ORANGE COUNTY ELECTIONS : Wieder Leads Dozen Contenders for Lungren’s Seat

Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder, on the heels of a fund-raiser Thursday night that netted her about $150,000, filed Friday for the Republican primary in the 42nd Congressional District.

Wieder, 67, is the automatic front-runner in the race for the seat being vacated by Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach), who is Gov. George Deukmejian’s choice to succeed the late Jesse M. Unruh as state treasurer.

But she is expected to get tough opposition in the primary from Dana Rohrabacher, 40, of Palos Verdes Peninsula, a speech writer for President Reagan, and Cal State Long Beach President Stephen Horn, 56.

‘Off and Running’

“The starting bell has just rung, and we’re off and running,” Rohrabacher said Friday after returning his candidacy papers. All candidates for legislative, judicial and congressional districts were required to meet the 5 p.m. Friday deadline to be on the June 7 primary ballot.

Also filing in the 42nd District were five other Republicans:

Andrew Littlefair, 27, a former advance man for President Reagan and former assistant to Texas oilman and corporate takeover expert T. Boone Pickens; former Palos Verdes Estates Councilman Robert Welbourn, 50, a lawyer; Donald G. Davis, 43, of Palos Verdes Estates, also a lawyer; Tom Bauer, a Torrance aerospace engineer, and Jeffrey R. Burns, a Huntington Beach carpenter.

Democrats vying for their party’s nomination are Guy Kimbrough, 42, of Huntington Beach, a college teacher; Ada Unruh of Torrance, the late state treasurer’s daughter-in-law, and writer Dan Farrell of Huntington Beach. The lone Peace and Freedom candidate is Richard D. Rose of Long Beach, a community services consultant.

Lungren’s Appointment

After an initial flush of excitement over the prospect of the seat opening up after Lungren’s appointment as state treasurer, all of the fledgling campaigns foundered as his nomination bogged down in the Legislature and, finally, was rejected in the state Senate. Lungren was expected to file for reelection to preserve his options, pending a legal battle. But last week, to the relief of the prospective candidates, Lungren decided not to run.

The district, in which Republicans outnumber Democrats 52% to 37%, traditionally elects a Republican. Straddling Orange and Los Angeles counties, it includes Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Cypress, parts of Huntington Beach and Westminster, Long Beach, Torrance and the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Both Horn and Rohrabacher say Wieder is the one to beat in the race because she is well-known in the Orange County part of the district, which has 45% of its registered voters.

To counteract Wieder’s head start in the race, Rohrabacher is staking his claim to the more conservative wing of the Republican Party. He has endorsements from several prominent conservatives, including economist Milton Friedman and columnist William F. Buckley Jr., as well as national conservative organizations.

Away in Washington

But though he grew up in the area, he has not lived in the district since he went to Washington seven years ago. Wieder already has referred to him as “almost a carpetbagger.”

“I have been away in Washington, I make no beans about it,” Rohrabacher said. “I’ve been away fighting the good fight for the cause I think the constituents believe in.”

Horn is emphasizing his experience in working with Congress as a university president and, in the 1960s, as an assistant to former Sen. Thomas H. Kuchel (R-Calif.) and Eisenhower’s secretary of labor, James P. Mitchell.

But he will be spending part of his time on the campaign trail explaining the fiscal problems at Cal State Long Beach that led to his being given a choice by university trustees to either resign or be fired. He was due to leave July 1 but took a leave of absence to run for Congress.

Revenue Gap

Horn said Friday that, when he discovered the $898,000 gap in student revenues, his choice was to fire 400 student assistants who depended on their wages for school expenses or borrow the money from reserves. Describing himself as “pro-student,” he said he decided to tap the reserves. The money was repaid the following year, he said.

Interestingly, both Horn and Rohrabacher see the race as a two-person contest: each of them against Wieder.

At her fund-raiser Thursday at the Old Ranch Country Club in Seal Beach, she said she supports constitutional amendments requiring Congress to balance the budget and giving the President line-item veto powers on federal budgets.

“If you think as a woman I can’t do it, try me and trust me,” Wieder said.