Lyles to Wage Write-In Drive for Assembly Berth in 76th

Declaring himself “ready to climb a political mountain,” Republican businessman Dick Lyles, undeterred by his narrow loss in last week’s special 76th Assembly District primary, announced Tuesday that he plans to launch a write-in campaign in this fall’s runoff.

Conceding that he faces some “very sobering” obstacles--not least of which is opposition from local and state party officials--Lyles said that the more than 1,000 calls and letters of support he received over the past week convinced him that a successful write-in campaign “not only is possible, but very possible.”

Chances Admittedly Slim

“The odds are tough, no doubt about it,” said Lyles, who finished about 200 votes behind fellow Republican Tricia Hunter in the eight-candidate primary. “This is a very big mountain to climb. But we’ve got a bunch of climbers ready to help us reach the top.”

Lyles’ refusal to abide by the primary result, combined with the formidable difficulties that face any write-in candidacy, causes his write-in bid in the Oct. 3 runoff against Hunter and Democrat Jeannine Correia to be alternately viewed as quixotic, vindictive and inspired.

Worried about the prospects of a badly divided Republican vote, some GOP leaders expressed concern Tuesday that Lyles’ write-in candidacy will give at least a glint of hope to Correia, whose chances in the heavily Republican San Diego-Riverside County district normally would be negligible.

Hunter and her supporters, meanwhile, predictably decried, in Hunter’s words, Lyles’ “refusal to accept voters’ decision and his own party’s candidate” in the special race to elect a successor to the late Bill Bradley (R-Escondido).

“This just shows that he’s obsessed with getting elected,” said Irene Agnos, director of government relations for the California Nurses Assn., a group that spent nearly $100,000 in the primary for Hunter, a Bonita nurse.

But others, in particular anti-abortion activists ideologically aligned with Lyles on the volatile issue, applauded his decision to offer an alternative in the runoff to the pro-choice position shared by Hunter and Correia.

‘Very Welcome News’

“This is very welcome news,” said the Rev. Billy Falling, head of the Escondido-based Christian Voters League, a fundamentalist religious and political group.

“Without a successful write-in candidacy by Dick Lyles, a pro-abortion assemblyman . . . not representative of this district would have been guaranteed election. This gives voters a choice.”

Though the primary was widely viewed as a referendum on the U. S. Supreme Court’s recent abortion ruling, Lyles insisted that his write-in decision is not merely an effort to perpetuate the issue’s importance in the runoff.

“The biggest factor in deciding to continue on was all the support I’ve gotten in the last week,” Lyles said. “Many people told me they felt shut out, that there was no one on the ballot who they could cast a sincere vote for. They also said they were offended that outside interest groups might determine the district’s representation.”

Hoping to pattern his admittedly uphill effort after the successful 1982 write-in race of Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), Lyles explained that his focus over the next six weeks will be “a person-to-person education campaign” aimed at simply informing voters how to cast a write-in ballot. On Election Day, Lyles hopes to have 1,000 volunteers at the polls to remind voters.

However, Packard’s stunning write-in victory--only the fourth in congressional history--is clearly the exception. Officials in the San Diego County voter registrar’s office said Tuesday that there has not been a successful state legislative write-in campaign in memory.

‘A Different Kind of Election’

Perhaps the most daunting question facing Lyles--as it does all write-ins--is also the simplest: How can a candidate who could not win when his name was on the ballot hope to succeed when his name does not appear there?

Lyles answers that question by pointing out that the runoff will be “a very different kind of election” than the primary, in which the Republican vote was split among six GOP candidates, plus two others whose names remained on the ballot despite their withdrawal. Also, his preferred interpretation of Hunter’s 31% first-place finish emphasizes that “nearly 70% of the voters voted for someone else.”

“If I didn’t think the support (was) there, I wouldn’t waste my time,” Lyles said. “But my feeling is that, since the primary, my base has solidified and Tricia’s has deteriorated.”

Hunter, however, attributes Lyles’ write-in candidacy to electoral sour grapes and his refusal to accept that he lost a race that he began as the clear front-runner after having spent nearly four years preparing for it.

“He’s putting himself above the voters,” Hunter said. “I still expect to win, but this could cause a lot of pain and division within the party.”

That potential is what most concerns Republican leaders, who are displeased that there is any doubt whatsoever that the party will hold onto a seat in which the GOP has an intimidating 54%-33% registration edge.

Democrat Takes Heart

Emboldened by the Hunter-Lyles split, Correia optimistically argues that Democrats now have reason to regard her campaign as more than just the “usual lost cause.” Predicting that Lyles’ write-in bid will be a boon to her own campaign, Correia added: “If nothing else, this will sure make the next six weeks a lot more interesting.”

Republican leaders, however, view that assessment as wishful thinking.

“I think the district’s so strongly Republican that we don’t have to worry,” said San Diego County Republican Chairman Bettie Kujawa. “But this is a divisive thing,” she said of the write-in campaign. “It creates a problem that normally wouldn’t be there.”

Hoping to minimize any political damage, Kujawa has sent a letter to Republican Central Committee members reminding them that Hunter is the party’s official nominee and that, as such, “we will be assisting in her campaign when requested.” Any party official who works against Hunter could face expulsion from the committee, she added.

Similarly, state Republican Chairman Frank Visco said Tuesday that he intends to “do whatever I can to discourage” support for Lyles’ write-in effort. Though he asked party leaders to investigate the Lyles’ campaign allegations of Democratic involvement in Hunter’s campaign, Visco stressed that he “canceled that directive, since nothing but rumor and innuendo has come forward.”

Backing Might Falter

A cautionary note was also sounded by a spokesman for Assembly Minority Leader Ross Johnson, who in the primary sent out a fund-raising letter on Lyles’ behalf to GOP contributors. In that letter, Johnson, without naming Hunter, implied that she was linked to “liberal special-interest groups and labor unions with close ties” to Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos.

Raising doubts about whether Lyles can expect such backing from the Assembly Republican Caucus in the runoff, Johnson spokesman Anne Richards said Tuesday that “no decision has been made or even discussed” on that point. Within the next week, in fact, Johnson plans to meet with Hunter, Richards said.

Lyles acknowledges he is not counting on “official support” from party officials, but he said he expects the strong support he drew from Republican regulars in the primary to be repeated in the runoff.

“I don’t look upon this in terms of splitting the party or hurting voters,” Lyles said.