LOCAL ELECTIONS / 45TH DISTRICT : Rohrabacher in Fight for His Political Life

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher--off-hours folk singer and pal to Afghan rebels, Ollie North and rock ‘n’ roller Sammy Hagar--has always practiced politics with a sort of “Wayne’s World” zeal.

In 1980, he vaulted from his job as a Libertarian-leaning newspaperman in Orange County to a heady post in the Reagan Administration speech-writing shop. Rohrabacher parlayed that experience into a successful run for Congress in 1988, quickly forging a reputation as the House’s leading opponent of the National Endowment for the Arts and a friend to “freedom fighters” everywhere.

Now he finds himself in perhaps the toughest fight of his political career.

In what has quickly become Orange County’s hottest political race, a pair of formidable challengers are battering away at Rohrabacher as the three vie for the GOP nomination in the June 2 Republican primary for the 45th Congressional District, which stretches along the county’s northwest coast.

Peter F. Buffa, a Costa Mesa councilman, has joined Huntington Beach Councilman Peter M. Green in blistering the two-term congressman on all fronts.

They have attacked Rohrabacher for bounced checks in the “Rubbergate” scandal at the House bank and for his support of offshore oil drilling. They complain about Rohrabacher’s key vote to scale down the job-rich B-2 bomber program and gripe that he “abused” congressional mailing privileges for political gain.

About the only thing the challengers haven’t criticized is Rohrabacher’s elfish beard.

Joining the warring Republicans on the June ballot are four contenders in the Democratic primary: Jim Foley, an aerospace lawyer from Newport Beach; Patricia McCabe, an accountant from Huntington Beach; Steve Olim, a businessman also from Huntington Beach; and Badrul H. Sarker, an engineer from Anaheim.

The Libertarian candidate is Gary D. Copeland of Fountain Valley, president of a computer consulting firm.

The GOP victor will be heavily favored in the November general election, as the Republicans enjoy a wide voter registration edge--54.3% compared to 34.6% for the Democrats and 11% among the other parties.

With the primary shaping up as a bloody battleground for the Republicans, Green and Buffa have pulled out the high-caliber ammo.

Buffa in particular has fired away at Rohrabacher, suggesting that the congressman’s stance as a tough anti-drug crusader doesn’t jibe with his past. It’s not a new charge. During the 1990 campaign, the New Republic published an article alleging that Rohrabacher, during his college days, used drugs and favored legalization. Although the piece hit just weeks before the election, Rohrabacher won by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.

Today, the congressman counters the drug issue with what has become his standard reply. “Anything I may or may not have done was more than 20 years ago,” he said in a recent interview. “I don’t need to apologize for my views or behavior in college.”

Rohrabacher also said he is pushing for drug testing of college students and other youths, with penalties he believes would hit home--withholding an offender’s driver’s license.

Both challengers have characterized Rohrabacher as a carpetbagger, saying he took up residence in a Huntington Beach apartment only a few months ago. Before that, he hadn’t lived in Orange County for more than a decade, since his days as an editorial writer for the Orange County Register during the late 1970s.

“He’s only lived here six months in a rented apartment,” Green said. “I think someone should pay their dues before they represent this district.”

Rohrabacher scoffs at the outsider rap. He notes that the recent reapportionment process rejiggered the lines of his old Long Beach-based district so dramatically that the biggest piece left was in the newly created 45th District. Moreover, Rohrabacher insists there is more Orange Countian in him than in either GOP challenger.

“I have lived in Orange County all of my life,” he said. “I’ve lived here longer than either of these two guys. I went to elementary school here.”

On the House bank scandal, Rohrabacher takes blame for only one of the eight checks totaling nearly $9,000 that were overdrafts. All the others were due to bank errors, said Rohrabacher, who is quick to note that his opponents both have acknowledged bouncing checks themselves.

Offshore oil drilling is a litmus test in a district pummeled by the 1990 oil spill that closed beaches up and down the coast after the tanker American Trader ran atop its own anchor. Green and Buffa oppose it outright. Rohrabacher says he favors drilling, but only if local coastal cities are given the final say. He also wants to see a one-third share of any tax revenue from new drilling go to local communities and is pushing to require that ships have double hulls.

