ELECTIONS : 20TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT : ‘Conservative’ Thomas Challenged by Candidate From Farther Right

At one point during last winter’s Republican state convention, a group of well-dressed members of the ultraconservative Young Americans for Freedom booed loudly as a middle-aged congressman from Bakersfield spoke from the convention podium.

The congressman, William M. Thomas, was explaining details of a bill he helped write to make it easier for citizens to register to vote. But the bill has raised the hackles of some Republicans, particularly those on the right, who fear it may damage recent GOP registration gains.

Thomas’ convention speech wasn’t the first time he has offended the right. Though considered generally conservative, Thomas supports abortion rights, an issue that has become a litmus test for many conservative activists.

Now Thomas, running for his seventh term in the sprawling, four-county 20th Congressional District, faces a challenger from the right in Tuesday’s GOP primary election--a Santa Clarita abortion foe and former Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy, Rod Gregory.

It is only the second primary opponent Thomas, 48, has run against since his 1978 election in the sprawling district, which corkscrews across 22,000 square miles of California’s abdomen, from the ranching country of San Luis Obispo County to the desert wastes of Inyo County. It also covers a portion of the Antelope Valley in northern Los Angeles County.

But the district’s political center of gravity is Kern County, where Thomas--who launched his political career from the obscurity of a job teaching American government at a Bakersfield community college--is well-entrenched.

Political observers give Gregory, 33, little chance of upsetting Thomas, considered one of the GOP’s wiliest tacticians. Gregory, who owns a firm that services swimming pools, is making his first run for public office and has raised about $15,000 for the race.

The GOP nominee will face the winner of the Democratic primary in the November general election. But the Republican nominee is likely to prevail in the district, where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by 49% to 41%.

The Democrats on the primary ballot are Lita Reid, a free-lance journalist from Ridgecrest, and Michael A. Thomas, a Grover City businessman. In the 1988 general election, William Thomas trounced Reid by 71% to 27%.

The most interesting political fallout in the race so far is the refusal of two influential Kern County-area Republicans, Assemblyman Phil Wyman and state Sen. Don Rogers, to endorse Thomas.

Thomas criticized the two lawmakers--both of them staunch conservatives he has tangled with--for not backing him in the interest of party unity, angrily charging that Wyman “wimped out” when Thomas asked for his endorsement.

The congressman charged that Gregory is an extremist who is staging a “one-issue contest” centered on abortion. Gregory, who has been arrested twice while protesting outside abortion clinics, helped found a Newhall counseling center that urges pregnant woman not to have abortions.

“He wants to take government and use it to enforce his opinions on others,” Thomas said. “Ironically, I don’t find that very conservative.”

Gregory rejected the notion that he is an extremist, saying Thomas is out of step with the district on the abortion-rights issue.

“The pro-family vote out there is very dissatisfied, and they’re ready to change,” he said.

Gregory attacked Thomas for co-sponsoring the national voter-registration bill with Rep. Al Swift (D-Washington). Under one provision, citizens could re-register when they renewed their driver’s license, prompting wags to dub it the “motor voter” bill.

Gregory charged that the bill, which has passed the House of Representatives, would encourage voter fraud. He said it would also result in three times as many Democrats being signed up as Republicans.

But Thomas said polls show that a majority of unregistered voters “have Republican tendencies,” and making it easier to register will actually add to GOP membership.

Few political observers believe Gregory represents any real threat to Thomas, who has carefully built up his political muscle in the district by actively supporting local candidates.

“There’s not a chance” of Thomas losing, said Los Angeles-based political consultant Tim Carey, a one-time Thomas field representative. “Thomas is a big machine up there.”

A professional political scientist, Thomas is the California GOP congressional delegation’s leading strategist on redistricting and was recently described by a national political journal as “an aggressive political maneuverer.”

In his first term, he managed to land a seat on the House Agriculture Committee, a plum assignment for a lawmaker from farm-rich Kern County. He has since won a seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.