Gallegly Fails to Warm to Huffington

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) regards former Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura) as a mentor and close friend. The two shared representation of Ventura County, served on the Interior and Foreign Affairs committees together and were political confidantes.

Thus, Gallegly was distraught when Michael Huffington ran a sharp-edged, $3.4-million campaign against Lagomarsino in a Republican primary in 1992 to unceremoniously end the lawmaker’s long congressional career. Reelected himself, Gallegly professed suffering “survivor’s guilt.”

In the nearly two years since, Gallegly has not warmed to Huffington, the multimillionaire fiscal conservative and social moderate who is seeking the Republican Senate nomination this year, sources say. Gallegly’s public comments about his congressional neighbor and GOP colleague to the north are tempered--but pointed nonetheless.

“I have not tried to be openly hostile toward Michael because of my strong feeling of respect for Bob Lagomarsino and the way the campaign was handled,” Gallegly said Friday. “I try to separate the two things in terms of what we’re dealing with on Congress.”

But then he added: “He’s not the first guy I go running to, to establish an alliance on every bill I work on.”

Indeed, Gallegly, who has not made an endorsement in the Senate primary, said of Huffington: “I don’t know anybody who knows him well. He’s not a high-profile guy. . . . I haven’t seen an awful lot of Michael Huffington.”

To be sure, Gallegly and Huffington have fewer overlapping geographic interests than Gallegly and Lagomarsino had. Following the redrawing of district lines in 1992, Gallegly represents Carpinteria and all of Ventura County except most of Thousand Oaks. Huffington represents all of Santa Barbara County except Carpinteria and all of San Luis Obispo County. And they are not assigned to the same committees, where much of Congress’ work is done.

For his part, Huffington said in interview that his association with Gallegly has come a long way after a rocky start. His assessment so contrasts with Gallegly’s that it is difficult to believe they are describing the same relationship.

“Our relationship is excellent,” insisted Huffington, who suggested Gallegly would agree. “He and I have a great working relationship and we are friends. He also happens to be friends with Bob Lagomarsino. But that’s a separate issue.”

To bolster his assertion, Huffington said he has signed on as a co-sponsor of six of Gallegly’s bills--more than those of any other member. Half of them concern steps to crack down on illegal immigration. “Making a tempest out of a teapot doesn’t fit here,” Huffington said.

He said that in general he has worked mostly closely with his fellow GOP freshmen. A leading first-term Republican who speaks well of Huffington nonetheless said, “He hasn’t really developed as many friendships as others.”

For Gallegly, who still talks often to Lagomarsino about politics and other concerns, separating the personal and the professional when it comes to Huffington is clearly not easy.

“My deep feelings about the way that campaign was run are obvious,” Gallegly said. “It’s not the kind of thing that you quickly forget--something that you feel very strongly about.”

Huffington’s campaign attacks on Lagomarsino portrayed the 19-year House veteran as a tired career politician who had supported the sale of state-of-the-art equipment used to spy on Chinese dissidents during the 1989 Tian An Men Square massacre. Lagomarsino responded by calling the issue of the surveillance cameras “ridiculous and counterproductive.”

Today, Lagomarsino remains bitter about the scion of a Texas oil and gas fortune who decided to run for the Senate seat held by Dianne Feinstein, a San Francisco Democrat, less than a year after winning the 22nd District congressional seat.

The ex-legislator provided no assistance to Huffington during the post-election transition and has taken numerous shots at the freshman in a monthly political newsletter that Lagomarsino and his wife, Norma, have published since September. And last week, the Ojai resident endorsed former Orange County Rep. William E. Dannemeyer in the Senate primary race.

But Lagomarsino’s most eyebrow-raising gesture was to turn over boxes of Huffington press releases, videotapes, scripts and other materials to Feinstein’s campaign in October. He said he did it “because I thought it would help the other Republicans in the primary, to the extent that anybody got (the information) out.”

A day after endorsing Dannemeyer at two Santa Barbara County news conferences, Lagomarsino said, “I don’t want to be completely negative (about Huffington), but I am.” On Friday, he launched this riposte: “I feel so strongly that he is not a proper person to be a U.S. senator, let alone what his real ambition is, which is to be President.”

He asserts that Huffington has failed to represent the district well or fulfill his campaign promise to reform Congress. Huffington has countered by citing a range of actions, including helping 600 constituents solve problems with the government; joining with other freshmen to enact several congressional reforms; co-chairing the campaign to pass a “Three Strikes, You’re Out” ballot initiative in California this year, and contributing his $133,644 annual salary to children’s charities in his district.

“I came here to serve,” Huffington said. “In my own way, I’ve made a difference.”

As for Lagomarsino passing ammunition to Feinstein, Huffington said, “He certainly has the right to do whatever he wants. However, as a prior elected official for 34 years and a lifelong Republican, I’ve heard people in our district calling him ‘the Benedict Arnold of Republican politics.’ ”

Huffington and Lagomarsino agree on one thing: that Lagomarsino rebuffed Huffington’s overtures to bury the hatchet after the 1992 primary. Huffington said that even the district office typewriters had been tampered with so they were inoperable when his staff took over from Lagomarsino’s. “That wasn’t very helpful,” Huffington said.

Huffington’s first approach to Gallegly after the election did not go much better.

In an emotional outburst, Gallegly had referred to Huffington as “an idiot” during a cable television interview on election night. Some time later, at a posh Republican fund-raiser at Lake Sherwood, Huffington approached Gallegly, who was seated near former President Ronald Reagan. Gallegly’s recalled the exchange this way:

“I’m the ‘idiot,’ ” Huffington said, extending his palm for a handshake.

The two engaged in innocuous small talk until the congressman-elect mentioned Lagomarsino.

“I’ve really tried to build bridges with Bob and it’s just too bad that he is such a poor loser,” Huffington said.

“That pushed a real bad button with me,” Gallegly recalled. “I said, ‘I’ve always measured people on their ability to be a good winner rather than a bad loser.’ I certainly thought that was the wrong characterization of Bob Lagomarsino at the time.

“I didn’t yell at him. I’m sure there was a slight octave change in my voice. . . . I let him know there really wasn’t a lot of purpose in continuing the conversation that evening.”

This week, Huffington recollected going over to introduce himself to Gallegly at the event but maintained “that was so long ago I don’t recall the exact exchange.”

After he was sworn to office, Huffington said he told Gallegly: “Let’s make this the first day of the beginning of the rest of our relationship.”

Gallegly and Lagomarsino worked particularly closely together on securing land for the Channel Islands National Park, which Lagomarsino helped create. Huffington said that he has not played a role in this area because he does not sit on the Interior Committee, which has jurisdiction over the park, and “no one has asked me to get involved.”

Ironically, one of the earliest initiatives that Gallegly brought to Huffington was his resolution to name the visitors center after Lagomarsino. Initially, Huffington was the only one of 22 California Republicans who did not co-sponsor the measure. After this was noted in a newspaper story, he added his name to the list.

“It’s a conflict of interest,” Huffington said Friday. “Here we are in Congress naming buildings after ourselves. I think we have a lot of heroes in athletics, the armed forces and (among) schoolteachers. If we’re going to name any buildings, we should do it after them.” He said he later became a co-sponsor because he didn’t want to appear to be anti-Lagomarsino.

At the time, Huffington’s spokeswoman initially said she wasn’t sure that the new congressman had seen the bill. A week later, his chief aide said that a legislative assistant had erred in turning down Gallegly’s request.

The bill has passed the House and is now before the Senate. The prime sponsor is Dianne Feinstein.

Staff writer Kenneth R. Weiss in Ventura contributed to this story.

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