In the debate over the B-2, Rohrabacher admits he voted against funding 135 of the bombers, arguing that that amount was unnecessary or fiscally imprudent. But he stresses that he did vote to build 65 of the big warplanes and remains a staunch backer of the county’s aerospace industry through his post on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

Green criticizes the congressman for taking upward of two dozen trips abroad, saying “he perceives himself as a young Ernest Hemingway on the battlefields of the world coming back to write the great American novel.” Rohrabacher counters that only one of the trips was taxpayer-subsidized, and all bolstered his understanding of foreign affairs.

Buffa, meanwhile, said Rohrabacher abused his congressional franking privileges by dispatching campaign literature to residents outside the boundaries of his current district, which he will represent until after the November election. Rohrabacher said the practice is entirely legal, that he has voted in the past to abolish it, but won’t “unilaterally” hold back until the full House agrees to a prohibition.

While the war of words continues, among the worst body blows to Rohrabacher have been delivered by Latino activists. They were angered after the congressman declared last week that illegal immigrants are “bankrupting” the country and called for the abolition of their health, education and welfare benefits.

He particularly roiled tempers in a speech last week, saying “if Pedro’s not here legally, he’s not going to get $50,000 for that heart-bypass operation.”

Rohrabacher has refused to apologize and says Latino leaders have branded him a racist to divert attention from his arguments.

Rohrabacher also remains confident that his message will play well in the 45th District, which stretches from Newport Beach to Seal Beach and inland through Fountain Valley, Westminster and Stanton. Calls flooded into Rohrabacher’s campaign headquarters from supportive constituents in the days after the “Pedro” speech, campaign aides say.

But the congressman has not received sympathy from all quarters.

When Buffa brought up the drug issue last week at a debate before the Balboa Bay Republican Women’s Club, Rohrabacher grew testy.

“This is nothing but a heinous personal attack,” he said during his rebuttal. “You see? This is the type of thing a congressman has to endure!”

With that, several of the women in the audience raised their voices in unison: “Awwwwwww.”

But in the battle for campaign bucks, Rohrabacher is winning big. He has raised $116,000 so far, compared to about $40,000 for Buffa and less than $5,000 for Green.

What they lack in money, both Green and Buffa hope to counter with local support.

A councilman in Huntington Beach for eight years, Green is well respected within the community for his work with city government and Amigos de Bolsa Chica, a wetlands protection group he helped found in 1976. The environmentalist forces of the district, a large contingent empowered by the American Trader oil tanker spill in 1990 and wetlands battles, should help bolster his campaign.

Green stresses his fiscal conservatism. He also promises to work toward an energy conservation program, a gradually reduced military budget and more money for cities.

Buffa, meanwhile, has attracted a flood of endorsements from the county’s political stalwarts, including hamburger magnate Carl Karcher and County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, who has already hosted a fund-raiser for Buffa.

Buffa said he would work toward a balanced budget and to eliminate the capital gains tax. He also wants to build more urban mass transit systems and push for more federal research and development funding, he said.

Buffa does not subscribe to the idea of a peace dividend, saying that “the next crisis that pops up we’ll run around and say, ‘Good Lord, where did we put that stuff?’ ”

Not to be outdone in the finger-pointing contest, Rohrabacher has noted that his opponents once were Democrats, Green for two years in the early 1980s and Buffa up until 1986.

Green said he briefly changed parties in disgust over the environmental policies of former Interior Secretary James Watt. Buffa maintains his switch to the GOP was the culmination of a gradual metamorphosis that began with voting for Republican presidential candidates in the 1970s.

As the Republicans throw each other to the mat, the Democratic race has been as polite as an ice cream social.

Only McCabe has run for elected office before, making an unsuccessful stab for the state Senate in 1988. If elected, she said, she would push for a more effective conversion to a peacetime economy in an effort to keep the United States “a world leader” by investing in better educational programs and health care.

Olim, who served as an advance man in the 1978 governor’s race in his native Oklahoma, wants to restore the interest deduction on installment loans and sales taxes. He also would work to funnel money from the military into education, social programs and new energy technologies.

Sarker said he wants to improve health care, bolster child care and boost the economy. He would push to cut the salaries of top executives and put a federal freeze on job layoffs, overtime, new aid to foreign nations and imports from nations that enjoy a trade surplus with the United States.

Foley, a retired aerospace attorney, would push for diversification of the industry toward new projects dealing with energy and the environment. A self-described “citizen candidate,” he plans to put his campaign money where his mouth is: He’ll only accept donations given in the form of $2 bills.

