Underdogs Keep Races Interesting in Trio of Congressional Districts

Underdog candidate Joseph Chirra took serious umbrage last spring when a Sacramento-based political magazine suggested that U.S. Rep. Ron Packard’s 1982 write-in victory would be the last interesting congressional race in his San Diego-Orange County district “for many, many years.”

“I’m going to make them eat their words,” says Chirra, who was much more pleased with an editorial in a local Oceanside newspaper that congratulated him on making a significant and interesting challenge--even as it endorsed Packard.

With little more than a week left before the election, however, political pundits in San Diego County still are uttering the sentiments expressed in the magazine last spring: Chirra and two other Democratic challengers have little chance of toppling entrenched incumbent congressmen who are seeking reelection in solidly Republican districts.

Packard, seeking a third term in Congress, and U.S. Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado) and Bill Lowery (R-San Diego), running to return to Washington for fourth two-year terms, are buoyed by incumbency, name recognition, lopsided registration totals and huge campaign war chests.

Seeing the county’s congressional delegation as virtually invulnerable, none of the 11 San Diego state legislators--from either party--gave serious consideration to challenging them. Still, San Diego Democrats, trying to revitalize their county party organization under new Chairwoman Irma Munoz, have an attractive and articulate field of congressional candidates who might be serious contenders for a job in Washington if they lived elsewhere.

Hunter is being challenged by Hewitt Fitts Ryan, a 57-year-old San Diego psychiatrist who charges that Hunter is too “far to the right” and ineffective in Congress after six years there. Lowery’s opponent is Dan Kripke, a 45-year-old research psychiatrist and sleep disorders expert, who charges the congressman has “lost touch” with the district and its environmental concerns.

But like Chirra, the 40-year-old Vista attorney running against Packard’s “record of non-achievement,” the challengers are launching their Quixotic efforts in areas where conservative-leaning voters chose President Ronald Reagan over Democrat Walter Mondale in 1984 by margins of 78,000 to 117,000 votes.

The challengers and Democratic strategists say they were encouraged by San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s election to City Hall in June--a sign, they say, that there has been a “shift in the wind” and that a Democrat addressing issues of concern can win favor with the area’s traditionally conservative voters. Kripke points out that Democratic Assemblywoman Lucy Killea and U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston have both garnered overwhelming totals in the 41st Congressional District in past elections.

For the most part, the spirited Democratic challengers’ low-budget campaigns have been issue-oriented, pointing to very real philosophical differences between themselves and the three conservative congressmen. None has tried to appeal to voters by taking positions to the right of the Republican incumbents, or by claiming to be bigger supporters of President Reagan than the incumbents are.

“I’m perfectly straightforward about my positions . . . What you see is what you get,” said Ryan, who unabashedly favors the Equal Rights Amendment and a woman’s freedom of choice regarding abortions. Ryan also opposes aid to Contra rebels seeking to overthrow the government of Nicaragua and is against a constitutional amendment allowing prayer in public schools.

“People come to me and say they’ve never seen anyone come out and say where they stand,” said Ryan, who adds that the Democratic Party has traditionally “led the way” in addressing the concerns of women, minorities and children and that it should continue to do so. Although he regards himself “a fiscal conservative,” Ryan says, “I see the government as us. I don’t see government as the enemy.”

But in the 45th Congressional District, where 81% of residents are white and voting trends have almost always been conservative, such candor simplifies campaign appeal of an incumbent as well.

“The major difference between us,” said Hunter, who has complimented Ryan for having “conducted a high-level campaign . . . is I’m a Ronald Reagan conservative and he is a Walter Mondale liberal.”

But Hunter, who first won election to Congress in what was supposed to be a Democratic district before lines were redrawn, said he is not taking Ryan lightly.

“I had an underdog campaign of my own in 1980,” he said.

With a safe (51%) Republican district, two easy (69% and 75%) reelection bids behind him and a seat on the regionally important Armed Services Committee that he won over fellow GOP Rep. Lowery, it appears Hunter has little to worry about, however.

His district sweeps from Coronado through Imperial Beach and around the southern end of San Diego, and stretches to agriculture-rich Imperial Valley. Despite its predictable voting patterns, it is an extremely diverse mix of communities that include the staid Coronado peninsula and some small Indian reservations.

While Hunter, 38, has had a relatively low profile in Washington, he has been extremely visible at home--where it counts.

