New Battle Lines in War of ‘Words’ : Politics: Democrats hope to unseat Rep. Robert K. Dornan with a videotape using his own verbal barbs and bombshells lobbed in speeches and on the House floor.

State and local Democratic Party leaders on Friday announced a campaign to unseat Republican Rep. Robert K. Dornan, and said they planned to rely on Dornan himself as their chief fund-raising tool.

At a press conference they called to kick off the campaign, they unveiled a six-minute videotape, entitled “Dornan: In His Own Words,” that they hope will trigger an outpouring of political campaign contributions that will be used in an attempt to defeat Dornan if he seeks reelection in 1994.

Where Dornan’s own words had not been captured on videotape, an announcer’s voice is heard reading his quotes from the Congressional Record or news media interviews he has given, often while the Garden Grove congressman is shown in slow motion pounding a lectern in the House of Representatives.

The announcer also describes Dornan as “one of Washington’s more vicious practitioners of character assassination. . . . Dornan’s scurrilous attacks cannot be explained simply as a politician shooting from the hip. Frequently they are calculated, right-wing assaults, inflammatory, hateful speeches and premeditated outbursts which sometimes lead to violent confrontations.”

As the longtime underdog in Orange County politics, the Democratic Party leaders hope their video assault will not only diminish Dornan’s political stock, but also raise enough money to make the seat attractive to a viable Democratic candidate.

Dornan, who had not seen the tape but knew of the Democratic Party’s plans, dismissed the Democrats’ new campaign. “They want to see if they can make any money off of Bob Dornan, a nationally known Republican,” he said.

Officially undecided about whether to seek reelection to the House, run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, seek his party’s presidential nomination in 1996, or retire from politics and become a radio or television commentator, Dornan maintained he is unbeatable in his congressional district.

He noted that his opponent in the 1992 party primary, a moderate Republican woman, raised and spent about $700,000 to defeat him and still lost. During that campaign, Dornan caused a furor among some women voters with his remark that “every lesbian spear-chucker in America is hoping I get defeated”--a comment that was included among those on the Democratic Party’s videotape.

“I don’t have to worry about this” campaign, Dornan said. “When you have as high a profile as I do, you have as many detractors as you do supporters. I am not . . . your average, gutless congressman.”

Referring to some of the Democratic Party leaders gathered at the news conference, Dornan said they were “disloyal . . . Kennedy Catholics who vote for the killing of infants in their mothers’ wombs.”

But at the Disneyland Hotel, where about three dozen Democrats from Orange and Los Angeles counties gathered to preview the tape, Dornan was depicted as a “coward” who is weighing a presidential race because he fears he is vulnerable in his own back yard.

“I would like to see Bob Dornan run for President,” said Tony Rodham, the brother of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. “It would keep my brother-in-law in place for four more years.”

Rodham, a field director for the National Democratic Committee, said his presence at the press conference demonstrated that President Clinton and the national party back the effort to defeat Dornan.

Orange County Democratic Party Chairman Howard Adler pointed out that Dornan received only 50.2% of the vote in the last general election, about seven percentage points less than he received in 1990. The balance was divided by Democratic and Libertarian Party candidates who were underfunded and unknown, Adler said.

“In other words, 50% of the people were willing to vote for anyone else, even though they did not even know who anyone else was,” Adler said.

Party officials concede they did not adequately help their candidate in 1992, and may have missed an opportunity to defeat Dornan.

“We could have retired Bob Dornan the last time, except the state Democratic Party and the national Democratic Party sat on the sidelines,” said state Democratic Party Chairman Bill Press. “We are not going to do it this time. We are going to make this (congressional seat) the first . . . priority in the state of California; to retire Bob Dornan.”

Adler said $40,000 has been raised so far, with a total goal of $300,000. While the videotape will be distributed nationally, all the money raised will remain in Orange County and be set aside for that congressional district, he added.