Lungren to Run for Attorney General; Vows to Prosecute Political Corruption

Former Republican Rep. Daniel E. Lungren, promising that he would actively prosecute political corruption, announced Wednesday that he will seek his party’s nomination for attorney general next year.

“The people of California are calling for integrity and they deserve it,” Lungren said in Los Angeles.

With strong ties to Gov. George Deukmejian and other top GOP officials, the 42-year-old Lungren is expected to be the only serious Republican candidate for the job.

He took a special interest in law-and-order matters in Congress, where he was instrumental in the passage of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, which revised federal criminal statutes and empowered the government to seize property and assets from drug dealers.

Lungren, at a press conference in Los Angeles, said he thought drugs and gangs are the public’s major concerns.

But he also sought to tap disgust with corruption among officeholders by emphasizing that he would take a special interest in that subject if elected attorney general.

“I talked to a lot of ordinary people before deciding to do this,” Lungren said, “and they expressed the view that the California attorney general shouldn’t have to get the U.S. attorney and the FBI do the work.”

That was a reference to a federal investigation of corruption in the Legislature, which recently led to the indictment of state Sen. Joseph B. Montoya (D-Whittier) and an aide on charges of racketeering, extortion and money laundering.

Lungren denied that he was criticizing the current attorney general, Democrat John K. Van de Kamp, whose office has been under fire by Republicans for not taking the lead in investigating state legislators. Van de Kamp is now running for governor.

But Lungren’s implication seemed unavoidable as he promised to establish an “integrity unit” that would make investigation of political corruption a top priority.

“Right now it’s not a separate division of the department,” he said.

Lungren represented parts of Long Beach, Torrance and Orange County for 10 years in Congress before resigning last year to try to become state treasurer.

He was nominated for that job by Gov. George Deukmejian after Democrat Jesse M. Unruh died in August, 1987.

But Lungren was rejected by the state Senate in a nasty partisan fight and former state Auditor General Thomas W. Hayes was eventually confirmed as treasurer.

Lungren moved his wife and three children to Roseville, Calif., and went to work for the Sacramento law firm of Diepenbrock, Wulff, Plant & Hannegan.

Chief strategists for his race for attorney general will be former Ronald Reagan speech writer Kenneth L. Khachigian of San Clemente and Lungren’s brother, Brian, a Sacramento political consultant.

Los Angeles Country Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner and San Francisco Dist. Atty. Arlo Smith are seeking the Democratic nomination for attorney general.