8 Area Congressmen Put Their Records on the Line

Outside of the torrid contest against Rep. Robert K. Dornan in the 38th Congressional District, the best-financed and most serious challenge to the other seven congressmen in the Southeast/Long Beach area is being mounted by Republican Charles M. House, who is seeking to unseat Rep. Esteban E. Torres (D-La Puente) in the 34th District.

House, a Los Angeles County deputy sheriff, is using relatively inexpensive cable television advertising to reach voters. “We’re covering 90% of the district. We’ll get a tremendous bang for the bucks,” said campaign manager John Eastman.

The 30-second commercials cost less than $5,000 for 250 spots. They discuss fighting drugs and drug trafficking, excessive government spending and California Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, all of which the House campaign wants to make major issues in the election, Eastman said.

House accuses Torres, who is seeking his third term, of consistently voting to increase spending and raise taxes in one of the commercials. In another, House advocates using the military to halt the import of drugs and explains his opposition to Bird.

“His commercials are wrong. I’m not a big spender,” Torres replied in an interview.

Torres said he voted for the proposed federal budget, which asks for nearly $15 billion less than requested by President Reagan and also voted to cut $30 billion from Reagan’s defense spending request. In addition, Torres said he supported using the military to seal the borders against drug smuggling.

In an interview, House claimed his commercials are the only forum on the issues for district voters, since Torres at first agreed to a debate, then refused.

Torres disputed the allegation and criticized House for running “a very negative campaign.”

“I never agreed to a debate with him. My constituents know my record,” Torres said, adding that he saw no point in debating House.

House, 50, who has been a deputy for 20 years, is on leave during the campaign. This is his first run for public office.

A conservative black Republican, House is trying to win in an area where Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 2 to 1. House said he has not found “any hostility” about his race from voters as he campaigned in the district, which has a population nearly 75% white and 48% Latino.

He has a business administration degree from California State University, Long Beach, is married and lives in Hacienda Heights with his wife and two daughters.

House calls Torres a liberal who is representing a conservative area and can be defeated.

Torres, though, describes himself as a moderate who reflects the views of his constituents.

Torres said unemployment is one of the major issue facing his district.

“This district is an urban, working-class district and mirrors the problems of the nation. When we last took a poll, unemployment was about 10%,” said Torres, former ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and special assistant to then-President Jimmy Carter. Torres was a United Auto Workers field representative for 17 years, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1974.

Torres has not taken a public position on state Chief Justice Bird because her reconfirmation is not at issue in the congressional election, he said.

As for the other national issues raised in the campaign, Torres pointed out his support for the death penalty in the drug bill passed recently by the House of Representatives. (In conference, the death penalty provision was deleted from the bill by the Senate before passage.)

Early in the campaign, House raised questions about a $150,000 loan from the Small Business Administration that Torres received in 1981 before he was elected. House asked whether Torres should serve as a member of the House Small Business Committee after receiving a $150,000 loan through the Small Business Administration prior to his successful 1982 bid for Congress.

“I find it unconscionable that a member of Congress has continued to sit on a committee which oversees a program he has been a beneficiary of,” House stated in an letter he sent to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct earlier this month asking for Torres’ removal from the committee.

Torres said the charges are misleading and have been raised in previous campaigns.

Torres was a private citizen when he received the loan from Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Co., licensed by the SBA to aid minority businesses but operated independently, said Bob Alcock, an administrative aide.

When he was elected he turned over an import-export business started with the loan to his wife and in 1985 the loan was paid off, Torres said.

Torres has spent more than $220,000 and has $104,000 remaining in his campaign chest, according to the latest Federal Election Commission data.

Eastman said House has spent about $35,000 and raised about $50,000.

House has not received any money from the Republican Party, but has been endorsed by President Reagan, the California Republican Party and the California Republican Congressional delegation.

The 34th District stretches from Baldwin Park and West Covina on the northeast through South El Monte, La Puente, Industry, Pico Rivera and Santa Fe Springs to Norwalk and Artesia on the south.

29th District

Incumbent Augustus F. Hawkins (D-Los Angeles) is seeking reelection to a seat he has held since 1963.

“I never had the privilege of meeting my (Republican) opponent. I think he lives in the San Francisco area,” said Hawkins, 79, who is perhaps best known as the co-author of the 1978 Humphrey-Hawkins full-employment bill, which set general, non-binding goals of reducing unemployment to 4% and slashing inflation to 3% by 1983. The bill did not mandate any new government programs but stated a variety of economic goals and objectives.

Hawkins’ Republican opponent is John Van de Brooke. A businessman who lists his home address in Mountain View, in Santa Clara County, he could not be reached for comment. Congressional candidates do not have to live in the districts in which they are running.

Waheed Boctor, 29, the Libertarian Party candidate, advocates tax credits for parents whose children are failing in public school so the students can switch to private schools.

The latest campaign finance report filed by Hawkins shows that he has raised more than $81,000, with $74,000 from political action committees. He had spent $33,000 and has $106,000 remaining.

