Democrats’ United Anti-Rohrabacher Campaign Unravels : Politics: Spirit of cooperation ends at Democratic convention as two candidates turn sights away from Republican incumbent and toward each other in bid for endorsement.

Last fall, Democratic organizers in the South Bay hit on an idea: Why not get several Democrats to compete amicably for the 42nd Congressional District seat?

Not only could the candidates take collective aim at Republican Dana Rohrabacher, the ultraconservative incumbent, they could also boost Democratic visibility in the GOP-dominated district.

Three Democrats, in fact, did qualify to run in the June 5 primary, launching their campaigns in a spirit of cooperation. But the bonhomie ended at last weekend’s state Democratic convention, where two of them--Torrance publisher Jim Cavuoto and political science instructor Guy Kimbrough of Huntington Beach--found themselves fighting mano-a-mano for their party’s endorsement.

Cavuoto, making his first run for public office, surprised Kimbrough, who was the Democratic standard-bearer in 1988, by taking 62% of the votes cast in a caucus of 42nd District delegates--just enough to capture the endorsement.

Kimbrough, charging that one of the votes was invalid, has filed a protest with party authorities. He also has started drawing attention to Cavuoto’s opposition to the death penalty, which Kimbrough supports under certain conditions.

The honeymoon, it appears, is over.

“It hasn’t gone exactly 100% to plan,” Cavuoto said this week. “Do we deserve a kick in the pants for that? Probably. But it isn’t too late for us to go out and put the focus of the attack on Dana Rohrabacher.”

Kimbrough, however, seems to have his sights trained on Cavuoto.

‘Certainly, this has sharpened (our) differences,” he said Thursday. “Those differences are significant and, unfortunately, are going to have to be addressed.”

The architect of the Democrats’ multi-candidate strategy was Palos Verdes Democratic Club President Ruth McGrew--the delegate, ironically, who cast the caucus vote disputed by Kimbrough.

If the candidates could avoid attacking each other, the reasoning went, they could highlight their party’s differences with Rohrabacher--focusing, for instance, on his support for offshore oil drilling and for a ban on abortions.

Kimbrough, whom Rohrabacher beat by a 2-1 margin in the 1988 general election, expressed support for the idea--faced as he is with a 23-mile-long congressional district that stretches from Torrance to Huntington Beach.

“It’s best to spread the Democratic message throughout the 42nd District, and a good way to do that is to have a lot of candidates out and about,” he said at the time.

Two Democrats besides Kimbrough qualified for the race--Cavuoto, who publishes a computer industry newsletter, and Rolling Hills Estates resident Bryan Stevens, a past president of the California Teachers Assn.

Stevens did not attend last weekend’s Democratic state convention in Los Angeles. But Cavuoto did, and he pulled off a surprising victory in the caucus Saturday evening.

The tally was 23 votes, or 62%, for Cavuoto, 13 votes, or 35%, for Kimbrough and 1 vote for no endorsement. If just one of Cavuoto’s votes had been cast for Kimbrough or for no endorsement, his share would have slipped below the 60% threshold needed for the party’s endorsement.

Andrew Kincaid, a loan officer from Long Beach who chaired the caucus meeting, said Cavuoto’s victory was the result of old-fashioned convention floor work.

“Cavuoto did an excellent job of organizing,” said Kincaid, who voted for Kimbrough. “He and his people not only made all the phone calls, they sought people out. He worked the delegation.”

Kimbrough’s protest hinges on his contention that McGrew, the last delegate to vote Saturday, announced she was voting for no endorsement but changed her vote improperly under pressure from Cavuoto supporters.

McGrew acknowledges she changed her voting sheet, but says she did not violate party rules. She says she had agreed to cast her ballot for Cavuoto if it turned out to be decisive in the outcome, but that otherwise she would vote for no endorsement to avoid taking sides.

McGrew said she scribbled no endorsement on her voting sheet, thinking that Cavuoto was assured of a 60% share of the vote. When a delegate informed her that Cavuoto needed one more vote, she says, she wrote in Cavuoto’s name.

Though the Democratic Party has yet to rule on the matter, it appears unlikely Kimbrough’s protest will be upheld. Kincaid, who ran the caucus proceedings, said the key is whether McGrew turned in her voting sheet before changing it. According to Kincaid, she did not.

“I know of nothing in the rules that was violated by what went on. . . . I think the endorsement will stand up,” he said.

After the convention fight, Kimbrough said he plans to emphasize his differences with Cavuoto on the death penalty, which he says is the main issue dividing them.

Kimbrough, who supports capital punishment when the crime is particularly heinous or violent or when a police officer is the victim, says Cavuoto’s opposition to the death penalty is what won him the Democratic endorsement.

But he predicts the issue will backfire on Cavuoto, pointing to a recent Los Angeles Times poll showing that whereas Democratic convention delegates opposed the death penalty 3 to 2, Democratic voters in general support it 3 to 1.

“I’m just as liberal (as Cavuoto) on almost all the issues: on the environment, on abortion,” Kimbrough said. “I think it all comes down to the death penalty.”

Cavuoto, who says he opposes the death penalty for “moral reasons, economic reasons and human rights reasons,” says he doubts his position on capital punishment will hurt him in the primary.

“I don’t believe the Democratic Party is a single-issue party,” Cavuoto said. He predicted the party endorsement will have far more influence: “In congressional and (state) legislative races, voters may not know anything about the candidates except which one has the (party) endorsement.”

McGrew says she still holds out hope that Cavuoto and Kimbrough can put their differences behind them and focus on Rohrabacher. She notes it was Kimbrough who insisted on holding an endorsement vote for 42nd District candidates--a point Kimbrough acknowledges.

“Poor Guy,” she said. “He was so sure he would get the endorsement. He just has to accept that he wasn’t as popular as he thought.”