Dannemeyer to Make 2nd Bid for Senate

Former Orange County congressman William E. Dannemeyer, a champion of the religious right and an outspoken opponent of homosexuals, announced Wednesday that he will make his second consecutive bid to be the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate.

Dannemeyer complained that the only other major Republican candidate in the race--Rep. Michael Huffington (R-Santa Barbara)--is so indistinguishable from the Democratic politics of Sen. Dianne Feinstein that he gives voters little reason to vote the incumbent out of office.

The former seven-term congressman said that his anti-abortion, anti-tax and anti-homosexual posture offers a clear contrast with both leading candidates.

“Conservative Democrats have a reason to vote Republican when we define a distinct difference with our liberal opponents,” Dannemeyer said at a news conference Wednesday in the state Capitol. “We’re the party that wants to lower taxes, not raise them; restrain spending and provide for growth and job creation.”

Dannemeyer, 64, promised a vigorous campaign against Huffington. But GOP leaders said Wednesday that unless the Fullerton Republican can raise substantial funds, his role may be limited to that of a protest vote. Huffington is a wealthy freshman legislator who has said he will spend millions of dollars of his own money to finance his Senate race.

“Based on his fund raising in the past, he hasn’t demonstrated an ability to finance a (statewide) campaign,” said Sal Russo, a Republican political consultant in Sacramento. “Unless he is able to raise more than he has, I don’t see him being much of a factor.”

Dannemeyer played a similar role when he challenged former Sen. John Seymour in the 1992 GOP primary. By Election Day, Dannemeyer never expanded his support beyond a conservative base and he lost the primary nearly 2 to 1. Seymour went on to lose the general election to Feinstein.

Dannemeyer said this race is different because he is not running against an incumbent who had the support of Republican leaders in Sacramento and Washington. And he promised to raise about $2.5 million by the June 7 primary.

So far, Dannemeyer has not filed any financial records for his 1994 Senate race, which he is required to do if he raises or spends more than $5,000 on the campaign. Federal records also show that he has a debt of more than $100,000 remaining in his 1992 Senate campaign committee.

Huffington so far appears to be all but dismissing Dannemeyer’s campaign as a nuisance, aiming his strategy at a November showdown with Feinstein.

“I see that I have a primary,” said Huffington, who is already broadcasting television commercials statewide. “But I also know that if I want to focus on beating Feinstein, I better focus on beating Feinstein. So I speak to all of these groups about Feinstein. That’s who I am going for.”

In addition to Huffington and Dannemeyer, the GOP primary ballot will include Riverside businesswoman Kate Squires. So far, there are no major Democratic challengers to Feinstein.

The three GOP candidates will meet in a forum this weekend at the state Republican convention in Burlingame, where Dannemeyer promised to confront Huffington in front of the party’s rank and file.

Huffington, 44, has emphasized an anti-tax and fiscally conservative platform, but he and Dannemeyer are vastly different candidates on social issues. In contrast to Dannemeyer, Huffington supports a woman’s right to abortion, the right of homosexuals to serve in the military and restrictions on guns.

Dannemeyer has begun criticizing Huffington as a carpetbagger for seeking a California office. Until recently, Huffington was an executive in the family’s Houston oil company.

“I need to define him as a Texan,” Dannemeyer said. “Texas is a wonderful state, but I don’t think they should have three U.S. Senators.”

Dannemeyer entered politics 31 years ago as a Democratic state assemblyman from Fullerton. He switched to the Republican Party four years later and was elected to the first of seven terms in Congress in 1979. He retired from the House in 1992 in order to run for the Senate.

As a congressman, Dannemeyer developed a reputation as a conservative crusader against homosexuals and a proponent of a controversial AIDS law that involved disclosure and quarantine. He also gained attention and outraged Washington by reading graphic descriptions of homosexual sex acts into the Congressional Record.

Dannemeyer said homosexuality is a symptom of the nation’s separation from its religious roots. For his 1994 campaign, he applied the same concern to a number of other problems.

In a statement on crime, Dannemeyer traced problems back to a 1947 U.S. Supreme Court decision that “inserted into our law the myth of separation of church and state.” He said the lack of religion in public institutions and government support for the welfare state have led to the nation’s crime problem.

“Wonder no longer where gang culture and crime increase comes from--we created it ourselves,” he said. “Stated another way, Congress produced it as a byproduct of the War on Poverty and the U.S. Supreme Court stole our Judeo-Christian heritage.”