Georgiou Angers Fellow Democrats by Switching to Congressional Race

Switching his political horizon from Sacramento to Washington, Democratic lawyer Byron Georgiou announced Thursday that he will drop out of a special state legislative race to run for Congress against Democratic incumbent Jim Bates.

Georgiou, who has been campaigning since last December for state Sen. Lucy Killea’s former 78th Assembly District seat, told a news conference at his downtown law office that he intends to run instead for Bates’ 44th Congressional District post.

Georgiou’s eleventh-hour political shift, which came the day before the filing deadline for the June 5 primary, aroused both bewilderment and anger within Democratic circles, as well as introduced confusion into both the race that he left and the one that he entered.

Baffled why Georgiou would switch to what is widely seen as a more difficult campaign, many Democrats were also infuriated over the prospect of a fellow Democrat challenging the party’s only incumbent congressman in the county.

“I think Byron may be burning some bridges,” said Irma Munoz, chairman of the San Diego County Democratic Party. “Any time you challenge your own party’s incumbent, there are consequences.”

Already, several of Georgiou’s top campaign aides have resigned as a result of his decision, and at least one group that had endorsed his Assembly candidacy--the Chicano Democratic Assn.--angrily withdrew its backing Thursday.

Georgiou, however, portrayed his decision to challenge Bates as a favor to the Democratic Party, not an act of disloyalty that could jeopardize the party’s hold on the seat.

Bates’ effectiveness, Georgiou charged, has been “drastically reduced” since the House Ethics Committee last year rebuked him for sexually harassing two female aides and for improperly using his congressional staff for political activity. That controversy has left Bates “very vulnerable to a well-financed Republican campaign,” Georgiou said, arguing that the Democrats’ chance of retaining the seat in November will be better if the four-term incumbent is not the party’s nominee.

“I take no pleasure running against a Democratic incumbent,” said Georgiou, a longtime party activist and former legal adviser to then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. “However, I care more about the people of this district than I do about political convention, which says blind partisan loyalty should come first. . . I also want to stop the Republican National Committee from targeting and winning this seat.”

In recent weeks, Georgiou privately sought to persuade Bates not to seek reelection, a decision that Georgiou said Thursday he believes Bates is still “seriously considering.” Bates, however, dismissed Georgiou’s suggestion that he is reevaluating his candidacy as “hopeless wishful thinking.”

“He is so crazy,” said Bates, who filed his candidacy papers this week. “When I talked to him, I never said I’d even consider not running. What I told him was, ‘The only way you’re going to get me out is to beat me.’ And I don’t think he can do that.”

Perhaps the major question posed by Georgiou’s decision is: Why does a candidate who apparently felt he could not win an open Assembly seat believe he can defeat an incumbent congressman?

Two years ago, Bates was reelected by a more than 3-to-2 margin in a campaign in which the sexual harassment allegations were the central issue, drawing saturation news coverage in the race’s closing weeks. Expressing the consensus view among local Democrats, party leader Munoz describes the harassment charges as “an old story” likely to have less impact this year than they did in 1988.

Georgiou, however, argued that voters in 1988 gave Bates “the benefit of the doubt” because the charges then were simply unconfirmed allegations. That is no longer the case, Georgiou stressed, in light of the House ethics panel’s sanction against Bates. Although the committee last October imposed the lightest punishment possible for violation of House standards, Georgiou contends that the issue will be a greater political liability for Bates this year.

Though Georgiou pledged not to “dwell on the limitations of the incumbent,” his very candidacy clearly focuses added attention on the controversy--a major factor in party leaders’ ire toward his challenge. One party official, who asked not to be identified, said that when Georgiou sought to elicit support in Sacramento and Washington for a congressional campaign, the blunt message he received from Democratic leaders was, “If you do this, you do it on your own.”

As a result of Georgiou’s challenge, Bates said that he anticipates having to spend time, money and resources in the primary that he would have preferred to reserve for his Republican opponent in November. Four Republicans--retired Navy commander Randall (Duke) Cunningham; Joseph Ghougassian, a former U.S. ambassador to Qatar; government consultant Jim Lantry, and construction consultant Eric Epifano--plan to seek the GOP nomination.

“This makes us run a little harder a little quicker,” Bates said. “But I’m going to approach this in a positive way. Maybe this will allow me to clean the air on all those charges in the primary and to gear up our precinct organization. I’m going to use this as an opportunity to become stronger.”

At his news conference, Georgiou said that he had been encouraged by many Democrats to enter the congressional primary, but, when pressed, provided no names of any elected or party officials who support his candidacy. Such endorsements will be forthcoming, he claimed, in the next several weeks.

“I’d be very interested to see those names, because everyone I’ve talked to is upset that Byron is doing this,” Democratic Chairman Munoz said. “I definitely don’t support what he’s doing and neither does anyone else I know of.”

Georgiou’s withdrawal from the Assembly race, which comes too late for his name to be removed from the 78th District ballot, reduced to eight the number of candidates seeking the seat vacated by Killea’s upset victory in a special state Senate election last December.

While campaign strategists began pondering how Georgiou’s support might be split among the remaining contenders in the special April 10 race, several candidates--predictably--rushed to interpret his withdrawal as a boon to their chances in the 78th District.

“It’s going to make it easier to define the issues and harder for (former San Diego City Councilman) Mike Gotch to avoid close scrutiny of his record,” said Tom Shepard, the campaign consultant to Democratic lawyer Howard Wayne. “In that sense, it’s a plus for us.”

Gotch, meanwhile, said Georgiou’s decision “doesn’t really alter our strategy,” but added that his departure “means there’s one less person dividing up the vote.” Even so, Gotch said he still doubts that any candidate will surpass the 50% margin in the April primary needed to avoid a June runoff.