Seymour Bares Independent Streak : Politics: Appointee says he’s in the Wilson mold, but points out several differences as well. He vows marathon election campaign.

Moving quickly to dispel fears that he does not have the political stature needed to retain his U.S. Senate seat for Republicans, state Sen. John Seymour promised Thursday to make his mark quickly as a strong advocate for California in Washington and declared that he is ready for a marathon election campaign.

In his first stand-alone appearance after being picked by Gov.-elect Pete Wilson as his Senate replacement through 1992, the Anaheim Republican defined himself as a “compassionate conservative” in the Wilson mold.

But the 53-year-old millionaire real estate developer also exhibited an independent streak. He said he and Wilson have differed over issues in the past and are likely to differ in the future--over housing programs, for one, and on the environment.

Speaking at a press conference in Anaheim, Seymour said he is more likely to consider the importance of economic factors than is Wilson in deciding his position on environmental issues. Seymour described his as a “balanced approach.”

Seymour also challenged his critics on the Republican right to examine his conservative credentials, declaring that he will match them with anyone’s. Some conservatives criticized Seymour as a lightweight, noting that he failed to win the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 1990.

Seymour said he does not expect to cruise to the GOP nomination for senator in 1992 just because he has been anointed by Wilson, who will be inaugurated Monday as governor.

“I think once the conservatives get to know John Seymour and are clear where he stands on issues, they’ll be OK,” Seymour said.

On the question of his environmental philosophy, Seymour said: “I am probably different from Pete Wilson. I might differ with him in the matter of degree or the approach as to the protection of the environment.”

Seymour pinpointed abortion as his major point of difference with the Republican right wing, which is considering several candidates to run against him in 1992.

Former Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) also favored abortion rights, Seymour said, adding: “I don’t think you get any more conservative than Barry Goldwater.”

On two major issues he will face in Washington as early as next week--the Persian Gulf and the nation’s faltering economy--Seymour placed himself firmly with Wilson, President Bush and most Republican conservatives. He said he hopes for a U.S. withdrawal without the need for war but said the United States could settle for no less than “complete and total withdrawal” of Iraqi troops from Kuwait.

As for the budget, Seymour said he supports Bush’s proposal to cut the capital gains tax rate. He said further lowering of interest rates would help stimulate the economy. Without saying the word taxes , Seymour said “the last thing” Washington should do is take more money from the people.

Looking to the 1992 election, Seymour acknowledged that to earn a second Senate term, he will be judged on his Senate service and not just his proven abilities as a campaigner and fund-raiser, which were major factors in his selection by Wilson.

“I’ll tell you, I’m going to hit the ground running. I have to. I have to. I have to show the people of California that I can perform,” Seymour said, his voice rising. “I can run the best doggone campaign in the world, . . . but that is not going to do it. What is going to do it is that John Seymour has got to perform, and he’s got to make his mark very quickly. “

Seymour and Wilson wasted no time in getting his election campaign going, even before his swearing-in as a U.S. senator, which will probably occur about the middle of next week.

About 200 of Seymour’s friends and political supporters gathered at a hastily arranged luncheon rally in an Anaheim hotel Thursday. The master of ceremonies was Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, who was widely viewed as a possible Wilson Senate appointee.

As a Latino, Vasquez had been touted by some as the sort of dramatic choice Wilson could use to create an instant political star and to make a major political statement: that California’s huge Latino population is welcome within the state’s corridors of Republican power.

By contrast, many political observers--Republicans as well as Democrats--viewed the Seymour selection as uninspired. Here, they said, was another white, middle-age, male politician--and not a very well-known one at that. Potential Democratic candidates suddenly found the two-year Senate race more inviting.

Despite the ruminations about the likely length and success of Seymour’s U.S. Senate career, Thursday was a day for his family to celebrate among the buoyant Anaheim crowd. The day stood in marked contrast with the night at the Disneyland Hotel more than 18 years ago when Seymour received a quick lesson on fickle political fortune.

The occasion was Election Night, 1972, when an overconfident Seymour wrapped up his first campaign for the Anaheim City Council by confidently strolling into a rented ballroom festooned with red, white and blue balloons. Throughout the campaign, he had bragged to supporters that it was not a question of whether he would win but by how much.

“Gee, I was cocky as hell,” Seymour recalled later.

But before he had a chance to flash even a victory grin, one of his supporters met him at the ballroom door with a shocking surprise: Early returns spelled doom.

“Before you walk in there, John, it’s over,” Seymour quoted the supporter as saying. “You lost.”

That was Seymour’s first political campaign. And despite his subsequent successes--election to the Anaheim City Council, election as Anaheim mayor, election as state senator, chosen as a Senate leader--the same kind of sickening feeling overwhelmed Seymour again in June.

This time, the occasion was Election Night after his first campaign for statewide office: the lieutenant governor primary against Republican colleague Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach).

It proved to be a humiliating defeat. Not only had Seymour, thought to be the favorite, lost statewide, he lost Orange County by a shocking 20% margin to his cross-town rival.

Seymour took the results like a punch to the stomach. On Election Night, he refused to talk to reporters, choosing instead to stay in his Los Angeles hotel room to view the returns.

When he returned telephone calls the next day, Seymour admitted that he was stung by the unexpected trouncing. “It’s like being run over by a Mack truck,” he said.

“Gosh, you want to win bad. And so there’s that emotional letdown. Gosh, nobody likes to lose,” he said. “But on the other hand, if your mind-set was, as mine was, ‘We gave everything we had,’ you have no regrets, no remorse relative to the campaign that you ran.”

Privately, staff members confided that the defeat took a toll on Seymour, temporarily plunging the normally peripatetic legislator into an uncharacteristic torpor. Even with the state’s terrible budget mess, he seemed to be going through the motions.

It was time to reassess, and the politically ambitious senator toyed with the idea of leaving public life. Yet it didn’t take long for Seymour to regain some of his enthusiasm.

One challenge particularly energized the senator: getting enough of his colleagues to approve his bill requiring truck drivers to have “black boxes” in their cabs. The devices are meant to keep tabs on the number of hours and speed of truckers, many of whom objected to the cost of the boxes.

When the bill came up on the state Senate floor during the summer, Seymour returned to his old form.

“You saw the old Seymour,” he said. “I’ve got trucking management against it (the bill), and I’ve got to find 10 votes.

“I worked that floor, I worked that floor, I worked that floor. I got that bill out,” he said.

“If someone says I don’t have the old enthusiasm--ha!--take a look at that bill.”

Bill Stall reported from Orange County and Ralph Frammolino from Sacramento.