CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS ATTORNEY GENERAL : Group Re-Forms to Battle Lungren Candidacy

A coalition of ethnic, environmental, labor and women’s groups that opposed Republican Dan Lungren’s unsuccessful 1988 appointment as state treasurer announced Tuesday it is re-forming to fight Lungren’s candidacy for state attorney general.

At a San Francisco press conference, leaders of the umbrella group called Californians for Responsible Government said they would seek to publicize the former five-term congressman’s voting record while in Washington, a record they labeled “insensitive” and “extreme.” They also announced their endorsement of Lungren’s Democratic rival, San Francisco Dist. Atty. Arlo Smith.

“The attorney general has wide ranging responsibilities--from protecting state lands and resources to defending the rights of people against discrimination to monitoring consumer and business fraud,” said San Francisco attorney Donald K. Tamaki, the coalition’s spokesman. “Lungren’s voting record reveals a politician whose views are diametrically opposed to the types of programs he is expected to administer.”

Leaders of state groups including the National Organization for Women (NOW), the League of Conservation Voters, the Latino Issues Forum and the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans spoke at the morning press conference. Several of the organizations, including NOW’s political action committee, had previously endorsed Smith.

Smith, who also attended the press conference, said he was gratified by the support, particularly since the coalition was initially formed long before his candidacy began.

A spokesman for Lungren called the group “a political lap dog of Smith.”

“We’re not concerned about their effect given that their numbers are probably less than one voting precinct in California,” said Lungren spokesman Dave Puglia.

The coalition was originally formed in late 1987 to fight Gov. George Deukmejian’s appointment of Lungren to replace the late Democratic Treasurer Jesse M. Unruh. Before the state Senate voted to reject Lungren’s appointment, leaders of the organizations comprising the group testified against Lungren at a series of legislative hearings.

Then and now, they criticized his congressional votes against such measures as federal clean air, clean water and toxic chemical cleanup acts, his co-sponsorship of a constitutional amendment to prohibit most abortions, and his opposition to reparations for Japanese-Americans interned during World War II.

Lungren, saying he voted for less costly antipollution measures, has defended his environmental votes as being fiscally prudent. While he fought vigorously in Congress against the $20,000-per-survivor reparations, Lungren did eventually vote in favor of legislation that included both an apology and reparations to Japanese-Americans, Puglia said.