Dornan’s Voting Record on Seniors’ Issues Attacked

James Roosevelt, son of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and chairman of the 5-million-member National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, accused Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) of misrepresenting his voting record on seniors’ issues in political brochures mailed to all 143,523 households in the 38th Congressional District this week.

Roosevelt appeared at a press conference in Santa Ana to endorse Dornan’s Democratic opponent, Jerry Yudelson, and claimed that Dornan’s campaign mail is “trumpeting” a 100% rating given him by a political action committee that Roosevelt said is “merely a phony senior organization formed for the purpose of giving cover to elected officials with poor senior records.”

Officials of the Virgina-based PAC, the National Alliance of Senior Citizens, could not be reached for comment. But their published score card on congressional votes included many issues not related to Medicare and Social Security, such as Dornan’s positions favoring U.S. aid to the Contras and the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Robert Bork. The same PAC gave Rep. Claude Pepper (D-Fla.), a widely acknowledged champion of seniors’ issues, only a 20% approval rating.

Dornan, who was campaigning for Vice President George Bush in upstate New York on Thursday, could not be reached for comment. However, Brian Bennett, Dornan’s chief of staff, charged that Roosevelt’s National Committee for the Preservation of Social Security is a “left-wing” organization that does what Roosevelt has accused the National Alliance of doing--serving as an election vehicle for its favorite candidates while not actually lobbying on behalf of seniors.

Bennett cited newspaper accounts of attacks on Roosevelt and his group by Republicans and Democrats on the floor of the House of Representatives in connection with allegedly misleading fund-raising letters that Roosevelt has sent to millions of Americans each year. The letters allegedly exaggerate the legislative plight of Social Security programs.

Roosevelt said his group has given Dornan only a 25% approval rating this year and a 19% cumulative rating for the last few years.

Roosevelt’s PAC has endorsed 292 House and Senate candidates, of whom 28 are Republicans. Yudelson has received a $500 campaign contribution from the Irvine-based group.