Lt. Gov. Hopefuls Trade Attacks at GOP Gathering

They have campaigned for almost a year in the decorum of Republican living rooms and convention halls, but with time running out and little movement in the polls, the two lieutenant governor candidates clearly showed Saturday that “it’s time to take the gloves off.”

In their fifth face-to-face forum, state Sens. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) and John Seymour (R-Anaheim) exchanged accusations and denials Saturday, campaigning before an audience from the conservative Orange County Coordinating Republican Assembly in Costa Mesa.

“My opponent has consistently attacked me,” Seymour charged at the forum. “She has said that I lack integrity, that I lack principles and that I’m a wheeler-dealer. She has suggested that I’m a one-man wrecking crew for the environment.

“Well, so much for Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment,” Seymour said, referring to the former president’s call for Republicans not to bloody themselves in a primary. “I suppose it’s time to take the gloves off.”

After their half-hour forum, Bergeson said Seymour’s behavior was evidence that her campaign is winning.

“He’s desperate,” Bergeson said. “He’s just whipping off stuff he doesn’t know anything about. He’s obviously ticked, and he’s showing that he’s very sensitive.”

Delegates at the county’s Coordinating Republican Assembly also voted Saturday to endorse all of the Republican incumbents holding state or federal office in Orange County. They voted against endorsing Sheriff Brad Gates, however, and instead backed his opponent, retired Fullerton Police Capt. Don Bankhead.

Meanwhile, the Orange County Democratic Party on Saturday decided not to endorse either Assembly candidate in its most hotly contested primary this spring. By a vote of 15 to 6, the county delegates declined to endorse either Tom Umberg or Jerry Yudelson, the two Democrats seeking the nomination to oppose incumbent Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove).

In the lieutenant governor’s race, the battle for the Republican nomination has become an argument over character. When the race began, party officials predicted it would be hard to choose between Seymour and Bergeson because of the similarities in their politics and their supporters.

The candidates are trying to make the choice a bit easier.

Seymour drew the line between them last fall when he announced that he would drop his opposition to abortion and support abortion rights. Bergeson opposes abortion.

Bergeson, in turn, has worked to turn a potential liability into an asset by making her controversial position a demonstration of political guts. At the same time, she has criticized Seymour as a “flip-flopper” willing to make compromises for political advantage.

“Unlike any other candidate running for lieutenant governor, I am pro-life,” Bergeson said. “And I will not change my position even though I have received pressure to do so.”

Seymour also criticized Bergeson for trying to portray herself as a conservative when she has supported the equal rights amendment, opposed Proposition 13 and co-authored a gun-control bill.

Bergeson said all three claims are untrue. She said she has always supported women’s rights but is opposed to putting them in an amendment to the Constitution. And she said she has supported Proposition 13 and had the measure’s author, Howard Jarvis, appear in her earlier campaigns.

Bergeson also attacked incumbent Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, the Democrat who will face the winner of the June 5 Republican primary, calling him “Leo the liberal” and a “flip-flopper” on the death penalty.

Seymour highlighted his record as Republican caucus leader in the state senate where he raised $3 million for other GOP candidates. And he noted his $100,000 contribution to President Bush’s campaign in 1988.