Last year, he authored successful legislation calling for mandatory prison sentences for some drug offenses, and he introduced an unsuccessful measure, rejected by the Reagan administration, calling for the Defense Department to aid in the capture of drug smugglers.

Despite Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger’s criticism of the plan, Hunter said he will back similar legislation this year if re-elected. Traditional law-enforcement agencies have never once captured an aerial smuggler while en route, although Hunter estimated that 300,000 pounds of cocaine are flown across the southern U.S. border each year--”enough . . . to addict 50,000 American children.” Hunter said the Defense Department has aircraft that could help in the capture of smugglers.

Libertarian Lee Schwartz, an engineering consultant, also will be on the ballot.

In the 41st Congressional District, which includes the affluent north side beach communities of La Jolla, Pacific Beach and Mission Beach and stretches through the inland foothill communities of Clairemont, Tierrasanta and Mira Mesa to the Santee city limits, challenger Kripke is trying to capitalize on growth and development issues. Kripke points out that Lowery, 39, was an opponent of Proposition A, the far-ranging growth control initiative approved by voters last November.

“This is a district that votes environmentalist,” says Kripke. “Growth management is one of the main concerns” as well “off-shore oil drilling, clean air, clean water . . . The majority of these people want environmental protections, and my opponent (Lowery) has a 75% anti-environment voting record . . . according to the League of Conservation Voters.”

Kripke also has attacked Lowery for using a San Diego condominium owned by Jet Air Inc., whose president, George T. Straza, was on probation following a 1984 guilty plea for making false statements to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in connection with a contract to manufacture parts for the space shuttle. Following that conviction, Lowery interceded with federal officials on behalf of Jet Air to make sure the company would not be shut out from bidding on other government contracts.

In August, a federal grand jury in San Diego named Straza in a 17-count indictment in connection with Air Force contracts.

But Lowery’s reelection margins, 69% and 63%, have been impressive. And, following his 1984 victory, he more than made up for losing out to Hunter for the Armed Forces Committee by getting a seat on the powerful House Appropriations panel.

The former San Diego city councilman has consistently maintained one of the most conservative voting records in Congress, with ratings between 2% and 5% by the liberal Americans for Democratic Action and labor’s Committee on Public Education, while the American Conservative Union has agreed with his votes between 83% and 90% of the time in past sessions. On the supposedly objective rating system used by National Journal magazine, Lowery’s conservative ratings have ranged from 79% to 99%.

In the 43rd Congressional District, which includes most of northern San Diego County and the southern tip of Orange County, Packard made history in 1982 by winning a rare write-in victory in a three-way race after coming in second in a crowded Republican primary.

That there were enough Republican votes for Packard to win--although he was not even on the ballot and was outspent three-to-one by wealthy travel trailer manufacturer Johnnie Crean, the party’s nominee--is evidence to most observers that a Democrat is wasting his time to even run for office in the district.

“I hope that is true,” said Packard, 55. “I fully expect to serve for a long time, the people willing.”

If his 85,000-voter Republican edge (56.2% of all voters) seems almost unfair, Packard said Democrats, led by the late U.S. Rep. Phillip Burton of San Francisco, “created the beast” themselves. In their zeal to map out a number of safe Democratic districts around the state, he said, they carved out a few safe ones for Republicans, too.

“Now they have to live with it,” he adds.

But Chirra said “the demographics in the district are constantly changing” and “I think I have a great chance of winning.”

“I would consider myself a moderate, and a lot of the views I have are held by Republicans and Democrats alike,” he added. “The real issue in this race is Packard. . . . I hear Republicans saying he hasn’t done anything.”

As evidence of his ability to cut into traditionally conservative areas of support, Chirra points to his endorsement by the major rank-and-file police officer organizations--a reaction no doubt to Packard’s votes this year in favor of legislation that weakened federal controls on transporting firearms.

Packard, a former Carlsbad mayor, compliments Chirra on being “a gentleman” in the campaign. A member of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee, Packard has asked to be put on the powerful Budget Committee next year. But U.S. Rep. William Dannemeyer of Fullerton is seeking the same committee assignment, and Packard concedes the chance of two Republican congressmen from Southern California being assigned to the panel are virtually nil.

Also running against Packard is Libertarian Phyllis Avery, a historical researcher.