CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS / 49TH DISTRICT : New District Lures Swarm of Candidates : 10 Republicans Find the Going Is Tough in a Crowded Race

As one of 17 candidates in the 49th Congressional District race, John Weil views the campaign from a perspective that helps him succinctly assess the challenge facing voters trying to sift through the unusually crowded field.

“At candidate forums, they start at one end of the table, and by the time they reach the other end, it’s the next morning,” Weil joked. “It’s confusing enough to be a candidate, so it has to be even worse for voters.”

Lured by the tempting prospect of an open U.S. House seat in a new district with no incumbent and relative political parity, 10 Republicans, five Democrats and two minor-party candidates have made the 49th District contest the most cluttered and potentially most competitive congressional race of the five on the June 2 ballot in San Diego County.

With the congressional check-bouncing scandal and the public’s deepening political skepticism as a backdrop, the race in the newly drawn 49th District in northwestern San Diego has been dominated by anti-Washington themes. At one recent debate in Ocean Beach, Libertarian John Wallner accurately--and humorously--captured the mood of the campaign by saying: “Politicians are like diapers. They both should be changed often--and for the same reason.”

Similar rhetoric has been consistently heard from the other candidates, though many of them worry that their message is getting lost in the confusing blur attributable to a ballot overflowing with local, state and national candidates. In trying to draw attention from voters and the press, the 49th District candidates have had to compete, not only with each other, but also with scores of other candidates in other races.

Recognizing that political reality, the candidates have spent much of the campaign trying to distinguish themselves from the pack--a particularly formidable challenge in the 10-candidate GOP field.

For former San Diego City Councilman Bill Mitchell, that means emphasizing he is the only candidate in the race with elective office experience. A down-scaled variation of that theme comes from Weil, who contends his background as a former aide to Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) gives him the “experience but not the liability” of congressional work.

Nurse Judy Jarvis believes being the only woman in the GOP primary will be a valuable asset in a year that has been dubbed the “year of the woman” because of the large number of females seeking office nationwide.

A handful of other candidates are businessmen who argue that their hands-on experience with their own companies could help them tackle the nation’s economic woes. And real-estate agent Dave Pierce, the lone abortion opponent in the GOP field, hopes that politically volatile issue will enable him to carve out a conservative niche for himself while the other candidates splinter the remaining moderate votes.

Complicating the candidates’ task is the fact that, because this is the first election since redistricting altered congressional boundaries, many voters are not even aware that they reside within the new 49th District. Stretching along the coast from La Jolla to the Mexican border, the district extends east to the La Mesa city boundary, and covers most of the city of San Diego from downtown to Clairemont.

“A majority of people don’t even know which district they’re in, much less who’s running,” conceded financial planner Skip Cox. “You’re trying to reach people who aren’t listening--and don’t even know which candidates they should listen to.”

Underscoring the race’s anti-Congress tenor, the 50-year-old Cox casts himself as a “small business and average citizen who’s fed up with . . . the check-bouncing, junket-taking, tax-raising, deficit-spending professional politicians.”

Cox, who says he is “ranked internationally in the top 1% of my business peer group,” argues that his career would provide insight into the nation’s budget problems.

“The federal deficit is only six or seven zeros more than the numbers I’ve been working with for clients,” Cox said. “I’ve never seen a business or personal budget that I couldn’t cut by 20%.” However, when pressed in an interview to identify specific cuts that could help shrink the current $400-billion budget deficit, Cox came up with only about $40 million worth of ideas.

Other issues Cox has emphasized include stricter enforcement of border security to curtail illegal immigration, establishment of mandatory death sentences for drug kingpins and career felons, and congressional reform.

While most of the candidates echo the congressional reform theme, Ray Saatjian has offered the most detailed proposal toward that end. Among other things, his 10-point plan calls for term limits, cutting congressional salaries from $125,100 to $89,500, creation of an independent congressional prosecutor’s office, elimination of congressional perquisites, limits on certain political contributions and reform of the seniority system.

A commercial flower grower, the 48-year-old Saatjian, whose name is pronounced SAY-chin, has tried to acquaint voters with his Armenian surname through a radio and TV jingle that concludes: “Say Ray. Saatjian. Like Deukmejian.”

The reference to former Gov. George Deukmejian is more than a rhyming convenience, because Deukmejian appointed Saatjian to the Del Mar Fair Board in 1983--a post that allows Saatjian to boast of the $125 million in improvements to the fair grounds made during his tenure. In addition, Deukmejian, who is helping raise funds for his campaign, is married to Saatjian’s cousin.

Noting that three GOP candidates--Cox, Pierce and Alan Uke--live outside the 49th District, Saatjian also tells partisan audiences the Republican Party’s chances of winning the “marginally advantageous” district would be severely damaged “if one of these weak sisters” is nominated. Under federal law, congressional candidates need not reside within their districts, but failure to do so often proves to be a major political liability.

Uke, an inventor who founded a company that manufactures underwater diving accessories 21 years ago while in college, bills his professional background as a perfect match for a district that he describes as San Diego’s “business seat.”

“This district needs a businessman who’s employed people, met a payroll, stayed within a budget, built products, actually done things,” said Uke, noting the district includes most of San Diego’s manufacturing and high-tech industries, universities and tourism.

Having issued detailed policy statements on numerous issues, Uke has tossed out endless proposals ranging from the economy (support for a balanced-budget amendment, giving the president line-item veto authority) to ways to increase local tourism (gaining a decommissioned aircraft carrier and a “West Coast Smithsonian” as attractions).

