Seymour Tries to Shore Home Base : Politics: Underdog senator stumps for support from women and defense workers in Irvine.

Battling to increase support on his home turf, U.S. Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.) courted women voters at a luncheon Wednesday and visited a defense plant where he promised recession-weary workers help in keeping their Patriot missile contract away from a British competitor.

Referring to assumptions that women will vote for Democrat Dianne Feinstein because of her sex, Seymour told the “Women for Seymour” luncheon in Costa Mesa: “The women I talk to say their intelligence is being insulted.”

Seymour said he has supported legislation to help women, including the creation of a commission to help remove barriers that keep women from reaching top positions in corporations, and increased funding for shelters that serve abused women. He’s also pro-choice on abortion, which drew applause from many of the women.

Talk of the gender gap and “the year of the woman” has been frustrating, Seymour admitted, but he lashed out at Feinstein for having little or no life outside of politics. “What has she done? . . . I had a life before politics,” Seymour said, referring to his previous career as a real estate broker.

And Seymour, a former Anaheim mayor and state legislator, added that he has the ability to get more women appointed to federal judgeships. So far, he said, President Bush has appointed all five people he has recommended for judgeships and three of those were women. “I can do more than talk,” Seymour said. “I can perform.”

Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) attended the luncheon in support of Seymour and said it isn’t enough to reelect President Bush--that Bush needs Seymour and others like him to end the current political stalemate in Congress.

At the Irvine-based Kaiser Electroprecision Co., where 20% of the 500 workers have been laid off, Seymour told about 200 assembled employees that he would do “everything I can” to keep Patriot contracts from going to a rival firm in Britain.

Seymour said he wants to help other firms make the transition from defense products to civilian work. “If we can build a Patriot missile,” the GOP lawmaker said, “it seems to me we can produce an electric car.”

He criticized Feinstein for proposing massive defense cuts that would, he said, lay waste to California’s economy. “I’m for a gradual build-down,” Seymour said. “She’s for a total tear-down.”

Seymour visited the plant once before, during the Persian Gulf War to praise the workmanship on the Patriot missile casings produced there.