CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / U.S. SENATE : Allen Says Adversity Has Helped Shape His Character

Republican Bill Allen’s U.S. Senate campaign is an uphill struggle, but the 47-year-old Allen says he learned all about adversity as one in a family of 12 black children growing up in the rural Deep South in the 1950s and 1960s.

“One of the advantages I bring to this campaign is that my life has been complete,” Allen, a professor of government and member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, told a group of 30 supporters during a reception at a Palos Verdes Peninsula home last week.

“You’re raised in a family of 12, there isn’t much that you miss. Every human triumph, every human tragedy is experienced, including some of those with which we struggle most desperately in this country today.”

Allen’s comments were in response to a question about homelessness in America. But they could just as well apply to his long-shot campaign for the Republican nomination for the two-year Senate seat held by John Seymour, the moderate GOP appointee of Gov. Pete Wilson.

Beginning the year, Allen’s campaign had just $3,441 in the bank compared to Seymour’s $1 million, and more than $500,000 for the other major candidate in the contest, conservative Rep. William E. Dannemeyer of Fullerton.

Dannemeyer allies had hoped to persuade Allen to run for the U.S. House this year rather than the Senate. Because Allen and Dannemeyer are bedrock conservatives, they tend to appeal to the same constituency. Dannemeyer’s forces fear that Allen’s presence will cost Dannemeyer votes and make it easier for the moderate Seymour, a former state senator from Anaheim, to win the June 2 primary with a plurality of the vote.

Politically active religious groups that are supporting Dannemeyer have written Allen saying that his candidacy “can only harm the side of righteousness” and suggesting that Allen faces divine retribution for running. Allen asked the attorney general’s office to investigate, claiming that the letters violated state law prohibiting the intimidation of candidates.

Allen filed for the Senate seat on Thursday and plans a major campaign kickoff event during the state Republican convention in Burlingame next weekend.

“This is a serious campaign,” Allen insisted, “a campaign that is blessed with every difficulty, every obstacle and every impossibility that is identifiable in the political lexicon, which is nevertheless changing politics in this state, which is winning adherents up and down the state, which in the polls has demonstrated that we alone have any credible chance of defeating Dianne Feinstein.”

A California Poll released Jan. 23 had Democrat Feinstein defeating Allen by a slightly smaller margin than Seymour. But the same poll also showed Seymour widening his lead in the GOP primary race, receiving 36%. Allen’s support rose from 7% last September to 10% while Dannemeyer’s increased from 16% to 17%. In a poll conducted in San Diego County by the San Diego Union-Tribune early this month, Seymour had 29%, Dannemeyer 13% and Allen 12.5%.

One Republican political expert said that polls at this point largely measure name recognition and that Allen benefits from having “a familiar name.” The overriding reality of California elections is that winners tend to be those who have a lot of money to spend on television advertising, he said.

“I am going to beg for the money and I am going to attract the media,” Allen said at the Palos Verdes reception. But, he added, “there is another way to do that and that is to make the grass-roots work again.”

The Republican consultant also said “the other reality of running for office in California is having an office” and that incumbents tend to win in spite of a perceived voter animosity toward officeholders.

“Despite what you saw in New Hampshire with Pat Buchanan, Republicans are still pretty loyal to incumbents,” the expert said.

Allen’s background, style and political philosophy parallel those of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, an Allen friend and fellow Ronald Reagan appointee who was chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission at the same time Allen was chairman of the Civil Rights Commission.

Thomas was born near Savannah, Ga., in 1948. Allen came from a community just across the state line in Florida.

While Thomas ventured into the study of law, Allen went into academics, with a bachelor’s degree from Pepperdine University in 1967 and a master’s and doctorate from the Claremont Graduate School. He was a Fulbright fellow in 1970-71 and has been a professor of government since 1972 at Harvey Mudd College, part of the Claremont complex.

Allen ran for the Senate in 1986 and finished 11th among 13 Republican candidates with 12,990 votes.