Lewis Is Out, Packard Is In in GOP Vote

A conservative cadre rallied by Orange County lawmakers won a hotly contested leadership race within California’s GOP congressional delegation Monday by installing one of its own, Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), and other allies in influential posts.

Led by Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), the California conservatives ousted Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) from his only state delegation post hours after Lewis won reelection as head of the House Republican party caucus.

The vote was reportedly 11 to 8 to replace Lewis with Packard as California’s representative to the Republican Committee on Committees, a powerful body that assigns GOP lawmakers to congressional panels. All five Orange County congressmen supported Packard.

“I’m going to work my heart out for them,” Packard said of his fellow Californians. “I don’t have any outside agenda. I don’t have any ulterior motives to be on the Committee on Committees.” Packard represents southern Orange County and northern San Diego County.

Lewis had been criticized by some for what they said was a willingness to use his power over committee assignments to further his aspirations to party leadership positions.

The vote was said to have stunned Lewis, who campaigned hard for the committee assignment post up until minutes before the 19 California Republicans began casting their ballots.

Referring to Lewis and his chief allies, Reps. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego) and William M. Thomas (R-Bakersfield), one Orange County lawmaker said: “It just didn’t occur to them that the slaves would rise up. They have always thought of us as the Three Stooges.”

However, in an interview after the vote, Lewis said: “I have other things to do. . . . I did not make an impassioned plea.”

Several lawmakers said that Packard’s victory appears to have strengthened the hand of the Orange County congressional delegation. Not only can Packard be expected to give special attention to their requests for committee assignments, the sources said, but their ability to put together a coalition powerful enough to remove a party leader from his delegation post also will not be forgotten by their colleagues.

The conservatives who ousted Lewis, who held the committee assignment post for eight years, argued that he and Thomas for too long had dominated key leadership jobs within the delegation. In voice votes, the Republican congressmen also replaced Thomas as their representative to the National Republican Congressional Committee and as liaison to the state Republican party.

The votes, Dannemeyer said, represent “a recognition that these jobs with real responsibility need to be passed around occasionally. . . . It was time for a change, and that’s what we made.”

Earlier in the day, conservatives led by House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) failed by a vote of 98-64 to remove Lewis as chairman of the party caucus, formally known as the House Republican Conference. Lewis became a conservative target after he angered fellow Republicans this fall by endorsing the White House-backed budget plan that included tax increases.

Dannemeyer and Reps. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach) opposed Lewis in the party caucus race. However, Packard and Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) supported him.

Packard and Cox contended that Lewis, despite the budget vote, was more conservative than his opponent, Rep. Carl D. Pursell (D-Mich.). In addition, Packard and Cox said it would be foolish to replace a Californian heading the party caucus with a representative from another state.

After his defeat of Pursell, Lewis lashed out at Gingrich and others in the House Republican leadership who had sought to bring him down.

“The election . . . was somewhat of a disaster, not for Carl Pursell, but rather for those within the leadership who have chosen to actively work against my candidacy,” Lewis said. “Their purpose was not to help Carl Pursell but to dump Jerry Lewis.”