California Elections : The Lineup for Tuesday’s State Ballot : Congress: : Incumbents Are Fending Off Most Challenges

The Orange County fight between volatile Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and his cocky, acerbic Democratic challenger, Assemblyman Richard Robinson, has always been expected to be the most combative of this year’s races for California’s 45 congressional seats.

But when the campaign began after the June 3 primary, everyone--even the candidates themselves--figured that the combat would center on something a bit more up-to-date than the Korean and Vietnam wars.

The state’s hottest congressional contest has evolved into a macho battle of would-be Rambos trying to bad-mouth each other’s old war stories. Robinson claims that Dornan, a peacetime Air Force pilot, rewrote his resume to falsely imply service in both conflicts. Dornan denies it but accuses Robinson of hyping his service record in Vietnam.

The stuff of meaningful political dialogue it is not, but the Dornan-Robinson skirmish has produced the only fireworks and uncertainty in an otherwise bleak and predictable field of congressional contests. Though Californians elect more than one-tenth of the membership of the House of Representatives every two years, the races rarely produce any surprises because gerrymandering of district lines after the 1980 census has given incumbents of both parties a virtual lock on their seats.

Only Swing District Left

Democrats, who are responsible for the creative political cartography, hold 27 of those seats while Republicans have 18. If there is any change in that mix, it probably would come in the 38th District now represented by Dornan, which Democratic map makers admit was the only swing district left under the redistricting plan drawn up by the late Democratic Rep. Phil Burton of San Francisco. Two years ago, Dornan swiped the seat from Democratic control after a costly and bruising battle with then-incumbent Rep. Jerry Patterson.

To be sure, the state delegation will feature at least three new faces--probably all Republicans--when the 100th Congress convenes in January because three current GOP lawmakers are not running for reelection. Rep. Eugene A. Chappie is retiring from his seat in the far northern 2nd District, while Reps. Bobbi Fiedler of Northridge and Ed Zschau of Los Altos passed up reelection bids when they battled in a crowded candidate field for the Republican Senate nomination in the June primary. Zschau won the contest and is locked in a tough fight with Democratic incumbent Alan Cranston.

Veteran Simi Valley Mayor Elton Gallegly, a devoted admirer of President Reagan, is a cinch to beat his Democratic rival and take Fiedler’s place in the staunchly Republican 21st District, which sprawls across parts of the San Fernando Valley and Southern Ventura County. Saratoga Assemblyman Ernie Konnyu, a 49-year-old Hungarian emigre who championed “workfare” legislation requiring some public aid recipients to work in exchange for welfare, is the odds-on favorite to replace Zschau in the Silicon Valley-centered 12th District. And three-term Assemblyman Wally Herger, who fits the conservative mold long preferred by 2nd District voters, is expected to take Chappie’s place despite a stiff challenge from Democrat Stephen C. Swindiman, a Shasta County supervisor and restaurateur.

The much-ballyhooed Dornan-Robinson race has only caught fire in recent weeks as both tough-talking candidates began hammering away at each other with personal attacks and a blizzard of political mailers.

Targeted for Defeat

Mindful of the marginal Democratic registration advantage in the district and Dornan’s fiery, eccentric personality, Democratic leaders had targeted him for defeat as they funneled large amounts of cash and expert help into the Robinson campaign. Yet it has been Dornan who has taken the offensive for much of the race, stressing his self-appointed role as President Reagan’s “best friend” in foreign policy and touting the trips he has taken since 1985 to Syria, Nicaragua, Ethiopia and other international hot spots.

Robinson, a savvy Assembly veteran, is the handpicked candidate of the powerful political organization headed by Democratic Reps. Howard L. Berman of Panorama City and Henry A. Waxman of Los Angeles. The campaign has scored Dornan’s globe-trotting and “inattention” to local issues, while stressing Robinson’s own achievements as a watchdog for Orange County interests in Sacramento.

As a counter to those charges, Dornan has pointed to an array of federal grants, some in the millions of dollars, that he has delivered to the district. He points in particular to a recent congressional vote for a $16-billion public works bill that included $1.09 billion in funds for a flood control project on the Santa Ana River. Dornan’s role in winning approval for the long-sought project was minimal, but he happened to represent the district during the year when Congress and the White House settled a longstanding dispute that had blocked authorization of any new federally funded water projects for more than a decade.

But those controversies have taken a back seat to the war record flap. It surfaced when California Rep. Tony Coelho (D-Merced), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, charged while stumping for Robinson last month that Dornan had fudged his resume so that it implied he had served in combat when he had not. Dornan “had a chance to serve his country in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, but decided not to and ran away,” Coelho claimed.

The allegation led to a rambling, impassioned House floor speech by Dornan to defend his military record and attack Coelho. And, ever since, Dornan appears to have become obsessed by the issue even though Coelho admitted that he had been trying to bait Dornan into some of the outrageous behavior he has become known for as a House member.

Both Men Stung

If that was the strategy, however, it may have backfired because Dornan soon began trying to punch holes in Robinson’s own military claims.

In the end, both men had been stung by allegations that they had pumped up their military records with half-truths and distortions.

Democratic Party leaders had accused Dornan of falsifying his official biography to make it appear he had military service in Southeast Asia and Korea, a charge that Dornan angrily denied. However, Dornan now concedes that he approved a biographical sheet prepared for him last year by “Who’s Who in American Politics” that falsely credited him with military service in Southeast Asia.

The biographical sheet was sent to Dornan for corrections by the book’s publisher. The Times obtained a copy of the sheet as returned to the publisher. After reviewing a copy of the document, which bears numerous corrections in Dornan’s handwriting, the congressman said he apparently had overlooked the phrase crediting him with service in Southeast Asia.

“I did not pick up their typo. . . . I didn’t pick up the correction,” he said.

Dornan joined the Air Force in 1953. He earned his pilot’s wings after the Korean War ended and was on active duty through 1958. However, he never served in any official capacity in the Korean conflict or any other.

Meanwhile, Robinson has been caught up in charges that he misrepresented his own war record. When locked in a tough 1976 reelection battle for his Assembly seat with a challenger who was a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, he told an interviewer from The Times that he had been a Marine Corps warrant officer and had served as a radar intercept crewman on fighter jet missions over both North and South Vietnam.

However, military records indicate that Robinson was only a corporal when he was discharged in 1966, had served as a ground technician at an Air Force base at Da Nang and did not fly in combat missions as a normal part of his duties. Robinson denied that he has ever intentionally misled anyone about his military record, but conceded: “I can see where reasonable people have gotten misled.”

Charges Link to Moriarty

In another attack, Dornan cited a 1985 Los Angeles Times report of evidence that Robinson had accepted the services of prostitutes from W. Patrick Moriarty, an Anaheim businessman now serving a prison sentence for political corruption. Dornan embellished that report with a number of other allegations never reported by The Times. Robinson termed the barrage “a damnable lie.”

The combined fund raising for both campaigns topped the $1-million mark last week, making it one of the nation’s costliest congressional contests. There have been no reliable independent polls tracking the race in its late stages, but Dornan’s camp claims that its surveys show him to be leading comfortably while Robinson forces contend that their polls indicate the race is tight.

Contributing to this article were Times staff writers Carl Ingram, Thomas Omestad and Lanie Jones.