CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS ’92 : CONGRESS / SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE : Brown Could Face Stiffest Challenge Yet

Cerebral, stout and unswervingly committed to a liberal agenda, Rep. George E. Brown may be California’s most resilient politician.

Like the indefatigable toy rabbit featured in the battery commercials, the 72-year-old Democrat has chugged gamely onward--turning back challenger after challenger to keep the Inland Empire seat he first won 30 years ago.

Slowly but steadily, however, growth and changing demographics have crept up on Brown, turning his once-safe district into territory bordering on perilous for a Democrat. This year, his stamina will be put to an unprecedented test.

The congressman is unopposed in the June 2 primary, but two strong Republicans are dueling for the chance to topple him in November in a redrawn district that appears to have made Brown more vulnerable than ever.

Reapportionment removed from Brown’s 42nd District the city of Riverside--home to some of the region’s most loyal Democrats--and saddled him with two cities dominated by GOP voters, Rancho Cucamonga and Grand Terrace. Democrats still hold the edge in voter registration--52% to 39%--but their margin slipped 2 percentage points because of reapportionment.

It all adds up to a race considered the one to watch in the Inland Empire this year.

Of Brown’s four GOP foes, San Bernardino County Supervisor Bob Hammock has been anointed the front-runner by regional political observers, mostly because of his connections, fund-raising network and name recognition. Hammock, 51, has also been through this exercise before, losing a relatively close race against Brown in November, 1990.

This time, Hammock hopes to capitalize on voters’ mushrooming hostility toward incumbents--stoked most recently by Congress’ midnight pay raise and the House check-writing scandal--to knock off his veteran opponent.

Brown wrote 26 overdrafts for more than $10,000 and supported the pay raise. Both issues have been used effectively against incumbents, and they figure prominently in Hammock’s battle plan.

But ironically, Hammock could be cut down by the same sword he hopes to wield against Brown. A county supervisor for 16 years, Hammock is viewed by many locals as the quintessential political insider. As such, he is vulnerable to the voters’ thirst for new blood.

“Bob Hammock most certainly has to bear the incumbent’s burden,” said John Longville, mayor of the San Bernardino County city of Rialto. “He is pretty much seen as a career politician out here.”

This might be only a minor liability if not for the presence of Hammock’s toughest rival in the GOP primary--pilot Dick Rutan, a decorated Vietnam veteran best known for flying a spindly plane called Voyager around the world on one tank of gas in 1986.

Rutan, 53, has not got much money, but he is winning fans by selling himself as an untainted outsider--a can-do sort of guy whose skills in the cockpit will translate into a plan to save America.

“We need creativity and innovation in Congress,” Rutan is fond of saying, “not check-kiters who can’t do anything but throw money at problems.”

Bobi Johnson, Brown’s campaign manager, said the redrawn district and anti-incumbent fervor will make it a tough reelection season for her boss:

“George is not fresh and new, and I’m sure his image as a political insider will be used against us,” Johnson said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

Such work should be familiar by now. Brown’s victory margins--which used to hover around 30 percentage points--have been declining steadily for more than a decade, as families seeking affordable housing have entered his district and changed its political complexion. He won by 14 points in 1984 and 1986, 11 points in 1988 and just 6 points in the 1990 race against Hammock.

Also competing in the GOP primary are Chuck Williams and Robert B. Westerman, but both are poorly financed and considered long shots.

Here is a glance at two other congressional races in the Inland Empire:

43rd District: Western Riverside County / 44% Democrat, 46% Republican

This district, newly born of reapportionment, has spawned a hotly contested GOP primary featuring seven energetic candidates. Stretching from Riverside south to Temecula, the territory is 65% Anglo and 25% Latino. It is also rock-solid Republican: President Bush got 59% of the vote in these wards in 1988.

The campaign debate has focused mostly on the economy and how to harness jobs and industry so residents of cities such as Corona, Lake Elsinore and Riverside no longer have to suffer long commutes to work.

Fireworks have flared over charges that two of the contenders are carpetbaggers with no roots in the district. Larry Arnn, a conservatives’ darling who runs a think tank called the Claremont Institute for the Study of Political Statesmanship, only recently took up quarters in the district, relocating from the San Gabriel Valley. S. Joseph Khoury, a professor of finance at UC Riverside, moved inland from Tustin to run.

The local political Establishment has given its blessing to Kenneth Calvert of Corona, a native son who owns an industrial real estate company and has extensive connections among the Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce set.

Although Calvert may be the front-runner, Khoury and Arnn have built hefty campaign bank accounts and won some high-profile endorsements. Khoury recruited comedian Milton Berle for a fund-raiser and also hired political wizard John Sears--onetime campaign manger for former President Ronald Reagan.

Also on the Republican primary ballot are Corona Mayor Bill Franklin, attorney Daniel Hantman, engineer William Jones and retiree Bob Lynn.

Among the seven Democrats fighting for their party’s nomination, strategists give ninth-grade teacher Mark Takano the best odds. A Riverside native who is president of a local college board of trustees, Takano has won a handful of significant endorsements and enjoys strong grass-roots support.

Dom Betro, executive director of family services for Riverside County, is considered Takano’s chief rival.

44th District: Eastern Riverside County / 43% Democrat, 47% Republican

Republican Rep. Al McCandless is scarcely expected to break a sweat in seeking to retain the seat he first won in 1982. Stretching from Moreno Valley east to Blythe and including the desert resort of Palm Springs, this was the nation’s fastest-growing congressional district during the 1980s--nearly doubling in population to almost 1 million.

Reapportionment cut the territory in half by slicing off its western Riverside County flank. But the reconfigured 42nd remains solidly conservative and comfortable for McCandless.

Two years ago, McCandless got a scare from Democratic challenger Ralph Waite, an actor best known for his role as Papa John Walton on the 1970s television series “The Waltons.” But despite his celebrity status and ample campaign budget, Waite could not overcome the GOP’s dominance in voter registration in the district, losing by 5 percentage points.

This year, McCandless faces a pair of underfunded political unknowns in the GOP primary--businessmen Lewis Silva of Palm Springs and Bud Mathewson of Banning.

Three candidates are running in the Democratic primary--Clark McCartney, a Cathedral City businessman; Joel Simpson, a carpenter from Thousand Palms, and geographer Georgia Smith of Perris. All are political novices and there is no clear favorite.