on party central committees, with most if not all of those victories reported in Los Angeles County.

In the most publicized primary contest involving a LaRouche adherent, the Orange County Democratic Party appeared Wednesday to have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a write-in campaign by party chairman Bruce Sumner in the 40th Congressional District. Although the results won’t be verified before today, Sumner on Wednesday looked like a winner by a 52.3% to 47.7% margin over the LaRouche candidate, Art Hoffmann. The winner will face incumbent Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach).

Some Consolation

The 40th Congressional District is heavily Republican, and the winner of the Democratic primary is not expected to have a good shot at upsetting Badham, who has been in office 10 years. Nevertheless, defeating the LaRouche candidate may be victory enough for mainstream Democrats.

“I have to tell you it is just delightful,” said California Democratic Party Executive Director Mary Hughes.

In California, as elsewhere around the country, traditional Democrats have been eager for a chance to smite the LaRouchites ever since two LaRouche candidates won unexpected victories earlier this year in the Illinois Democratic primary contests for lieutenant governor and secretary of state.

Followers of LaRouche, himself an announced Democratic candidate for President in 1988, back an assortment of causes ranging from President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative to a quarantine for victims of AIDS. The 64-year-old LaRouche has followed a winding political path, from membership in the communist Socialist Workers Party to alliances with the Ku Klux Klan and the ultraconservative Liberty Lobby.

In California primary races, 19 of the 24 candidates identified with LaRouche’s National Democratic Policy Committee ran as Democrats, the rest as Republicans. One candidate, Brian Lantz, ran as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Sen. Alan Cranston. Lantz received 3% of the vote.

Second-Place Finish

But other LaRouche candidates fared better. In the 41st Congressional District, Alex Maruniak, running as a Democrat, received 40% of the vote and finished second in a two-man race for the chance to run against incumbent Rep. Bill Lowery, a San Diego Republican. In Orange County, LaRouche candidate Maureen Pike got 38% of the vote and came in second in a two-person Democratic primary in the 41st Congressional District. The district is represented by Rep. William Dannemeyer, a Fullerton Republican.

Tim Pike, a spokesman for the LaRouche organization in Los Angeles, said that the performance of several LaRouche candidates “makes a positive statement about the political strength of the movement.”

Pike also took issue with the statement of state Democratic Party officials that, outside of Los Angeles, no LaRouche candidates were elected to county central committees.

“We took a number of central committee seats everywhere we were,” he said.

In Los Angeles, the registrar-recorder’s office reported that four of 29 LaRouche candidates were elected to the 196-member county Democratic Party Central Committee. According to the registrar-recorder’s office, one of three LaRouche candidates was elected to the county Republican Central Committee.