None of his opponents has filed a report.

The 29th District includes parts of South-Central Los Angeles, South Gate, Huntington Park and Downey.

31st District

Democrat Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Los Angeles) is seeking his fourth term in a racially diverse, predominantly working-class area with a long history as a Democratic stronghold. Dymally, 60, easily defeated his opponents in the last two elections by taking about 72% of the vote.

Dymally’s Republican challenger, Jack McMurray, 56, of Harbor Gateway, is emphasizing strong support for President Reagan and conservative stands on economic and social issues. He ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in 1982. He is an insurance agent and financial consultant.

B. Kwaku Duren, 43, of Compton is the Peace and Freedom Party candidate. A former leader of the Black Panther Party, Duren said his candidacy is part of a national movement to establish a third party that will better represent minorities and the poor. He is a paralegal with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.

Dymally’s latest campaign figures show he has raised nearly $325,000--more than $182,000 from individuals and $48,571 from political action committees. He has spent more than $316,000.

McMurray had raised about $12,000 and spent about $11,000. Duren had not filed a report, which is not required of candidates who raise or spend less than $5,000.

The 31st District covers all or parts of Compton, Lynwood, Paramount and Bellflower, portions of Los Angeles and North Long Beach, and several cities in the South Bay.

32nd District

Supporters of Glenn M. Anderson expect another routine victory for the 10-term Democratic incumbent. Anderson, 73, enjoys broad support from shipping, labor and other groups that have benefitted from federal programs to improve the Long Beach-Los Angeles harbor area.

However, his Republican opponent, Joyce M. Robertson, 27, of Downey, contends that district voters, including many among the 58% registered as Democrats, have turned against what she calls Anderson’s big-spending approach. Robertson, who quit her job as a marketing executive to campaign full time, is making her first try for public office.

John S. Donohue, 61, of Long Beach is running for the seventh time as a Peace and Freedom Party candidate for Congress. A retired refinery worker, Donohue said he favors abolishing the capitalist system and ridding the world of nuclear weapons.

The 32nd District covers most of Long Beach and all or parts of Lakewood, Hawaiian Gardens, Bellflower, Downey, Harbor City, San Pedro and Wilmington.

Anderson had a war chest of $419,000, of which $260,350 came from individuals and $192,377 from political action committees. As of Sept. 30, he had reported spending $334,853.

Robertson has reported raising $8,000 and spending more than $6,000.

42nd District

Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach) is seeking his fifth term.

Lungren is one of the chief architects of the recently passed immigration reform act, which he pushed for more than eight years. The bill is awaiting President Reagan’s signature.

“The people in my district asked for it,” said Lungren, who is the ranking GOP member on the Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee.

Democrat Michael T. Blackburn, 41, a Long Beach attorney and a Vietnam War veteran, advocates a strong economy, a strong military and says that reducing the budget deficit is a major issue. He advocates forming a common market of the Americas, including the United States, Canada and Mexico. The American common market, he said, would operate similarly to the European common market.

Peace and Freedom Party candidate Kate McClatchy, 25, poet and political writer who also teaches kindergarten in a Long Beach private school, said she is running on a feminist platform, which supports the equal rights amendment and reproductive freedom. Her views also embrace sharply reducing the defense budget and freezing nuclear weapons, she said.

The latest campaign finance figures show that Lungren has spent more than $125,000 and Blackburn less than $11,000.

McClatchy has not reported raising or spending more than $500.

The 42nd District stretches along the coast from Palos Verde Peninsula in Los Angeles County to Huntington Beach in Orange County, and includes parts of Long Beach and Signal Hill.

In two Congressional races outside the Long Beach area:

30th District

Rep. Matthew G. Martinez (D-Monterey Park), 57, is running for reelection to the seat he won four years ago when Republicans poured more than $1 million into the campaign of John H. Rousselot, the same year that reapportionment created the district.

He is opposed by Republican John W. Almquist, 28.

Libertarian candidate Kim J. Goldsworthy, 30, is a computer programmer.

The district, which runs through the east San Gabriel Valley, also includes all or parts of Commerce, Bell Gardens, Vernon, Montebello and Bell.

33rd District

Rep. David Dreier (R-La Verne), seeking a fourth term, is running a campaign that has ignored the opposition, infuriated his opponents and even irritated officers of the nonpartisan Claremont League of Women Voters when he refused to attend their candidates’ debate.

Democrat Monty Hempel, 36, is director of the Program in Public Policy Studies at Claremont Graduate School. He said he views Dreier’s ducking debates and his accumulation of more than $900,000 in campaign funds as impediments to the democratic process.

Dreier said in an interview he had another campaign commitment at the time but will engage in a debate “the moment the Democratic Party fields a credible candidate against me.”

Mike Noonan, 46, the Peace and Freedom Party candidate, is making his fourth run for Congress against Dreier. Noonan is a hospital pharmacist.

The district, largely in the San Gabriel Valley, includes Whittier, La Habra Heights, La Mirada and Hacienda Heights.