63rd Assembly District Primaries Become Battles of Alliances : Republican: Grisham’s One-Time Ally Bows Out of Race--and Out of the GOP

The struggle for the Republican nomination in the 63rd Assembly District was a short-lived one, over long before the primary date.

Unable to woo the party leadership from its embrace of incumbent Wayne Grisham of Norwalk, challenger Dale Hardeman conceded defeat weeks ago.

“I’m on the ballot, people can vote for me if they wish. I will not be conducting much of a campaign,” Hardeman said last month after Gov. George Deukmejian endorsed Grisham.

A former aide of Grisham’s who had helped manage Grisham’s last campaign, Hardeman unexpectedly entered the primary race last winter, hoping to persuade Republican Party leaders that Grisham possessed too many political liabilities to hold onto his Assembly seat.

“I was playing poker, there’s no question about that,” acknowledged Hardeman, who now says he has become so disenchanted with party politics that he intends to leave the Republican fold altogether after next month’s primary.

He was backed by members of the district’s Republican Central Committee, who were openly critical of Grisham’s Sacramento performance, charging that the two-term incumbent is ineffective and out of touch with his district.

“I guess some of us thought we could change the powers that be,” said Vera Eckles of Artesia, one of seven members of the candidate-recruiting central committee.

They couldn’t. The state party leadership remained staunchly behind Grisham, giving the incumbent a lock on campaign funds. Hardeman spent about $14,000, most of it in the form of services from his printing company. He raised about $2,700 and then stopped trying.

The governor’s endorsement of Grisham “took a very difficult race and turned it into a nearly impossible one,” said Hardeman, a former member of the Cerritos Community College District Board of Trustees who previously worked in state and local campaigns.

Grisham, who said he felt betrayed when Hardeman entered the race last January, has already turned his attention to the general election, in which he faces a vigorous challenge from Democrats eager to recapture the traditionally Democratic district.

“I’m pleased he’s decided not to be active and to be cooperative,” Grisham said of his former aide. “We appreciate it,” he added, saying he still could not understand why Hardeman entered the primary. He dismissed the unkind remarks Hardeman made about him as “just things that people say.”

Among other things, Hardeman accused Grisham of lying when he mailed a letter to Downey constituents claiming credit for a $500,000 state grant for the city’s public swimming pool. In fact, Hardeman said, Grisham unwittingly voted against a bill containing the appropriation.

A two-term assemblyman and former congressman, Grisham stumbled politically last year when he lost to Democrat Cecil Green in a special election to fill the 33rd Senate District seat vacated when Democrat Paul Carpenter left upon winning election to the state Board of Equalization.

Conducted His Own Poll

It was that defeat, coupled with the Central Committee’s complaints about Grisham, that fueled Hardeman’s ambitions to replace his former boss. Citing the results of his own polls, Hardeman told party leaders that the Democratic crossover vote for Grisham had eroded, along with Republican support.

“They just completely discounted it and pulled up (another) survey and said you’re wrong,” Hardeman recalled.

The Republican leadership conducted its own poll after the Senate contest, finding that Grisham continued to enjoy strong support in his district. Reaffirming Sacramento’s support of Grisham, Anne Richards, press secretary for Assembly Republican leader Pat Nolan of Glendale, said last winter that “we were very encouraged by the poll.”

Hardeman said the party Establishment pressured local Republicans not to finance his campaign, and pressured him to forsake his candidacy. In one instance, he said, a Republican assemblyman called his brother and threatened to publicly disclose that Hardeman, who is single, owned property with a married woman. The woman, Hardeman said, is his godmother.

“It went to virtual blackmail,” complained Hardeman, 43, who lives in Downey.

Not Forced Out

Hardeman said he is not being forced out of the party but intends to leave because “I’m just fed up. I’m burned out on it.” He intends to become an independent and says he wants to join statewide efforts to work for campaign spending reforms that would severely restrict both the size and the source of political contributions.

The enormous cost of running a campaign has corrupted the political process, Hardeman charged, arguing that elections are controlled by a handful of party leaders who manage the purse strings on both sides of the aisle.

In the meantime, the Central Committee is facing its own challenge. A pro-Grisham committee slate, including a Grisham aide, is running against the incumbent slate in the June 7 primary election.

“Maybe we’ll have some new names and faces that will be supportive of Republican candidates and the Republican Party,” commented Grisham, who says the current committee does not reflect the district’s mood. He said he did not know who had organized the slate.