Dornan, Robinson Clash Again in Debate : Congressman Charges Opponent Accepted Prostitutes From Moriarty

The political scandal surrounding W. Patrick Moriarty became a hot issue in the 38th Congressional District race Friday when Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) publicly accused his Democratic opponent, Assemblyman Richard Robinson, of accepting prostitutes and other favors from the controversial Anaheim businessman.

During a debate taped at KOCE-TV in Huntington Beach, Dornan referred to articles published in the Los Angeles Times about Moriarty, a former fireworks manufacturer now serving a prison sentence for political corruption. The reporters who wrote the articles, Dornan said, will “tell you that Mr. Robinson is guilty of influence peddling, bribery, extortion and dealing with teen-age prostitutes in Sacramento.”

Robinson, who at first declined to respond, grew angry when Dornan made similar comments later in the debate. “That’s a damnable lie,” said the 12-year Assembly veteran from Garden Grove. “What Bob is very artful at doing is trying to get campaigns down in the gutter, in personality contests, with white lies, innuendo and what not. . . . I’m not going to engage in a smear campaign.”

Noel Greenwood, deputy managing editor of The Times, noted that the newspaper reported in 1985 that former aides to Moriarty had identified Robinson as one of several political figures who were provided with prostitutes by Moriarty.

“However, The Times has never published a story in which Robinson has been declared guilty of, or even accused of, ‘influence peddling,’ ‘bribery,’ ‘extortion’ or ‘trafficking for extortion,’ ” Greenwood said.

In The Times story in 1985, Robinson was quoted as saying the prostitute allegations were “ludicrous.”

Friday’s clash between Dornan and Robinson over the Moriarty scandal and other issues suggested that the 38th Congressional District race--long expected to be one of the nation’s nastiest and most expensive contests--is finally living up to advance expectations.

Republican and Democratic party officials have targeted the race as a top priority. The combined fund raising by the two candidates topped the $1-million mark this week, and a blizzard of political mailers is expected to hit district voters in the last week of the campaign.

Both Dornan, a flamboyant and conservative legislator, and Robinson, a crafty Sacramento insider, have reputations for running tough campaigns, and the two men laced into each other repeatedly during the debate and in impromptu press conferences afterward.

The debate is scheduled to be broadcast at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

Dornan, 53, accused Robinson of being a “big-spending liberal” and an enemy of President Reagan. Brandishing a mailer he had just sent out to voters, Dornan added that Robinson, 43, had voted to increase the salary of California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird to $93,140. Bird is fighting to win reconfirmation in the Nov. 4 election.

“I have never voted to raise my own salary in public life, and yet my opponent has done that five times, every opportunity presented to him in the Assembly,” Dornan charged.

The congressman ridiculed his Democratic opponent and Libertarian candidate Lee Connelly for opposing the $100 million in aid voted by Congress for the Nicaraguan contras. Dornan, stressing his record of service to the district, also defended his travels abroad as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He said he had taken an oath to provide for the nation’s defense and noted that “it’s not something Dickie Robinson had to do in Sacramento. . . .”

Earlier, Robinson said that Dornan’s charge concerning Bird is “an outrageous distortion” and that he opposes the confirmation of the chief justice. He said Bird’s raise was included in a package of bills increasing the salaries of state officials that had been requested by Gov. George Deukmejian and legislators from both parties.

Robinson criticized Dornan for his travels abroad as a congressman and charged that his opponent wants to be “the undersecretary for the Third World.” He blasted Dornan for having proposed $40 million in aid to Jonas Savimbi of Angola, whom he called a “Marxist, Maoist” rebel leader.

Worked With Legislation

The assemblyman, touting his reputation for budget-cutting, said he had worked on legislation with Deukmejian to help “solve” a $1.5-billion state deficit. He pledged to cut waste in all sectors of the federal government, including the Defense Department.

After the formal debate concluded, both candidates continued hammering away at each other. Dornan strode into a hallway at the television station and began raging at Robinson, who was not present, for having “misrepresented” his Vietnam War record. Pounding repeatedly on a countertop, Dornan said: “The guy has impersonated an NCO (non-commissioned officer), a ward officer, an aviator, a back-seater, a radar intercept officer, a combat air crewman for 12 years.”

Robinson, who served with the Marines in Vietnam at an air base as a ground technician, was discharged as a corporal in 1966, according to military records. Dornan, however, charged that Robinson has encouraged the impression that he was an aviator in statements over the years to reporters and in campaign literature.

When Robinson was running for reelection to the Assembly in 1982, his campaign workers reprinted and circulated a newspaper article that erroneously referred to the candidate as a “Marine aviator.”

As he stood in the parking lot outside the TV station, Robinson denied that he had ever deliberately misrepresented his war record. But he conceded that “I can see where reasonable people have gotten misled.”

Both candidates’ military records became an issue last month, when Rep. Tony Coelho (D-Merced) chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, appeared at a Robinson event in Santa Ana and accused Dornan of exaggerating his resume to make it appear that he had been in combat in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

‘Smear Campaign’ Charge

Dornan angrily denied the charge and said he has never tried to distort his military record. He said he joined the Air Force as a teen-ager in 1952, dropping out of his college ROTC class to do so. The congressman said he served on active duty until 1958 and then served 18 years in the reserves. After he left active duty, Dornan said, he accompanied eight combat missions in Vietnam as a newsman for RKO television.

Robinson said his opponent is trying to run a “smear campaign” and stressed that it was Coelho, not he, who had attacked Dornan. However, the assemblyman agreed that he was present and had not tried to stop Coelho from making such accusations, nor was he “disowning” anything Coelho had said.

Referring to the charges about Moriarty and the two men’s war records, Robinson added: “This is smoke and mirrors to get away from the issues of the campaign. It’s really insulting to the voters.”