Congressional Hopefuls Out of the Gate as Lungren Exits

The race in the 42nd District shapes up as one of the liveliest congressional contests in the state now that Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach) has counted himself out of the running.

The most prominent Republican candidates in the predominantly GOP district are Harriett M. Wieder, 67, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors; Dana Rohrabacher, 40, of Palos Verdes Peninsula, a speech writer for President Reagan, and Stephen Horn, 56, outgoing president of Cal State Long Beach.

Also expected to file as candidates by Friday’s deadline are three other Republicans: Andrew Littlefair, 27, a former advance man for President Reagan and former assistant to Texas oilman and corporate takeover specialist T. Boone Pickens; Robert Welbourn, 50, a lawyer and former Palos Verdes Estates councilman, and Donald G. Davis, 43, of Palos Verdes Estates, also a lawyer.

One Democrat, Guy Kimbrough, 42, of Huntington Beach, a college teacher, has said he will enter the race.

Wants State Treasurer’s Post

Lungren said last week he will not run for reelection but will concentrate instead on his effort to take office as state treasurer.

Gov. George Deukmejian appointed Lungren to the treasurer’s post to fill the late Jesse Unruh’s unexpired term. But the appointment was rejected by the state Senate and approved by the Assembly, setting the stage for an expected court battle over whether confirmation requires the approval of both houses of the Legislature.

Lungren’s withdrawal from the congressional race moves the candidates’ campaigns out of limbo and into full gear.

There is little time to waste, with only three months remaining before the June 7 primary. The solidly GOP district, where Republicans outnumber Democrats by a 52% to 37% margin, traditionally sends a Republican to Congress, so the primary election is where all attention is focused.

Wieder, who had scheduled a major $500-per-person fund-raiser for Thursday, said ticket sales picked up after Lungren’s announcement. She is hoping to raise about $100,000 at the event.

Wieder Was Ready to Go

“I was treading water, trying not to get upset about it, and what would be, would be,” said Wieder, who, like the other Republicans, had said she would support Lungren if he had decided to seek reelection. Nevertheless, Wieder was the candidate most ready to go once Lungren said he was out.

“Harriett has been working 23 hours a day for the last couple of months,” said political consultant Eileen Padberg, one of Wieder’s advisers for the campaign. “I think she has a huge leg up on contacts and things she’s done and the base she’s laid.”

Still, no one is counting out Rohrabacher or Horn in the diverse district, which straddles Orange and Los Angeles counties and includes Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Cypress, Huntington Beach, part of Westminster, Long Beach, Torrance and the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Rohrabacher’s political consultant, Alan Hoffenblum, said Rohrabacher’s campaign theme will be that he is a “proven Reagan Republican.” Rohrabacher was South Bay youth chairman for Reagan’s 1966 gubernatorial campaign and was a volunteer for Reagan’s 1976 presidential effort and his successful 1980 campaign.

Rohrabacher, a native of Palos Verdes, has been on the White House staff since 1981. He is leaving Washington to return to the district at the end of this week.

According to Hoffenblum, Rohrabacher has endorsements from prominent conservatives including economist Milton Friedman, former U. N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and author and columnist William F. Buckley Jr.

Hoffenblum hinted that Rohrabacher may try to make Wieder’s age a factor in the campaign. He pointed out that his candidate “has the youth and vigor required to be an outstanding candidate.”

“I don’t think anyone who knows me can challenge my vigor,” Wieder responded. Then, showing that she knows how to play the political game as well, she said of Rohrabacher: “The problem with Dana--he seems like a nice kid--is that he’s been away (from the district) for so long . . . he’s almost a carpetbagger.”

Horn a Lame Duck

Horn, the lame-duck president of Cal State Long Beach, recently ended a two-month standoff with California State University Chancellor W. Ann Reynolds by taking a leave of absence pending his July 1 departure from his post.

Horn had been severely criticized in a performance review in the wake of a series of problems on the Long Beach campus beginning with an unexpected budget deficit of more than $1 million in 1986 that required a $900,000 bail-out loan from the chancellor’s office.

Asked how he would deal with this during the campaign, Horn replied: “I can hardly wait until they ask me that question.” But he refused to give a clue as to his answer. “I want to save that one for a broad audience,” he said.

Before becoming president of Cal State Long Beach in 1970, Horn was an administrative assistant to Labor Secretary James P. Mitchell under President Dwight D. Eisenhower and later was a legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. Thomas Kuchel, a Republican from Anaheim.

Hires Consulting Firm

Horn has hired a veteran GOP political consulting firm, the Dolphin Group, headed by Bill Roberts, to run his campaign.

The other candidates:

- Davis, a graduate of USC Law School, specializes in corporate and securities law at his own firm, Davis & Associates. Although he has never held elective office, Davis said he has long been interested in running for Congress. He described himself as “a middle-of-the-road Republican.”

- Welbourn, a former mayor and councilman from Palos Verdes Estates, said he has hired political consultant George St. Johns for his campaign. In the wake of Lungren’s decision not to run, he said, “it’s a matter of starting to just slug it out and get moving.”

- Littlefair recently resigned his post with Pickens and returned home to Torrance from Amarillo, Tex. He said he now is developing his platform. “We’re going to wage a very vigorous campaign,” he said. Political consultant Mike Nason of Orange County is handling Littlefair’s campaign.

- Kimbrough, who described himself as “what they used to call a Scoop Jackson/JFK Democrat,” was an administrative aide in the cities of Huntington Beach, Garden Grove and Manhattan Beach before turning to teaching in 1977. He is a political science and history instructor at Mt. San Jacinto College in San Jacinto, Riverside County. He said his major concern is the growing numbers of homeless, particularly homeless families.