ELECTIONS : 4 House Incumbents Look Safe Against Longshots : Politics: In the 41st District, Jay C. Kim is favored to become the first Korean-American congressman.

The challengers aren’t pulling any punches as they press their long-shot campaigns against veteran congressmen in the San Gabriel Valley.

Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale) is “basically a lobbyist for the special interests,” says his Democratic opponent.

Rep. Matthew G. Martinez (D-Monterey Park) “is considered one of the dumbest and least effective members of Congress,” says his Republican challenger.

And Rep. David Dreier (R-La Verne) is that most hated of all creatures, “a professional politician,” says his Democratic rival.

Congressional campaigns in the San Gabriel Valley are not short of issues or invective this year but, as always, the chances are slim that any of the incumbents will lose.

Redistricting has left Moorhead, Martinez, Dreier and Rep. Esteban E. Torres (D-Pico Rivera) with seats that are politically safe by traditional measurements. And in the area’s one district where there is no incumbent, Republican dominance in voter registration points to an easy win for the party’s nominee, Diamond Bar Mayor Jay C. Kim.

Still, challengers hope that voters this year will cast their ballots in unforeseen ways, given congressional scandals, anti-incumbent fervor, a sick economy, political gridlock, predictions of a Democratic presidential landslide in California and the surprising strength of the Ross Perot movement.

27th DISTRICT (Includes all or most of Altadena, Burbank, Glendale, La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Montrose, Pasadena, San Marino, South Pasadena, Sunland and Tujunga and parts of Lake View Terrace, Sun Valley and Sylmar).

Normally, it doesn’t take much campaigning for Carlos J. Moorhead, a 20-year congressional veteran, to persuade voters to reelect him.

But this year’s political volatility has prompted him to dig more deeply than usual into his $700,000 campaign fund to fend off a challenge by Doug Kahn, a little-known Democratic party activist who owns a small Altadena typesetting company.

Moorhead, who has been rated the most conservative lawmaker in Congress, plans to spend $300,000 on mailings and cable television ads touting his staunchly pro-business record. “I don’t take things for granted,” he said. “I’m going to do whatever is helpful to my campaign and not worry about his.”

Although the amiable Moorhead is hardly a legislative heavyweight--he was recently named dean of the “obscure caucus” by a Capitol Hill newspaper--he keeps in touch with voters by holding periodic town meetings, sending publicly financed newsletters and attending community events.

In 1990, Moorhead was shaken when his vote tally dropped to 59% from the 70% he had chalked up in 1988. He suffered another blow last year when the Republican registration in his newly drawn district dipped from 55% to just below 44%.

Polls indicate that Moorhead is out of step with a majority of district voters on one key issue: He opposes abortion except in the case of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother. Kahn supports abortion rights.

Moorhead, 70, stresses his backing of policies to create “a friendly business climate.” He is also telling voters that he had no check overdrafts at the scandal-plagued House bank.

Kahn, 40, maintains that Moorhead has been an ineffective lawmaker who goes to bat for corporate interests that pay for his campaign and his junkets to exotic locales.

“You have to search high and low to find his accomplishments in Congress,” Kahn said. “He hasn’t got the foggiest idea of what’s wrong with the economy or how to fix it. He’s not really been a representative. He’s basically a lobbyist for the special interests.”

Moorhead responds that he has opposed groups that have funded his campaign and trips, such as television broadcasters and the cable television industry.

Both candidates cite the cable television bill Congress recently passed to make their point. Moorhead first voted for the measure to reimpose federal controls on rates charged for basic television service. The industry strongly opposed the bill.

He subsequently voted against the measure after it was amended to allow broadcasters to charge cable companies for the rights to carry local and network programming.

Movie studios--including Disney and Warner Brothers in Moorhead’s district--opposed this provision because it would mean that broadcasters would get new revenue for programs without any added payments going to the movie studios and other producers.

Kahn asserted that Moorhead has backed cable deregulation and only voted for the initial cable bill “when it was perfectly obvious it was going to pass.” He said Moorhead flip-flopped to placate Disney and other studio campaign contributors.

Moorhead said he supported the deregulation bill because “I didn’t like cable being able to jack up their prices without reason when they’ve got a monopoly.” He said he opposed the broadcast provision because it would cost jobs in entertainment studios in his district.

Although he is sure to be outspent by Moorhead, Kahn said he hopes to raise $250,000 for his campaign.

Also running in the 27th District are Libertarian candidate Dennis Decherd, a Pasadena computer systems analyst; Peace and Freedom candidate Margaret L. Edwards, an Altadena legal secretary, and Green Party candidate Jesse A. Moorman, a Pasadena civil rights attorney. Decherd is running on a platform that calls for repealing all government subsidies and phasing out the income tax. Edwards and Moorman could not be reached for comment.

28th DISTRICT (Includes all or most of Arcadia, Bradbury, Claremont, Covina, Duarte, Glendora, La Verne, Monrovia, San Dimas, Sierra Madre, Temple City, Walnut, West Covina and parts of the City of Industry, Pasadena, Pomona and Rowland Heights).

