Grand Jury Probes Fund Use : Despite Controversy, Odds Favor Dymally

By BOB WILLIAMS

Oct. 26, 1986 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

“In politics, no good deed goes unpunished,” lamented Democrat Mervyn M. Dymally when asked about yet another in the controversies that have dogged him through most of his long career as an officeholder.

The latest is a federal grand jury probe into the financial problems of an obscure Raleigh, N.C., college that Dymally says he was only trying to rescue from bankruptcy.

The investigation comes at a bad time, what with Dymally asking the voters of the 31st Congressional District to give him a fourth term in office in the Nov. 4 elections just nine days away.

It is providing fresh campaign fuel for Dymally’s Republican challenger, businessman Jack McMurray, who terms it another example of how the incumbent “embarrasses and disgraces his constituents.”

But the 60-year-old Dymally, who started as a state assemblyman in 1962, heatedly denies any wrongdoing in the Raleigh matter, which involves a $100,000 contribution from the Japanese whaling industry to a Washington think-tank headed by the congressman.

Dymally said he turned the money over to the predominantly black Shaw University as part of an effort to solve its financial problems.

On top of that, he said, “The situation is so bad with Shaw that I had to borrow (an additional) $80,000 to cover a bounced check they wrote for staff health insurance.”

According to a story in a Raleigh newspaper last Sunday, at least part of the Japanese money was used to employ a full-time Dymally aide, Theta W. Shipp, as a fund-raiser and Washington contact for the college.

Dymally said the $100,000 contribution from the whaling group grew out of “negotiations with the Japanese to do more for blacks” and he denied published reports that he has supported Japan’s position on continued whaling in the face of a worldwide moratorium on hunting the giant sea mammals.

The truth is, he said, he has been merely an observer, not a delegate, at various whaling conventions and he basically supports the U.S. position on the moratorium.

Still, the McMurray campaign sees an unexpected opening, likening Dymally’s current problems to the allegations of corruption that figured in his defeat for a second term as the state’s lieutenant governor in 1978.

The accusations, which never resulted in any charges after a lengthy FBI investigation, tarnished Dymally’s reputation with the state’s voters, who picked Republican Mike Curb for the post.

But obviously Dymally does not expect to lose another office over his “good deeds” in Raleigh. His problem, if he has one, seems minor compared to those that finally turned 31st District voters against his predecessor in 1980.

In the primary that year, they gave Charles H. Wilson, who had held the 31st District post for nine terms, only 15% of their votes--thus paving the way for Dymally’s comeback as their new congressman.

Among other things, Wilson was accused by the House Ethics Committee of converting campaign funds to his personal use and lying about a $600 wedding gift from South Korean lobbyist Tongsun Park. The House censured him.

Still, Republican McMurray, 56, who is mostly Filipino descent despite his Irish surname, plans to make the most of the Raleigh episode in his long-shot bid to oust Dymally.

It’s a long shot because the district, which runs from the border of Watts south along both sides of the Harbor Freeway to the edge of San Pedro, has sent only Democrats to Congress since the 1930s. And 71% of the voters are still registered Democrats.

Dymally, though short of campaign cash at the end of the third quarter this year, has the incumbent’s access to the kind of contributors and organizations that normally rise up, even at the last minute, to defend the party stronghold.

Still, Republican McMurray hopes that a last-minute spark from Raleigh, falling on smoldering embers from the past, might ignite a voter rebellion against Dymally.

“The message from Raleigh reinforces what many in the district already know,” said McMurray, who lives in Harbor Gateway. “Mr. Dymally is too busy performing his so-called good deeds in faraway places to take much of an interest in the needs of his people here at home.

“The people know his penchant for supporting radical cults and Third World causes. So they are asking why he doesn’t run for some office in the Caribbean or the Middle East or Central America, instead of in the 31st District.”

As examples of the “penchant,” McMurray cited familiar reports that Dymally endorsed the work of the People’s Temple before more than 900 of its members committed mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978; that he tried to rally congressional support for the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who was convicted of income-tax evasion charges in 1982, and that earlier this year he backed the right of members of a Black Hebrew sect to use false names on U.S. passports in order to enter Israel.

In an interview last week, Dymally said he wanted to “plead guilty” to much of what McMurray is saying. In fact, he said, he is guilty of defending the civil and religious rights of groups all over the world--from Micronesians and South Koreans to Russian Jews, Pakistani Ahmadis and African Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Dymally acknowledged that he has helped direct a fair amount of U.S. money to the Caribbean area, which includes his native Trinidad. But, he added, he has also supported more foreign aid for the Philippines, McMurray’s native land.

As for illegal tactics allegedly used by Black Hebrews to reach Israel, Dymally said, it was a case of the sect members using the only means available to them.

Besides, he said, one of the Jewish state’s highest leaders once told him that “in times of war, Israel doesn’t subscribe to the law . . . so what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”

Dymally noted that McMurray is plainly against him, “but what is he for? If lightning strikes and he’s elected, he can’t go to Congress and keep voting against the incumbent.”

In his interview, McMurray said he wanted to make his positions on the issues clear to as many people as possible, “but I don’t have as much money as Dymally has to get out the word.”

On immigration, McMurray said, he favors strong measures to curtail the influx of illegal immigrants and he opposes most of the amnesty provisions in the bill recently passed by Congress.

Dymally voted against the measure because, he said, “I wanted to stick with the Hispanic caucus, which stays with blacks on South Africa.” He said he has no quarrel with those who supported the bill because further delays in immigration reform might have “nailed the coffin on amnesty,” which he supports.

On tax reform, McMurray said he backed the bill signed by President Reagan last week because “it is the fairest way we can get now to balance the tax burden.”

Dymally voted against the bill because, he said, it shifts the burden to the middle class and does not provide money to revive past programs for the poor. He acknowledged that corporations will lose a lot of tax breaks and many low-income people will be exempted from making any payments.

On military expenditures, McMurray said he subscribed to George Washington’s view that a strong national defense is the best insurance against war. Dymally voted for the B-1 bomber but has opposed funding for MX deployment and Reagan’s “Star Wars” defense.

On Rose Bird, McMurray said he opposes reconfirmation for the state’s chief justice because “her stand and philosophy tend to protect the criminal and open too many loopholes in our criminal justice system.”

Dymally declined to give his position, noting that Bird has asked politicians to stay out of her reconfirmation battle. But he said he is concerned that the effort to unseat her may “undermine the independence of the judiciary.”

Standing apart from the battle between the two major party candidates is B. Kwaku Duren, 43, of Compton, who is carrying the Peace and Freedom banner in the Nov. 4 elections. The simple fact is that “the contestant with the most bucks wins,” he said.

Still, Duren said, even a seemingly hopeless quest for public office gives him a chance to explain the “real issues before the country” and build support for a national third party that one day, he hopes, can take control of many important posts.

Duren, a former Black Panther Party leader who works as a paralegal for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, said the real issues include rent control, peace and war and the Third World’s debt problem.

The debt solution, he said, is to “cancel it because it’s not payable anyway.” The threat of war will be eased when “we find ways to sit down with the Soviets and work out mutual problems in a spirit of compromise,” he said.

Despite new laws, Duren said, the illegal immigration problem will not end until economic conditions get a lot better in the nations from which jobless workers come. Meanwhile, he said, “it is almost immoral to deny Spanish-speaking people access to a land that historically belonged to them.”

THE RACE AT A GLANCE

Party Registration:

Total 213,086

Democratic 152,195

Republican 42,230

American Independent 2,261

Libertarian 744

Peace and Freedom 1,370

Other Parties 456

No Party 13,830

1980 Voting Population

Total 354,360