Royce, Hunter Declare Candidacies for House

State Sen. Edward R. Royce (R-Anaheim) and Anaheim Mayor Fred Hunter have declared their candidacies for the 39th Congressional District seat held by Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), but many other candidates are expected to join them before the June, 1992, primary.

“I would hope there would be a lot more choices, and at least one of them would be a woman,” said Orange County political consultant Eileen Padberg. “There needs to be someone else in the race, and they’ll come out of the woodwork.”

For now, though, Royce and Hunter are the only declared candidates, and they hope to get a leg up on any rivals.

“I’ve given some thought to what my goals are, and one of them is to serve on the House Judiciary Committee,” said Royce, 39, an eight-year member of the state Senate. “I was the author of Proposition 115, the Speedy Trials Act . . . and I think I could effectively take victims’ rights to a national level.

“I would enjoy taking on the Teddy Kennedy types in Congress, just like our Speaker here, who have done much to thwart criminal justice reform.”

Hunter, 46, is a former narcotics officer with the Anaheim Police Department who was elected to his second mayoral term last November. He said he is counting on the support of working people and the bankrolls of private interests connected to Anaheim’s professional sports franchises and Disneyland to help him win the seat he has been wanting for nearly six years.

Hunter said the centerpiece of his campaign will be a call for mandatory drug education programs in the nation’s public schools.

“The war on drugs has a long way to go,” Hunter said, “and I’d like to take my experience back to Washington, D.C. We need to start with a massive education process.”

Royce had prepared to run for the congressional seat in 1986, but then Dannemeyer backed off from a U.S. Senate bid and Royce and others who had wanted to run dropped out of the race.

Dannemeyer has begun an aggressive campaign against appointed U.S. Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.). Dannemeyer said that Seymour’s positions on abortion and the environment are too liberal for the Republican Party.

Fullerton Councilman Richard C. Ackerman said that he is considering running for the congressional seat but that he will not decide until he has consulted with other local politicians--among them his friend Royce and Assembly Minority Leader Ross Johnson (R-La Habra), whose name comes up whenever there is an opening to run for higher office.

Johnson was unavailable for comment Tuesday.