When David Dreier was campaigning for and winning his first term in Congress a dozen years ago at the age of 28, his critics complained that he was woefully short on work experience and, as a single man, couldn’t relate to the problems of families and their wage-earners. Al Wachtel, a Pitzer College professor who is Dreier’s Democratic opponent this year, is still pressing that case.

“He doesn’t really know what it is to work for a living,” said Wachtel. “He doesn’t know what it means to raise children or accommodate a relationship to a mate. What he knows is being a congressperson. And being a congressperson who is interested in one thing it appears to me: being reelected and serving the special interests that pay his campaign bills. This is an utterly bought person.”

Wachtel cites the savings and loan scandal as evidence against Dreier, saying Dreier supported deregulation of the industry during 10 years on the House Banking Committee while receiving more campaign contributions from that industry than all but one other member of the House.

“His votes helped an industry to become irresponsible,” Wachtel said.

Dreier received $75,150 from savings and loan interests in the 1980s, according to a Common Cause study. That was the second-highest amount received by any House member still in office in 1990, but the study excluded major recipients who had left office before then. The contributions are only a small portion of Dreier’s campaign fund, which totals nearly $2 million. Dreier said none of the money came from discredited executives or insolvent companies; all came from reputable segments of the industry.

Dreier said the seeds of the savings and loan debacle were planted before he arrived in Washington by 1980 legislation that raised the limits on guaranteed deposits from $40,000 to $100,000. This enabled poorly run savings and loans to attract deposits with high interest rates, and when the institutions collapsed under the weight of bad loans, taxpayers were left with the bill.

The lesson is not that deregulation doesn’t work, Dreier said, but that bad regulations and inadequate oversight invite disaster.

In Congress, Dreier has advocated free trade, a flat tax and a reduction in government regulations on business. Environmental groups usually give him higher ratings than other California Republicans, though he fared poorly in a recent score card published by the League of Conservation Voters. He has taken a special interest in foreign policy, traveling widely abroad, and is a strong supporter of the free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.

Wachtel has criticized Dreier for voting against public funding of abortions and against a bill requiring employers to grant unpaid leave to workers faced with family emergencies.

Dreier has said family leave is a policy that should be negotiated between employers and workers, not imposed by the government.

Wachtel, 52, who is married and the father of seven children, has been teaching since the age of 23 and has been at Pitzer College since 1974. He recently published a book on James Joyce and may be the only candidate this year who can claim to have been inspired to run by reading Joyce.

“Joyce is considered an esoteric writer, someone . . . that no one reads,” Wachtel said. “But the truth is that one of Joyce’s most brilliant recognitions is that citizens must take an active role in the conduct of their society. And indeed that’s a part of what impelled me.”

Wachtel is running as a pro-business Democrat who believes in the economic ideas that were advanced by Paul Tsongas in the Democratic presidential primaries and finds much merit in the economic plan of Ross Perot. He favors tax incentives to stimulate job growth and greater efforts to convert the defense industry to peacetime manufacturing.

Dreier is also advocating government efforts to help the defense industry move into new fields. He serves on a task force on defense reinvestment and economic development that has proposed the creation of public-private consortia to develop technology for electric vehicles, optical electronics, digital communications and other advanced products.

Dreier, 40, developed his interest in politics while attending Claremont McKenna College. He was 25 when he launched his first campaign for Congress against Rep. Jim Lloyd of West Covina. He defeated Lloyd on his second attempt, in 1980, and has been in Congress since.

In addition to Dreier and Wachtel, voters will find two other candidates on the ballot. Walter Sheasby, 51, an economist and investment counselor who lives in Sierra Madre, is running on the Green Party ticket. Thomas J. Dominy, 38, a pharmaceutical representative from Rosemead, is the Libertarian candidate.

Sheasby is running on a 10-point platform that includes international cooperation, full employment, environmental protection, equality and workplace democracy. Dominy’s platform includes elimination of the income tax, crime reduction through drug legalization and a free-market approach to most problems.

31st DISTRICT (Includes all or most of Alhambra, Monterey Park, San Gabriel, Rosemead, El Monte, South El Monte, Baldwin Park, Irwindale and Azusa).

Two years ago, Republican businessman Reuben Franco challenged Rep. Matthew G. (Marty) Martinez and lost decisively, 58% to 37%. Franco is back for a second shot, hoping that the bad reviews Martinez has received from political journals, his 19 overdrafts on the House bank and an anti-incumbent mood will change the outcome this year.

“He’s the worst congressman in the nation,” Franco said. “If people are talking about throwing the bums out, he’s the one bum they should throw out.” Franco, 32, who owns a business that sells equipment to physicians and dentists, has found Martinez to be an elusive target unwilling to debate. Franco was reduced to debating the issues with a write-in candidate, Aleric Arenander of the Natural Law Party, at a recent cable television forum when Martinez declined to participate.

