ELECTIONS 22ND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT : Bayer Lacks an Issue to Test the Popularity of Moorhead

One sweltering afternoon two weeks ago, Democratic congressional candidate David Bayer and a small band of supporters stood outside a Burbank service station, trying to drum up votes by capitalizing on public anger at rising gasoline prices.

As backers waved placards and shouted slogans, Bayer argued that his opponent, Rep. Carlos Moorhead of Glendale, is partly to blame for escalating prices--and indeed the Persian Gulf crisis--because he has helped block alternative energy schemes in Congress.

“Moorhead is a Fossil, Like the Fuel He Promotes,” read a placard carried by one Bayer supporter. “Moorhead’s Out of Gas--Bayer’s for Alternative Energy,” said another.

Nearby, Burbank resident Gary Montgomery listened to Bayer’s arguments as he gassed up his yellow Mustang. But Montgomery, a machinist, was unconvinced.

“I don’t see how they can blame any one person,” he said. “I think this is all of our fault for not standing up and saying something loud enough.”

Montgomery’s skepticism underscores Bayer’s biggest campaign hurdle: giving voters a good enough reason to dump a popular, 18-year incumbent who takes good care of constituents, in favor of a little-known, poorly financed political neophyte.

Political analysts say Bayer--a onetime Peace Corps volunteer and former Burbank adult education director--hasn’t come up with such a knockout issue. And they give him virtually no chance of ousting Moorhead in the heavily Republican 22nd Congressional District, which covers portions of Burbank, all of Glendale, parts of the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys and a large chunk of the San Gabriel Valley.

Known as a quiet but hard-working legislative craftsman with an interest in copyright protection and other intellectual property issues, Moorhead, 68, is a staunch conservative who collects frequent awards from taxpayer and small-business groups.

An Army infantry instructor in World War II, he later represented Glendale in the state Assembly for six years. Moorhead first went to Washington in 1972, where he was soon thrust into the limelight as one of President Richard Nixon’s few defenders on the House Judiciary Committee as it considered impeachment proceedings during Watergate.

Moorhead has accumulated a formidable campaign war chest, although there is little chance he’ll need it anytime soon in the 22nd District, where Republicans outnumber Democrats 165,000 to 105,000. According to a recent campaign spending report, Moorhead has a whopping $776,000 in cash on hand.

In contrast, the liberal Bayer has raised just $22,000 this year, including $8,500 he personally loaned his campaign.

“Bayer’s got a real tough hill to climb. He’s fighting numbers, he’s fighting incumbency and, as far as I can tell, there’s no real burning issue that’s going to bring out voters and shake Moorhead out of that seat,” said a Democratic observer who asked to remain anonymous.

Despite the long odds, Bayer, who has two advanced degrees, is running an energetic, grass-roots campaign that is targeting, among others, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech in Pasadena.

Bayer, 48, said he has no illusions about his chances of winning, but views his campaign as a chance to advance his ideas about alternative energy, abortion rights and a national health program.

An intense man whose accent still carries a hint of his Long Island, N.Y., upbringing, Bayer quotes statistics and government reports with gusto, and his campaign has a somewhat intellectual tone. He issues reams of position papers on subjects ranging from nationalized health care to space exploration.

His unpaid campaign manager is a molecular biologist at a Pasadena biotechnology firm and his research director, another volunteer, is a Jet Propulsion Laboratory astronomer. Bayer recently sent a mailer to 700 employees at JPL and Caltech asking for campaign donations. At a Bayer fund-raiser last month, the featured speaker was Paul MacCready, inventor of the famed Gossamer Condor human-powered airplane and the Sunraycer solar-powered car.

Like many other candidates running against conservatives this year, Bayer has sought to make an issue of Moorhead’s opposition to abortion rights.

He charged that Moorhead voted against a pair of bills last year involving federal funding for abortions. One would have made federal money available for abortions for women who became pregnant as a result of rape or incest.

Bayer also pointed out that Moorhead co-sponsored a bill last year that would have imposed a nationwide ban on abortions.

Bayer, who supports abortion rights, said that when he shows campaign literature detailing Moorhead’s abortion record, voters “look in disbelief, they do a double-take. They say, ‘We didn’t know he was quite that extreme.’ ”

Moorhead said that although he generally opposes abortion, he favors federal funding for abortions for poor women in cases of rape, incest and to save a mother’s life. However, he voted against Medicaid funding for abortions in cases of rape and incest because there was no requirement that the crimes be reported to police before government funding was approved.

Without that requirement, “virtually anyone who wanted an abortion could come in and say they’d been raped and get the money,” Moorhead said.

Moorhead said he co-sponsored the unsuccessful abortion ban because he believes the rights of unborn children are equal to those of the mother and others who may want an abortion to be performed.

Much of Moorhead’s work in Congress relates to his seats on the House Judiciary Committee and Energy and Commerce Committee. He also has been involved in a group appointed by U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist that came up with more than 100 recommendations for streamlining the federal court system.

The congressman has been particularly active in legislation designed to protect copyrights and patents held by U.S. motion picture companies, record makers and computer software firms. He said the measures have helped prevent foreign firms from making cheap copies of American products and flooding domestic markets with them.

A former Peace Corps volunteer in Peru, Bayer spent several years teaching at the National Agricultural University in Lima. He also published a book critiquing Peruvian land-reform efforts and served as a UC Extension farm adviser in Northern California.

Bayer resigned as head of adult education for the Burbank school district in March after he was demoted to teacher by the Board of Education. Bayer charged that the action was politically motivated because board members disagreed with his stands on abortion and other issues.

He said three of the five board members are Republicans and one has close ties to Moorhead, but he stopped short of accusing Moorhead of any involvement in the demotion. Bayer later sued the school district and lost. Board of Education Chairman Charles Goldwasser did not return phone calls from a Times reporter.

Bayer said Moorhead has used his positions on two energy-related subcommittees to “work hand-in-glove with the previous and current Republican administrations to effectively destroy alternative energy development.”

In the past 10 years, he said, funding for renewable energy research has been slashed by 90%, resulting in continued U.S. reliance on imported oil, escalating gas prices and the Persian Gulf crisis.

Moorhead has an overall 14% rating on energy issues from the League of Conservation Voters, the second lowest score among area congressional representatives, Bayer said. He charged that Moorhead has failed to promote renewable energy because he is a captive of oil companies, utilities and nuclear-power interests which have donated tens of thousands of dollars to his reelection over the years.

Moorhead countered that he has sponsored several bills promoting alternative energy technologies during the past congressional session. He cited his co-sponsorship of one bill requiring utilities to purchase power from geothermal, solar and wind-energy plants.

The congressman denied he was a captive of special interests, saying he tells campaign donors that “they get nothing for a contribution but my hard work in trying to help our country and my constituents.”

Bayer also criticized Moorhead for not supporting a national health program. Bayer said the U.S. health care system could be nationalized without raising taxes.