CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : 3RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT : Fazio-Richardson Fight Presents a Clear Contrast in Ideology, Style

Rep. Vic Fazio, California’s most powerful congressman, is in the fight of his political life as he faces a challenge from a veteran right-wing politician with strong support among gun owners and anti-abortion activists.

H. L. Richardson, once a conservative state senator from Southern California, has re-emerged in the Sacramento Valley to mount a biting, well-organized campaign against Fazio in the newly drawn 3rd Congressional District.

The heated contest presents a clear contrast between two professional politicians: Fazio, 50, is a moderate Democrat who has served 14 years in Congress, and Richardson, 64, is a Republican who served 22 years in the state Senate.

The two political titans are likely to spend a total of more than $2 million in a clash over ideology and style in the largely rural district, where Democrats and Republicans are evenly matched in registration.

Richardson, who has made a career out of taking on high-profile Democrats, hopes to capitalize on the anti-incumbent mood in the country. He has criticized Fazio’s sponsorship of congressional pay raises, blasted him as the “prince of perks” and accused him of being an insider who helps only his congressional colleagues.

“I think I’ll be doing the country a favor if I take Vic out,” Richardson said. “If I get back to Washington, I’ll be working aggressively to change the makeup of the place.”

Fazio, who holds the No. 5 leadership position in the House of Representatives, says Richardson is a right-wing ideologue who is running a campaign of hypocrisy. He charges that Richardson accepted eight pay raises as a state senator but missed more than 14,000 votes. He criticizes Richardson for voting to ship Northern California water to the south and for opposing abortion, including for victims of incest or rape.

“Richardson’s view of the legislative process is to polarize it,” Fazio said. “His real agenda is outside the process. He uses it as a forum for his views on guns and abortion. He’s a political activist.”

Until this year, Fazio held a safe seat centered in Sacramento and Yolo counties, giving him the freedom to work his way up the political hierarchy of the House and help his colleagues by carrying sensitive matters such as the congressional pay-raise bill.

But when the California Supreme Court stepped in and took over the redrawing of district boundaries, Fazio lost his influence over the process and ended up with a vast rural district encompassing most of the Sacramento Valley.

The voters are generally more conservative than in his old district, and about 35% of them are new to Fazio. The registration has shifted to 48% Democrat, 39% Republican--considered an even split because Republicans usually turn out to vote in greater numbers.

Despite their differing political views, the two candidates have one thing in common: They are both career politicians.

Fazio, a native of New York, came to California as a fellow at the Coro Foundation in Los Angeles and stayed on to work in the California Legislature. He helped found the California Journal and worked at the magazine as a writer. Later, he worked as an aide to Democratic Assembly Speaker Bob Moretti.

In 1975, he won election to the Assembly and served three years before winning a seat in Congress, where he quickly rose through the ranks. Today, he holds the post of vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, as well as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the fund-raising arm of the House Democrats.

Fazio is often mentioned as a likely candidate someday for Speaker of the House--if he can survive his election challenge.

As a House leader, he has often taken on unpleasant tasks, such as spearheading the pay raise in a move that also banned outside income from honorariums and gifts. He also took the heat for his colleagues in a maneuver that maintained their privilege of sending out mail franked at taxpayers’ expense.

Fazio’s style of compromise and negotiation is illustrated by his behind-the-scenes maneuvering on the recent measure to overhaul the Central Valley Project, which would make more water available for wildlife and urban areas.

He played an instrumental role in hammering out a compromise and in the process helped make the legislation more favorable to the rice farmers of his new district. But when the bill came up on the floor, he refused to vote for it, saying it did not do enough to protect the interests of farmers.

“People perceive me to be a problem solver, a conciliator, a legislator who makes things happen,” Fazio said. “My goal is to stay in the legislative process and make it work.”

Richardson, once the owner of a small advertising agency, got his start in politics as a member of the John Birch Society. In 1962, he ran his first race for Congress and lost.

In 1966, he won a seat in the state Senate representing the San Gabriel Valley. With reapportionment, the district shifted eastward over the years to take in San Bernardino County, but he held on to the seat until he retired in 1988.

While in the state Senate, Richardson served on the board of the National Rifle Assn. and used his legislative post to push an agenda of support for the death penalty and opposition to gun control.

To raise funds, he founded a variety of political action committees, including the Gun Owners of America. Fazio estimates that Richardson raised and spent more than $7 million through these committees and has labeled him “the prince of PACs.”

Among conservatives, Richardson was a pioneer in using targeted direct mail to solicit contributions, promote political causes and help put his friends in office. Most recently, he has added political videos to his repertoire, opening his own video production business.

Over the years, he has taken on a variety of Democratic politicians, helping to oust Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and veteran Democratic state Sen. Al Rodda, among others. But he has less success promoting himself: He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1974 and lieutenant governor in 1986, losing both times.

As a member of the Senate, Richardson represented Southern California districts, voting for issues of importance to the area, such as the plan to build the Peripheral Canal to ship water south. During that time he collected a per diem for the expense of maintaining homes in his district and in Sacramento, although he now says he lived in Northern California all that time, flying occasionally to his district in his own plane.

During his final term in the state Senate, Richardson was absent much of the time. He says he was present for all the votes that were important to him, but Fazio contends that his rival has no interest in being a legislator.

Richardson has played heavily on a USA Today story naming Fazio as the member of Congress with the highest office expenses. Fazio says the expenditures were high because his district was one of the largest in the nation before reapportionment. For most of his last five years as a state senator, Richardson’s own office expenses regularly were in the top three in the Senate, according to the Senate Rules Committee.

In the campaign, Richardson’s opposition to abortion has raised the greatest controversy. He says that a woman who reports being raped will routinely be treated immediately with pills that prevent pregnancy. But he opposes abortion for a woman who would “come off the street” two months later seeking an abortion because she had been raped.

“That is an excuse that is used months down the road,” he said. “What we’re talking about is taking a human life.”

Richardson says he expects to spend about $750,000 on his campaign, whereas Fazio says he will spend twice that much.

3rd Congressional District

Democrats: 48%

Republicans: 39%