LOCAL ELECTIONS / 75th ASSEMBLY : Abortion Foe’s Bid Tests Religious Right’s New Muscle : Politics: Activist Connie Youngkin opposes Poway Mayor Jan Goldsmith and two other Republicans in a safe Republican district.

Her campaign brochures bill her as “Connie Youngkin: Pro-Family Tax Fighter for Assembly.” But, if Youngkin is victorious in the new 75th Assembly District, it will have less to do with that slogan than with years of anti-abortion activism that have made her that movement’s most famous--and infamous--symbol in San Diego.

Two years after coming within several hundred votes of upsetting incumbent Assemblywoman Tricia Hunter, Youngkin faces Poway Mayor Jan Goldsmith and two long-shots in a June 2 Republican primary that probably will turn on her ability to broaden her candidacy’s appeal beyond its Christian fundamentalist origins.

One of a handful of local Assembly GOP primaries pitting so-called “Christian right” candidates against more moderate opponents, the 75th District race is seen by religious activists as a potential in their effort to build upon the political foundation they established in 1990 with victories in dozens of minor local offices.

But moderate Republicans and abortion rights advocates, largely caught off guard by the religious activists’ 1990 successes, also have mobilized in an attempt to defeat Youngkin--drawing ideological battle lines mirroring those in other local Assembly contests featuring far-right candidates.

With Republicans holding a daunting 53%-31% advantage among registered voters in the 75th District, the winner of the GOP primary probably will be more concerned this fall about finding housing in Sacramento than about Democrat Dante Cosentino and three minor-party candidates, all of whom are running unopposed in their respective primaries.

Retired firefighter Ken Harrell and lawyer and perennial candidate Mike Schaefer, a former San Diego City Councilman, round out the GOP field.

Dismissing Youngkin as a single-issue candidate with a “pretty extreme” agenda, Goldsmith has positioned himself as a moderate with broader concerns who can “achieve results in Sacramento, not further polarize the Legislature,” as he claims Youngkin would. His endorsements from Gov. Pete Wilson and several local Assembly Republicans, Goldsmith argues, demonstrate his ability to build coalitions.

“Getting 41 votes is the name of the game in Sacramento,” said Goldsmith, a 41-year-old lawyer who became Poway’s first elected mayor in 1990. “You don’t do that by going up there and stomping your foot or chaining yourself to your desk.”

Youngkin, in turn, characterizes Goldsmith as a “pro-tax liberal,” bolstering the charge by pointing to his support of Poway City Council resolutions backing the state’s snack tax and higher vehicle fees and gasoline taxes.

Pledging to try to repeal those and other 1991 tax measures estimated to cost the average family of four $1,021 annually, Youngkin underlines that commitment by pointing to her endorsements from several prominent anti-tax organizations.

Pressing another political hot button for conservatives, Youngkin also has sharply criticized Goldsmith for founding a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union while he attended American University in Washington. “Would you elect a candidate who started an ACLU chapter?” asks one Youngkin mailer.

“People hear that , and they don’t need to know anything else about Jan Goldsmith,” said Youngkin, who, ironically, worked on Goldsmith’s 1988 council campaign.

Despite her conscious downplaying of the issue that has kept her in the headlines in recent years, Youngkin’s mere presence on the ballot virtually ensured that abortion would play a pivotal role in the heavily Republican 75th District, which stretches from northern San Diego County to the Mexican border, extending east to Imperial County.

Twice jailed for blockading clinics, Youngkin barely mentions the abortion issue in her public appearances, preferring instead to campaign on her support for tax cuts, the death penalty, parental choice in schools, welfare reform and privatizing jails and other “ineffective” governmental operations.

When questioned about the 64 days she spent in jail for her Operation Rescue protests, the 44-year-old registered nurse from Poway often describes her activities as civil disobedience in the tradition of the Boston Tea Party.

Far from being put off by her time in jail, Youngkin argues, most voters will view it as “proof that I’m someone willing to stand up for my principles, whatever the personal cost.”

“Some moral principles are worth defending,” Youngkin said. “Voters don’t want someone who’s going to compromise on those points. They need somebody to stand up and say, ‘Absolutely not!’ ”

Youngkin’s unflinching anti-abortion advocacy was the genesis of a political campaign that saw her lose by a razor-thin margin to the heavily favored Hunter in a 1990 GOP primary in the former 76th Assembly District, which largely overlaps the newly drawn 75th District. Wanting no part of a rematch, Hunter decided to seek reelection in another district this year.

As in 1990, a coalition of anti-abortion, pro-gun, religious groups and other conservative organizations this spring is promoting a “pro-family” slate that includes Youngkin and at least four other local Assembly candidates.

But, just as politically potent anti-abortion forces have been galvanized by Youngkin’s activities, so, too, have her opponents--pro-choice groups, Republican moderates and the Mainstream Voters Project, a San Diego-based organization that publicizes candidates that it regards as extremists.

Determined to prevent a repeat of the “stealth” campaigns used by Christian right candidates in 1990, when fundamentalists targeted church members in races largely invisible to the general public, those moderate groups have highlighted the 75th District contest.

The California Abortion Rights Action League, for example, recently named Youngkin one of 12 “Enemies of Choice” whom it hopes to defeat statewide. Within the 75th District, the group plans to call more than 6,000 pro-choice Republicans, urging them to support Goldsmith, who, like Harrell and Schaefer, supports abortion rights.

Youngkin professes to be as undeterred by that as she was by Wilson’s endorsement of Goldsmith last week, which she termed the “death knell” for his campaign because of lingering controversy over the governor’s 1991 tax package.

“ Not getting that endorsement is a victory for us,” she said.

