CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / 46TH DISTRICT : Dornan’s Campaign Opens With a Pledge : He promises not to be ‘blindsided’ by ‘one-issue’ foe. But Ryan adds Wieder and Thompson as backers in GOP primary.

Conservative Rep. Robert K. Dornan officially announced Tuesday that he will run for another term, as backers of his Republican primary opponent, former Superior Court Judge Judith M. Ryan, vowed not to be frightened from the race by the veteran lawmaker.

“I think all this bullying by Bob--trying to stop people from supporting Judith’s campaign and contributing to her--will backfire,” said Eileen Padberg, a Republican political consultant who is managing Ryan’s campaign in the new 46th Congressional District.

Padberg was referring to Dornan’s personal warning to a group of Republican congresswomen in Washington last week that they should not back Ryan, who favors abortion rights. Dornan opposes abortion rights.

Dornan, 58, who is a member of the Armed Services Committee, told a press conference in Santa Ana that his opponents are going to find it hard to defeat him, in part because he pays close attention to the cities in his district, the county and individuals.

He said his positions are in tune with the conservative district on defense, crime, drugs and how to deal with the “bloated” government budget.

“I just don’t know how somebody would mount a campaign against me unless it was based on social issues,” Dornan said, adding that it is preposterous to think he could be driven from office “on one issue--respect for the sanctity of life.”

Pointing to the surprise defeat last week of Maryland Democrat Rep. Beverly B. Byron, Dornan said he plans to campaign hard and pay close attention to Ryan so he does not end up being “blindsided” in June 2’s GOP primary.

“That is not going to happen to Bob Dornan,” said Dornan, who like Byron has been in the House for the past 14 years.

At the 70-minute press conference, Dornan was joined by Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young and county Supervisor Roger R. Stanton. He also announced the endorsement of Anaheim Mayor Fred Hunter.

The Ryan campaign had its own developments Tuesday, including an endorsement by Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder and the announcement that prominent South County developer Kathryn G. Thompson will act as finance co-chairwoman.

Wieder weighed in on Ryan’s behalf, accusing Dornan of trying to “bully and antagonize” those who oppose him.

She said Ryan would be “refreshing and exciting” in a new district that “no one has a claim to.”

The 46th Congressional District is a newly reconfigured district that includes Anaheim, Santa Ana and parts of Garden Grove.

Last week, just days before the filing deadline, Ryan, 48, announced her intention to run. A lifelong Republican, Ryan was appointed to Orange County Municipal Court in 1981 by former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. After a year, she was promoted by him to Orange County Superior Court, where she served until 1989. She now works as an arbitrator.

Within hours of Ryan’s announcement last week, Dornan had called the White House and the Republican leadership at the Capitol on Thursday to enlist help in pressuring Ryan’s potential supporters and try to drive her from the race.

Then he went to the reception of WISH List--Women In the Senate and House--a newly formed national Republican women’s group that is raising money to help finance campaigns of women who support abortion rights.

He warned the seven congresswomen in the group that he would find candidates to oppose them in their districts if they chose sides against him.

By Friday, the group’s congressional members had agreed for the first time to recommend that the group support only candidates for open seats or in districts where an incumbent Democrat opposes abortion rights.

Dornan said Tuesday that he may have overreacted last week to Ryan’s candidacy because it involved a “good friend who stabbed me in the back,” and that he now welcomes the challenge.

“I do not intend to be humiliated in a Republican primary on one issue,” said Dornan, who had entered his seventh campaign without previously being challenged in a GOP primary.

Wieder called Ryan a “bright, articulate” candidate who is highly qualified to be a member of Congress. Wieder said she will work hard to get Ryan elected and hopes that Ryan will ask her to fill an official position in the campaign.

“If he doesn’t stop what he is doing,” Wieder said about Dornan, “they are going to rename him from B1 Bob to Bully Bob.”

Wieder next week will be host at her home for Republican women who want to form a county chapter of WISH List. She said the meeting had been scheduled long before Ryan announced her candidacy.

She also said it poses no problem for her that the group’s congressional leadership has backed off its opposition to Dornan.

Padberg said it is significant that Thompson accepted a financial role in the campaign because she can raise money and, above that, “she knows a good candidate.”

Countering Dornan’s assertion that Ryan is a one-issue candidate, Padberg said Ryan has many issues to bring to the voter. The big one, she said, is “what has Bob Dornan done for his district lately?”

“If Judith Ryan had been a man, Bob Dornan would never had done what he has done in the last couple of days,” she said. “He would not have been man enough. The more he bullies people, the more I get into this campaign. I am now intimately involved.”