Persistence, Ties to Wilson Pay Dividends for Seymour : Politics: Some criticize his shifts on offshore drilling, abortion. Governor-elect says he has independent streak.

Gov.-elect Pete Wilson’s choice of state Sen. John Seymour to succeed him in the U.S. Senate proves that in politics, few things can beat the combination of untamed ambition, a healthy streak of loyalty and a generous portion of persistence.

Seymour has all three, and though he is little known outside an Orange County district that includes Disneyland, the former real estate broker’s drive for higher office, his longstanding ties to Wilson and his knack for never quitting paid dividends Wednesday when he received the state’s choicest political plum.

But some of Seymour’s strengths might turn out to be weaknesses. Critics point to his recent change of positions to favor abortion rights and oppose offshore oil drilling--made as he was preparing to run for statewide office--as evidence that Seymour’s ambition has led him to abandon principles.

“He is a shallow, calculating type of political operative that is willing to switch as the winds change,” said Brian Johnston, director of the National Right to Life Committee’s California office. “Flip-flopping on abortion has done something to his image, when on an issue of principle he was willing to make a move like that. It gives him an image of oiliness.”

In politics, though, perspective is everything. Wilson said Wednesday that he considers Seymour a person of high integrity willing to make tough decisions, even if that means changing his position on a major issue.

“He’s a tough guy who has a strong streak of independence,” Wilson said.

Seymour, 53, is a friendly, blunt-talking self-made millionaire who started in government as an Anaheim city councilman and mayor--and whose personal trademark is a Mickey Mouse wristwatch. He is probably best known to Los Angeles residents as a key negotiator who helped snatch the Rams from the Coliseum. In the state Senate, he is considered a tough player and an expert at extracting contributions from special interests.

A former president of the California Assn. of Realtors, Seymour has received major financial backing from the development industry and from real estate agents. A Times study of his campaign fund raising during the 1987-88 election cycle showed that he received about 40% of his contributions from developers and others who made their livelihood off the land business.

“He has contacts in every city, village, town and hamlet in California. I think he feels he can use that to get reelected, and that’s one of the most important criteria,” said William Campbell, a former state senator and now president of the California Manufacturers Assn.

Seymour’s touch for fund raising and helping colleagues, however, has raised some questions about how he conducts business in Sacramento.

As mayor of Anaheim, Seymour stridently opposed legislation sponsored by former Orange County fireworks magnate Patrick Moriarty that would have overturned local laws banning dangerous fireworks.

But months after he was elected to the state Senate in 1982--and after Moriarty gave him a $2,000 campaign contribution--Seymour changed his mind and cast the deciding vote for the bill. Although Moriarty was convicted of bribery in connection with his political efforts, Seymour was never implicated in any wrongdoing.

Two years later, Seymour was co-author of a bill that would have granted a medical license to a former Anaheim City Council colleague who failed the state’s medical tests three times. More recently, he drew editorial rebukes for pressuring an Orange County school district over the development fee it wanted to charge an apartment builder and Seymour campaign contributor.

Meanwhile, Seymour’s legislative record has underscored a keen sense of political timing on major issues. Besides his reversal from opposing abortion rights to favoring it, Seymour also managed a major shift on environmental matters.

Before the Exxon Valdez oil spill in March, 1989, he voted against legislation making oil companies pay for such spills and establishing $2.5 million in state money to aid in such catastrophes. But the Valdez spill, and last year’s oil spill off Huntington Beach, marked the greening of John Seymour, who began supporting cleanup legislation.

“We make mistakes,” Seymour explained last year about his change. “I make mistakes. I’m not going to always be right. Therefore, to expect one to never change a position on an issue . . . is too much to ask.”

Yet Seymour was unwavering on a number of issues. He has sponsored tough legislation against drugs, drunk drivers and speeding truckers. He was author of several bills that will lead to construction of California’s first toll roads in Orange County.

Content aside, Seymour seemed to relish even more the very exercise of making law. He once said that writing legislation on hot issues of the day was the political equivalent of surfing. He called it “catching the wave.”

“That’s the big turn on for me--being adroit enough to have this legislation get through a Democrat-controlled Legislature, and it still has enough meat on the bones to mean something,” he said recently. “In fact, that’s why I’m here and continue to practice this primitive art form.”

During his unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor in 1990, Seymour, seeking to demonstrate his commitment to capital punishment, asked to personally witness what was scheduled to be California’s first execution in 23 years. The execution was later postponed.

A former Marine Corps sergeant and a graduate of UCLA, Seymour became a millionaire in the real estate business before turning to politics in 1974, when he was elected to the Anaheim City Council. Later, as mayor, Seymour helped broker the deal that brought the Los Angeles Rams to town.

In 1980, he was elected president of the California Assn. of Realtors, a position that enabled him to build a statewide network of supporters and campaign contributors. His experience and connections paid off in 1982, when he easily won a special election to the state Senate.

He moved quickly up the ranks. Little more than a year after his election, Seymour joined an internal uprising that dumped two Republican Party leaders. In the coup, Seymour was named caucus chairman, the party’s No. 2 job in the Senate.

Although he raised millions of dollars to help elect and reelect his colleagues, many resented his ambition for higher office, which he never kept a secret. He was forced from the leadership job in 1987 after the Republicans lost a special election for a Senate seat they had been expected to win.

In 1982 and 1988, Seymour helped Wilson, an old friend from their days as mayors, win election and reelection to the Senate. That loyalty came in handy when Wilson went looking for someone who mirrored his own philosophy. Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) described Seymour as a Wilson “clone.”

“Not only are they both about the same stature, they’re the same age,” Ferguson said. “They were both Marines. They both have been very successful as politicians. Both have suffered defeats. Both share a very common philosophy of government service. They are very practical, pragmatic people.”

Times staff writer Bob Schwartz also contributed to this story.