Her “family values” platform, Youngkin explained, includes tax changes “to make it at least as financially fair” for mothers to remain at home with their children as to work.

She also favors tax relief for all families with children under school age, mandatory drug abuse prevention courses for all grade levels in schools, and vouchers--and, later, tax credits--allowing families to use public funds to send their children to private schools.

Responding to opponents’ charges that she, like other ultra-conservative candidates, seeks to impose her own religious beliefs on others, Youngkin says: “Believe me, I want separation of church and state more than they do. The state has already messed up everything else. Do you think I want it getting involved in religion, too?”

Goldsmith, however, urges voters not to be deceived by what he regards as Youngkin’s attempt at a political makeover. “I don’t think anyone’s being fooled, but you can’t assume that,” added John Kern, who was Goldsmith’s consultant in his mayoral campaign.

“Tricia (Hunter) didn’t take her seriously two years ago,” Goldsmith said. “We won’t make the same mistake.”

His “broader, unifying agenda,” Goldsmith tells campaign audiences, includes opposition to new taxes and support for Wilson’s welfare reductions--two of the few issues on which he agrees with Youngkin.

He also promotes a high-speed rail system to alleviate freeway congestion and legislation authorizing the sale of Central Valley farmers’ water to San Diego, and has called for workers compensation reforms and regulatory reductions to encourage business expansion.

Like Youngkin, Goldsmith complains that San Diego County has been shortchanged by tens of millions of dollars in revenue annually due to inequities in state funding formulas.

Pending a court solution he admits could be years away, Goldsmith suggests the funding gap be addressed through an interim legislative remedy, such as allowing San Diego to retain a higher percentage of taxes from development.

Beyond outlining his own priorities, Goldsmith also has had to try to deflect Youngkin’s attacks, particularly in the race’s closing weeks.

While she faults him for supporting several resolutions dealing with higher state taxes, Goldsmith argues, she ignores his votes against 17 proposed fee increases and Poway’s budget surplus. Moreover, Goldsmith notes that past votes cast “while wearing my city hat” are not necessarily reflective of how he would perform as a state legislator.

In regard to the ACLU issue, Goldsmith said he has been uninvolved with the liberal group since helping to organize the college chapter in the early 1970s. “I don’t agree with many of its programs, but it has a purpose,” he said.

Youngkin has also scored Goldsmith for breaking a pledge to serve a full four-year term as mayor, a charge he concedes is accurate.

When he made the promise, Goldsmith said, he did not anticipate Hunter leaving the district, adding that many who supported him in his mayoral race encouraged him to run for the Assembly, despite the full-term pledge.

The two other Republicans on the ballot--retired firefighter Harrell and frequent candidate Schaefer--have largely played supporting roles to Youngkin and Goldsmith, but hope the two front-runners’ mutual sniping could neutralize each other, causing voters to search for alternatives.

A more likely scenario, however, casts Harrell and Schaefer as spoilers siphoning off votes from the two leading candidates. With Youngkin having largely preempted the potent far-right vote, their candidacies could be more harmful to Goldsmith.

Harrell, an unsuccessful 1990 congressional candidate from Spring Valley, has tried to tap into the public’s growing antagonism toward politics by focusing his campaign on his proposal for a citizens’ legislature limited to a three-month annual session.

Under his plan, term limits would be complemented by salary cuts for legislators, restrictions on the numbers of bills introduced and yearly rotation of the Assembly speakership.

“We have to change the system before we solve our other problems,” said the 54-year-old Harrell, who is involved with the Hillcrest Receiving Home for Abused Children, the San Diego Burn Institute and other community organizations. “Connie and Jan would continue doing business pretty much the same way, even though it’s had no success for years. That’s like being on an airplane that’s going down, and, instead of waking up the pilot, you’re serving coffee.”

For Schaefer, the Assembly race reinforces the former San Diego City Councilman’s image as the Harold Stassen of local politics.

Since leaving the council in the early 1970s, he has unsuccessfully run for the state Board of Equalization, state Senate, municipal judge, Los Angeles City Council, Congress, Nevada secretary of state and U.S. Senate from Maryland.

“That may bother some people, but the fact is my experience makes the other candidates look like little kids,” said Schaefer, who also has served in appointed jobs on the local, state and national levels. “I may be down, but I’m not out.”

Stressing economic themes, Schaefer has called for a tax moratorium on new businesses that locate in California and cash incentives for each new job that those companies create. He also has proposed setting a deadline for ending public benefits, except for emergency medical aid, to aliens, “whose entitlement is based solely on having a child born” in California.

His own business dealings, however, could cause some voters to question Schaefer’s qualifications to give advice in that area. Convicted of being a slumlord in the 1980s, he settled the case with a $2-million payment last year that, he says, “got me down to my last $1 million.”

“But a man needs only so many pairs of shoes,” Schaefer said. “How often can you eat steak, anyway?”

Three minor-party candidates--Libertarian J. C. Anderson, Green Party member Daniel Tarr and Alfredo Felix of the Peace and Freedom Party--are guaranteed spots in the November general election by virtue of being unopposed in next week’s primary.

75th Assembly District: Republicans:

Jan Goldsmith: “Getting 41 votes is the name of the game in Sacramento. You don’t do that by going up there and stomping your foot or chaining yourself to your desk.”

Connie Youngkin: “Believe me, I want separation of church and state . . . . The state has already messed up everything else. Do you think I want it getting involved in religion, too?”

Ken Harrell: “Connie and Jan would continue doing business pretty much the same way, even though it’s had no success for years. That’s like being on an airplane that’s going down, and, instead of waking up the pilot, you’re serving coffee.”

Mike Schaefer: “My experience makes the other candidates look like little kids. I may be down, but I’m not out.”