ELECTIONS / CONGRESS : Gay Activist Joins Race Against Dornan

On the lawn of the Old County Courthouse, gay rights and AIDS activist Jeff Le Tourneau launched his campaign Thursday to unseat Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove).

Le Tourneau of Anaheim called upon a broad base of liberal voters to elect him to the seat in the newly created 46th Congressional District, which Dornan plans to seek.

“I’m not a single-issue candidate,” he said. “I’m a gay and AIDS activist, but I’m also a trade unionist, an ardent feminist and an environmentalist. I am, in other words, proudly everything that Bob Dornan is not, and thankfully opposed to virtually everything he represents.”

Le Tourneau joins five other Democrats who are vying for their party’s nomination in the 46th District race in the June 2 primary. The others are: Robert John Banuelos, Nazeer Ahmed, Ricardo Nicol III, William Clardy and Norman Eckenrode.

Le Tourneau, who said he is for abortion rights and opposed to capital punishment, presented a platform that also included reducing military spending, shifting taxes from the poor and middle-class to the rich, and introducing a national health care plan.

He challenged Dornan to a series of public debates, but Dornan’s press secretary, Brian Keeter, was unable to say Thursday whether Dornan would agree to participate.

Keeter also read a statement that Dornan had prepared in response to his opponents: “To paraphrase Claude Raines in the movie ‘Casablanca,’ the Democrats are rounding up the usual suspects to run against me. Once again, I’ll run on the usual Dornan issues: faith, family and freedom.”

Le Tourneau has clashed with Dornan before.

In 1989, he criticized Dornan for appearing at a symposium sponsored by the California Coalition for Traditional Values, which opposes gay rights. In 1988, when Le Tourneau and other AIDS activists disrupted a Dornan town meeting, Dornan’s wife, Sallie, shouted “Shut up, fag!” at him.

Some credit Le Tourneau, who founded the Orange County Visibility League in 1987, with radicalizing gay activism in the county, said John Duran, an Anaheim gay rights attorney. The group, which seeks to raise awareness of lesbian, gay and AIDS-related issues, initiated street protests, candlelight vigils and other tactics.

The 46th Congressional District, newly created as a result of reapportionment, will cover most of Anaheim, Santa Ana, Garden Grove and part of Tustin.