With the lingering recession and abundance of candidates posing fund-raising difficulties, Uke is relying heavily on his own money, with his personal loans already reaching into six figures.

“I’ve not put in that much money--maybe $120,000 or so, so far,” Uke said. “It’s not like I’m putting in $1 million. . . . Besides, if you’re not a successful businessman yourself, you’re unlikely to be successful in promoting business in Congress.”

The opponent of greatest concern to Uke--anti-abortion advocate Pierce--also is drawing increasingly nervous glances from the other candidates in the field. Like Uke, they regard Pierce as having largely preempted the far-right bloc of voters, which could cause the outcome to hinge on whether, in Uke’s words, any other candidate “can finish far enough ahead of the rest of the crowd” to offset Pierce’s presumed base.

The political arithmetic of the campaign underlines Pierce’s potential advantage. Of the district’s nearly 146,000 registered Republicans, only about 40%--and perhaps less--are expected to vote, based on most strategists’ projections. That would produce about 60,000 ballots, about 25% of which--or roughly 15,000 votes--could be sufficient for victory, due to the size of the field.

Uke, for one, believes Pierce has that many votes “locked up”--and has no doubts the so-called “Christian Right” can deliver them through its impressive grass-roots network of church groups and anti-abortion organizations.

Pierce, 48, is less presumptive, but admits having the anti-abortion position to himself allows him to “concentrate my efforts a little more” than the other candidates. An unsuccessful state legislative candidate in Michigan, Pierce is the only candidate other than Mitchell to have previously sought public office.

Although he generally hews to an archetypal conservative line, Pierce goes to lengths to avoid being dismissed as a one-issue, far-right extremist. Beyond routinely discussing issues ranging from drugs to tort reform to health care, he also prefers to quote his close ally, Republican Rep. Bill Lowery, in describing himself as a “bleeding heart conservative.”

Two candidates--nurse Jarvis, 41, and oral surgeon Ron Hecker, 50,--are health-care professionals who have emphasized health issues in their respective campaigns.

Jarvis, who transformed a $5,000 investment in a critical-care nurse registry into a company that, when she sold it 10 years later in 1987, had a gross annual income of $1 million, has called for a program that would guarantee all Americans “affordable health care without bankrupting business.” She has been short on specifics on how to fund such a system, however, saying simply that streamlining paperwork and eliminating fraud could save tens of billions of dollars.

Other central themes in Jarvis’ campaign include economic revitalization and welfare and education reform. In regard to the former goal, she has proposed special short-term loans for home buyers, and toward the latter, offers a plan under which work in public service programs would entitle participants to school tuition.

Similarly, Hecker favors “affordable, continuous health care for everyone,” funded primarily by private premiums and “some federal initiative” for those unable to afford the cost. Individuals’ and small businesses’ expense perhaps could be partly offset through tax deductions or credits, he said.

Saying America has “won the Cold War but is losing the economic war,” Hecker also argues that the nation’s budget difficulties could be alleviated in part through reductions in entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Mitchell, who is attempting a political comeback after successive losses in City Council and congressional campaigns in the mid-1980s, has used his trademark door-to-door politicking style to try to overcome his opponents’ financial advantages. His frequent past campaigns in the area encompassed by the district also allowed Mitchell to begin the campaign with a significant name-recognition advantage over his opponents.

A 59-year-old marketing consultant, Mitchell has emphasized jobs, crime and health care in his admittedly uphill race. Noted throughout his career for his unusual, sometimes off-beat ideas, Mitchell has been true to that image in this campaign, calling for, among other things, relocation of the U.S. Department of Education from Washington, D.C., to San Diego, the nationwide dispersal of other federal departments and tax credits to spur sales of electric automobiles.

“The other candidates talk about what they’d like to do for the district, but I’m the only one with a record showing what I’ve already done,” Mitchell said.

Electronics manufacturer Bob Tatum, who personifies the campaign’s anti-politics overtones by saying that his “only real opponent (is) Mr. Washington,” frequently visits the nation’s capital as a high-tech industry representative.

The founder of Vitarel Microelectronics Inc., the 49-year-old Tatum argues that those Washington trips have given him a broader business background than the other candidates, saying: “I’ve done a lot more more than just run my own business.”

Emphasizing fiscal issues, Tatum has called for expansion of investment tax credits, increasing research and development resources and additional free enterprise zones as major components of an economic recovery plan.

In his race, Roy Moeller, a 53-year-old real-estate developer and naval reserve captain, has cautioned against rapid, deep cuts in defense spending because of the easing of East-West tensions--not simply, he contends, because of parochial concerns over San Diego’s military and defense industry jobs.

“Sometimes you get a queasy feeling wondering what might happen if (Russian President Boris) Yeltsin can’t pull it together,” said Moeller, arguing that dollars saved via foreign aid cuts could be shifted to critical defense programs.

Former congressional aide Weil reminds campaign audiences his nearly four years of experience as Packard’s district representative acquainted him both with key federal issues and the San Diego officeholders who deal with them.

“Having worked in a congressional office, I already know how one works--I wouldn’t have to learn it,” said the 39-year-old Weil, a one-time weekly newspaper editor who now serves as an administrator of Casa de Amparo, a crisis center for abused children. His top priorities, Weil said, include campaign and congressional reform, balancing the budget and devising “a national social strategy we can afford.”