Meanwhile, Martinez seems to have little reason to change a campaign policy he has followed for years with great success: Ignore the opposition.

Martinez, 63, a former Monterey Park city councilman, won election to the state Assembly in 1980 and to Congress in 1982, beating John Rousselot, a Republican congressman who had lost his district through reapportionment. Since then, Martinez has weathered three strong primary challenges from fellow Democrats and periodic targeting by Republicans.

Articles in political journals have rated Martinez at or near the bottom of the California congressional delegation in intelligence and effectiveness. But Martinez has pointed to a number of accomplishments, including passage of bills to fund programs for senior citizens and provide job training.

Franco and Martinez disagree on many issues. Franco is a strong supporter of enterprise zones as a means of boosting economic development. Martinez opposes enterprise zones, saying there are better ways to stimulate business and create jobs than to give tax breaks to big corporations. On abortion, Franco labels himself a pro-life candidate and opposes public funding. Martinez supports abortion rights for women.

34th DISTRICT (Includes Montebello, Norwalk, Pico Rivera, Santa Fe Springs, Whittier and parts of Commerce, East Los Angeles, Hacienda Heights, Industry, La Habra Heights, La Mirada, La Puente, Rosemead, South San Gabriel, Valinda and West Covina).

Democratic Rep. Esteban E. Torres, 62, of Pico Rivera is sitting in the catbird seat going into the general election. Registered Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans, and Torres has proved so popular in the district that no one challenged him in the primary.

His Republican opponent, J. (Jay) Hernandez, a 53-year-old Catholic lay minister who owns an optical laboratory in Whittier, is counting on voter disenchantment with incumbents.

“I’ve got to think that things are no better today in the 34th District or for that matter around the country as they were when he first took office,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez describes Torres as a “very liberal, free-spending politician.” Hernandez supports welfare reform, a strong military, tax incentives for business, reduced regulations on small business and a voucher system to allow parents to choose between public and private schools.

Torres defends his record, saying he has “championed the quality of life in the district.”

He has pushed for the cleanup of ground water contamination in the San Gabriel Valley and for legislation to permit federal prosecutors to seek lengthy prison terms for street gang members who commit federal crimes.

Torres is working on a state task force on economic conversion to keep Northrop Corp.’s Pico Rivera plant open and is working with the Long Beach Naval Shipyard to ensure that it too stays open.

A third candidate, Carl (Marty) Swinney, 45, an X-ray technician, is running on the Libertarian platform that calls for a drastic reduction in the size of government. He favors repealing the personal income tax, an action that, he said, would greatly stimulate the economy.

41st DISTRICT (Includes all or most of Chino, Chino Hills, Diamond Bar, Montclair, Ontario, Pomona, Rowland Heights, Upland, Yorba Linda and parts of Anaheim Hills, Brea, Placentia and Walnut).

This new congressional district, carved out of the growing suburbs where Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange counties meet, is the unlikely setting for the anticipated election of the first Korean-American to Congress.

Diamond Bar Mayor Jay C. Kim, the surprise winner in the Republican primary, is favored to win this solid GOP district where nearly half the voters are Republicans and fewer than 40% are Democrats. The population is mostly white and only 10% Asian.

Kim, 53, who owns an engineering company, is running as a businessman who promises to go to Washington to cut spending, reduce business-stifling regulations, and stimulate the economy through tax incentives and worker retraining.

Kim said the government in its zeal to protect the environment has imposed regulations that hamper business and deprive property owners of their rights. “Human beings should have as much right as the spotted owl,” he said.

He is one of the sponsors of Proposition 164, the ballot measure that would impose congressional term limits.

The U.S. free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico has emerged as an issue between Kim and his two opponents, Democrat Bob Baker and Peace and Freedom nominee Mike Noonan. Kim supports the pact. “It will have tremendous benefits in the long run,” he said.

But Baker and Noonan think that the treaty will cost the United States jobs.

“I think it’s ludicrous and ridiculous,” Baker said, predicting that a shift of manufacturing to Mexico will reduce employment and harm many small businesses in the United States.

Baker, 41, is employed by a defense contractor as an analyst and spent 14 years in Army intelligence work. He said his background gives him an understanding of defense and foreign policy issues that Kim lacks.

On crime issues, Baker, who lives in Anaheim, said he takes such a hard line that he has been told he sounds like a “Republican law-and-order candidate.” He would deal with gangs, for example, by using child endangerment laws to empower authorities to remove gang members from homes and put them in foster care.

Baker said he is offering bold, new ideas while Kim is proposing to continue “the same thing we’ve had.”

Noonan, 52, a Claremont pharmacist, said neither the major party offers real change.

“If we keep sending Republicans and Democrats back to Washington to clean up the mess made by Republicans and Democrats, it isn’t going to happen,” he said.

Noonan said Congress should take the money that is spent on national defense and “spend it on our real enemies,” unemployment, AIDS, poor housing and inadequate health care.

Times Staff Writers Alan C. Miller and Tina Griego contributed to this article.

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