Republican Pro-Choice Candidate Wins Seat in 76th Assembly District

Tricia Hunter, a Republican who bucked party leaders by taking a pro-choice stand on abortion, Tuesday won a special state Assembly contest.

Hunter, a 37-year-old cardiac nurse from Bonita, was followed by GOP write-in candidate Dick Lyles, who campaigned against abortion rights. Trailing far behind were Democrat Jeannine Correia, also a pro-choice candidate, and a second anti-abortion candidate, Republican Kirby Bowser.

The election fills the unexpired term of the late Bill Bradley (R-San Marcos) in the 76th District, which includes parts of San Diego and Riverside counties.

The campaign’s framework was constructed over the summer when the U.S. Supreme Court gave states new authority to restrict abortions. With Hunter’s pro-choice position setting up a showdown between her and five anti-abortion Republicans, the otherwise obscure race attracted nationwide attention as one of the first tests of the political fallout from the court’s July decision.

Hunter won the August primary with a scant 197-vote margin over Lyles, setting up a runoff with Democrat Correia. Lyles, a 42-year-old Poway businessman, immediately launched a write-in campaign.

With Republicans holding a 55%-32% registration edge, victory in the GOP primary historically is tantamount to election in the district.

But Lyles’ decision to continue his campaign created at least some uncertainty about the outcome, raising concern among Republican leaders who feared that his write-in candidacy could split the GOP vote.

Throughout the runoff, the campaign reflected an inherent irony: Hunter, who owed her very presence to the abortion issue’s ascendancy in the primary, consistently sought to minimize its significance, terming it “only one of many issues--and not even one of the top ones--people are concerned about.” Meanwhile, Lyles, who was victimized by the issue in August, fought to maintain its pre-eminence in the runoff.

“In the time it takes you to vote, four babies will die from abortion,” warned a Lyles brochure that was distributed over the weekend.

A Hunter campaign mailer described Lyles as “the choice of the gun lobby, anti-choice extremists and the Sacramento Cavemen,” with the last phrase referring to arch conservatives in the Republican Assembly caucus.

Correia, meanwhile, acknowledged that her admittedly slim chances hinged on a divided GOP vote. A 46-year-old instructor of the developmentally disabled from Poway, she often reminded audiences that, while she concurred with Hunter on the pivotal abortion issue, the two differed on a wide range of social and economic subjects.

Bowser, a 29-year-old Lakeside accountant, appeared from the outset to be little more than a political footnote in the contest.