Wieder Admits Claim to College Degree Was False

Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder, under attack in the increasingly bitter campaign in the 42nd Congressional District, admitted Tuesday that she never graduated from college as some of her biographies have claimed.

Wieder said the error first was written by someone else into a biography 25 years ago, when she worked for former Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty.

“I never would have thought of it, but it looked good and it was wishful thinking,” said Wieder, who added that she was “ashamed” that she never was able to go to college because of family finances. Wieder said that for many years she let the error pass. “And that was wrong,” she said Tuesday.

The issue over her college credits was raised by Dana Rohrabacher, one of Wieder’s three major GOP opponents in the overwhelmingly Republican 42nd District, which straddles Orange and Los Angeles counties. Rohrabacher said his campaign staff was doing a “routine check” of Wieder’s record when the falsification was found.

“Obviously, the voters will have to determine whether that affects her credibility,” Rohrabacher said.

Wieder, the front-runner in the campaign to succeed Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach), also was attacked Tuesday by another candidate who claimed that Wieder illegally transferred $40,000 from her supervisor’s campaign fund to her congressional war chest. Wieder denied the accusation.

Regarding Rohrabacher’s charge, Wieder explained that when she was interviewed by Yorty’s press secretary in 1963, she mentioned that she met her husband, Irv, at Wayne State University in Detroit. She also told him that she had wanted to be a journalist and had worked on the high school paper, she said.

When the biography from the mayor’s office came out, it erroneously stated that she had earned a journalism degree at Wayne State. “It was a mistake that was perpetuated and compounded and forgotten,” Wieder said. “The longer, longer you allow it, the more it becomes entrenched.”

Wieder said the degree was not included in her current campaign’s literature.

“I did not suggest it be used,” she said. “I did not want to perpetuate it any more.”

However, as recently as a month ago an aide to Wieder at the Board of Supervisors gave a Times reporter information about Wieder that included the Wayne State degree. The aide, Rod Speer, said he had picked it up from an earlier biography.

Wieder said of the incident, “It was a mistake, and I don’t think I deserve to be destroyed by this. I’m running on my (public service) record.” She said she had learned “what everybody would learn from this: You don’t try to be something you’re not, or wish you were.”

Rohrabacher also accused Wieder, 67, of claiming at various times to be younger than she was. Wieder denied this.

“I don’t know what they’re talking about there,” she said. “I’ve never denied my age. I’ve sometimes left it off.” She said it would be “silly” for her to falsify her age since it is so easily checked on her driver’s license.

“Besides which, every 67-year-old should look like me and have the energy I have,” Wieder said. “I’m not ashamed of it.”

Wieder’s campaign attorney, Dana Reed of Costa Mesa, denied allegations that Wieder improperly loaned $40,000 from her supervisorial campaign committee to her congressional campaign last January, saying flatly that there were “no violations” of federal election laws.

The complaint from former Cal State Long Beach President Stephen Horn’s campaign chairman alleges that Wieder violated federal election laws by commingling corporate and individual contributions, then loaning the $40,000 to her congressional campaign.

Federal law prohibits corporate, labor union and bank contributions to candidates in federal elections. The law does allow individuals to donate up to $1,000 and political action committees to contribute as much as $5,000 per election.

In a letter to Federal Election Commission General Counsel Larry Noble, Horn campaign chairman Robert Graham questioned the “ethical, financial and accounting activities” of the Wieder campaign and asked the commission to investigate.

Horn campaign spokesman Fred Karger said the Wieder campaign could remove any doubt about the loan by having the congressional campaign repay the money to her supervisorial campaign.

But Reed said the campaign’s accountant followed the FEC’s guidelines and excluded all corporate, union and bank contributions and those from individuals above the $1,000 federal limit.

“We certainly wanted to make sure it was done properly,” Reed said. “We did it exactly the way the FEC said to do it.”

FEC spokesman Fred Eiland confirmed that the commission received correspondence from the Horn campaign but would not discuss it because of rules on confidentiality.

Eiland said that although the commission makes “every effort to expedite matters” before an election, its procedures make it unlikely that a final decision will be reached on the complaint before the June 7 primary.