CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : INLAND EMPIRE : Bono Hopes to Succeed in Friendlier Territory

Entertainer-cum-campaigner Sonny Bono is trolling a politically attractive neighborhood for votes, hoping he can finesse his celebrity stature more successfully than he did two years ago.

“Hi, Mr. Bono!” a man bellows as the candidate for Congress walks up his driveway. The two have never met but clearly no introduction is necessary. Even at 59, with those deep smile wrinkles around the eyes, the thin, mustachioed Bono is still easily recognized. “You’ve got my vote--don’t worry!” volunteers Luke Schenkken.

Bono hands him campaign literature, including a tri-fold handout with Bono pictured on its cover, looking Palm Springs-chic, and emblazoned with the campaign motto: “Let’s do things differently in Congress and better!”

Although Bono can work a small political rally like a cozy Vegas lounge, he appears uncomfortable with the one-on-one chitchat. He is escorted away by his father-in-law, who shepherds him to the next Republican house.

Bono is pleased by the reception he typically receives. “People don’t see me as unapproachable,” he said. “Because of my TV personality, I think people saw me as part of the family. I wasn’t like, oh, what’s his name, the guy who played God all the time?”

Charlton Heston?

“Yeah, Heston. I’m just a guy who joked all the time, someone people could like.”

But liking Sonny Bono and voting for him have proven to be two different matters.

In 1992, Bono was badly thumped in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate. He got 17% of the action, a half-million votes behind conservative television commentator Bruce Herschensohn, who in turn lost to Democrat Barbara Boxer.

Back then, Bono--who won mixed reviews after four years as mayor of Palm Springs--was poorly prepped for serious national politics, pummeled by reporters and discarded by the voters as a political oddity. But he said the experience was necessary so voters would come to consider him as a bona fide candidate.

He thinks his sacrificial run two years ago will now pay off. Still wearing his inexperience as a campaign button and still promising to be the bureaucracy-buster in Washington, Bono this time is running for Congress.

He’s one of six Republican candidates salivating for the open seat in the 44th District, which is being vacated by the retiring GOP Rep. Al McCandless of La Quinta. The district encompasses eastern Riverside County, including the sprawling suburb of Moreno Valley, the agricultural fields of the Coachella Valley and such cloistered country club communities as Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage. Residents in those environs include a former President, Gerald Ford; a former vice president, Spiro Agnew; and a long list of other political, industrial and celebrity constituents.

The congressional race is perhaps the most interesting primary election in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. A more typical cat fight is being waged in the 36th state Senate District--western Riverside County and northern San Diego County--where the seat is being vacated by Democrat Robert Presley and which now weighs in as a Republican district.

Voters in the Republican primary will choose between a conservative legislator and a county lawman: freshman Assemblyman Ray Haynes, who is counting on strong support from fundamental Christian corners, and Riverside County Sheriff Cois Byrd, who is banking on his law enforcement credentials and his more moderate Republican stance.

The biggest surprise in Inland Empire politics came when McCandless announced his retirement from Congress, offering an open seat in a district that figures to go Republican.

Until then, Bono had figured on running for lieutenant governor. Gov. Pete Wilson was neutral on his candidacy, Bono said. When McCandless opted to retire, Washington looked more attractive.

Wilson’s campaign press secretary, Dan Schnur, said Bono wasn’t discouraged from seeking the state office, but was simply shown the light--”polling that we thought would help him come to a decision on his own.” The Republican poll suggested Bono would fare “much better” in a congressional race than for the state office, Schnur said.

As a congressional candidate, Bono offers this conservative spiel: The federal government meddles too much and government over-complicates life. He proposes the elimination of unproductive federal departments or ones that duplicate state efforts. He says income taxes should be paid only to the states, which in turn should bankroll the federal government.

Bono said his own polling shows him easily leading the five other Republican candidates in next month’s primary; he’s the only one with widespread name recognition. More importantly, he said, the poll suggests that voters are now willing to take him seriously.

He thinks he has finally shed co-identity with Cher; he’s found life after “The Love Boat.”

Bono says he’ll spend nearly as much on the congressional race as he did for his Senate run two years ago--$300,000. Most of the money is his own: royalties from his songs with Cher and income from his occasional television cameos and for being the front man for the Palm Springs restaurant that bears his name, but which he sold three years ago.

Just as he’s a draw in Palm Springs, Bono is sure his celebrity will play well in Washington; he says he’ll be a novelty item there, a media star who will attract the requisite media attention to the issues he’ll carry.

Bono’s most challenging opponent is Patricia (Corky) Larson, a Riverside County supervisor. Larson, 66, was elected to the Palm Springs school board in 1973. In 1982, when McCandless moved from the Riverside County Board of Supervisors to Congress, she was elected to replace him on the county board. She was reelected easily in 1986 and even more handily in 1990 when, she boasts, she didn’t spend a nickel campaigning.

The Bono-Larson tussle sounds a predictable theme:

Larson said that given her familiarity with politics, she’d be able to hit the ground running in Congress; Bono characterizes Larson as a career politician, something to be disdained, the reason for all things wrong in Washington. Larson says Bono would be a laughingstock in Washington--and says that the possibility that he could be elected, based on his name recognition alone, “scares the bejabbers out of me.”

“Fifty-five percent of the people in this congressional district have never voted for me because they’re not in my (supervisorial) district--and those people are susceptible to packaging,” Larson said. “Bono is like Disneyland--you go on those rides and you think that’s a rock next to you, but you touch it and it’s cardboard.

“Bono can’t put three sentences together,” Larson said. “It’s not that he’s dumb. He’s smarter than people give him credit for. He’s a street fighter. And he’s got the money. But if he wins the primary, he won’t hold up in the November general election, because the Democrats won’t be as nice as me. They won’t play, ‘Don’t cannibalize a fellow Republican.’ ”

Democrats running in the district are Steve Clute of Palm Desert, a former assemblyman who most recently has rallied opposition to the proposed Eagle Mountain trash dump; Clark McCartney, a Cathedral City real estate salesman long active in local Democratic Party activities, and Hans Schroeder of Desert Hot Springs, an art dealer.

The other Republicans seeking the nomination in the 44th District are Phil Bretz, a physician; Kent Delong, a physician, author and businessman; Bud Mathewson, a businessman, and Lewis A. Silva, an accountant.

In other primary races in the Inland Empire, Republicans may have to resort to cannibalism before their campaigns are finished.

* In the 43rd Congressional District race in western Riverside County, freshman Republican Ken Calvert is fighting for reelection after publicly admitting he had sex in his parked car with a prostitute in November.

Calvert faces conservative challenger Joe Khoury, who has promised the sex scandal will be a campaign issue. Licking their chops on the Democratic side are contenders Mark Takano, who barely lost to Calvert in the general election two years ago, and Raven Lopez Workman.

* In the 65th Assembly District, incumbent Republican Paul A. Woodruff is bailing from elected office, prompting eight Republicans tripping over one another for his open seat. The generally conceded front-runners are Mark Bringhurst of Moreno Valley, an Air Force Reserve pilot; Jim Bagley, a Twentynine Palms City Council member, and Brett Granlund, a councilman from Yucaipa.

* In the 66th Assembly District being vacated by Haynes, four Republicans--none of whom have districtwide name identity--are seeking their party’s primary go-ahead.