45th Congressional District

Here are the candidates running for the 45th Congressional District seat in the June 2 primary.

The Issues

The candidates were asked these questions:

Abortion rights--Do you support or oppose abortion rights?

Capital gains tax--Do you support cuts in the federal capital gains tax?

Health plan--Do you support President Bush’s national health plan, which would provide tax breaks for low- and middle-income families and slash Medicaid by $35 billion over five years?

Gun control--Do you support a bill similar to the Brady bill, which would place a waiting period on the purchase of handguns?

Soviet aid--Do you support the Bush plan to bail out the republics of the former Soviet Union?

Desert protection--Do you support the Cranston desert bill, which would dramatically expand the area in the Mojave and other sections of California to protect against encroachment?

REPUBLICANS

Dana Rohrabacher

Age: 44

Home: Huntington Beach

Occupation: Congressman

Background: Speech writer in Reagan White House. Ran for Congress in 1988, winning the 42nd District. Was reelected in 1990. A former journalist.

Issues: Abortion rights--opposes. Capital gains tax cuts--wants tax abolished. Health plan--supports. Gun control--opposes, but supports laws keeping criminals from having guns. Soviet aid--opposes, prefers pushing trade relations. Desert protection--opposes.

Peter M. Green

Age: 66

Home: Huntington Beach

Occupation: Councilman, biology professor

Background: Has taught biology at Golden West College for 21 years. Councilman eight years. Helped start wetlands protection group Amigos de Bolsa Chica in 1976.

Issues: Abortion rights--supports law, but personally opposes abortion. Capital gains tax cuts--supports. Health plan--supports in concept. Gun control--supports. Soviet aid--opposes. Desert protection--supports.

Peter F. Buffa

Age: 43

Home: Costa Mesa

Occupation: Councilman, television producer

Background: Elected to council in 1986. Ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1988. Sits on Orange County tollway agency board.

Issues: Abortion rights--opposes, except in cases of rape, incest or medical danger. Capital gains tax cuts--supports outright elimination. Health plan--supports concept. Gun control--supports wait for criminal check. Soviet aid--opposes. Desert protection--opposes.

LIBERTARIAN

Gary D. Copeland

Age: 36

Home: Fountain Valley

Occupation: Computer firm owner

Background: Established computer consulting and systems analysis company a decade ago. Before that, was a systems analyst. Serves as Orange County vice chairman of Libertarian Party.

Issues: Abortion rights--supports. Capital gains tax cuts--supports elimination. Health plan--opposes. Gun control--opposes. Soviet aid--opposes, but wants market incentives. Desert protection--supports.

DEMOCRATS

Jim Foley

Age: 56

Home: Newport Beach

Occupation: Aerospace attorney

Background: Has been an attorney at McDonnell Douglas for 22 years. Served as a trial attorney in the Air Force. Has never run for elected office.

Issues: Abortion rights--supports, but personally opposes abortion. Capital gains tax cuts--opposes, wants flat tax at 13%. Health plan--opposes, but supports a national health plan. Gun control--supports. Soviet aid--supports. Desert protection--supports.

Patricia McCabe

Age: 42

Home: Huntington Beach

Occupation:

Certified public accountant

Background: Ran in 1988 for state Senate. Past president of Democratic Club of West Orange County.

Issues: Abortion rights--supports. Capital gains tax cuts--opposes. Health plan--opposes, but interested in single-payer plan to cut costs and work toward national health care. Gun control--supports. Soviet aid--supports. Desert protection--supports.

Steve Olim

Age: 44

Home: Huntington Beach

Occupation: Manufacturers representative

Background: Represents manufacturer of bank equipment. Has never run for elected office.

Issues: Abortion rights--supports. Capital gains tax cuts--supports for new-issue stocks, bonds or other capital that assist to improve economy. Health plan--opposes, but wants tax deductions for self-employed. Gun control--undecided. Soviet aid--wants economic advice or Marshall-type plan to assist. Desert protection--undecided.

Badrul H. Sarker

Age: 56

Home: Anaheim

Occupation:

Owns electrical engineering firm

Background: President and CEO since mid-1980s of firm that designs and sells 911 emergency equipment. Was dean at an educational institute. Came to United States in 1972. Worked as a Rockwell scientist. Has never run for political office.

Issues: Abortion rights--supports. Capital gains tax cuts--opposes in present form. Health plan--opposes. Gun control--supports. Soviet aid--opposes. Desert protection--supports.