Democrat Tries to Renew Feud With Dornan : Politics: Last fall’s challenger again dredges up allegations of spouse abuse. The Republican calls it a money-raising ploy.

Nearly six months after Rep. Robert K. Dornan handily defeated his Democratic opponent in the nastiest local campaign in the November election, the feud continues.

Hoping to ground Dornan’s fledgling 1996 GOP presidential bid--and also raise money for his own past and future campaigns--candidate Mike Farber of Santa Ana has mailed out letters that attack the Garden Grove Republican’s “demented behavior” and dredge up past allegations of spousal abuse.

Dornan calls Farber’s latest attack “the sickest, most slanderous letter I have ever seen in politics.” Farber, he added, “is trying to raise money off me.”

Farber, who last month filed papers establishing a campaign committee in preparation to run again for Dornan’s 46th Congressional District seat in 1996, replied: “Of course I’m going to run (a fund-raising campaign) against him. In my opinion, he’s a disgusting, despicable human being.”

Asked why he is resurrecting recanted allegations about Dornan’s marriage, a tactic that did not work in his failed campaign last November, Farber replied: “Because this man is now running for the Presidency of the United States and he’s going out as the Moral Majority candidate. . . . This man has no right to talk about morality with other people in this country.”

Referring to Dornan’s constant criticism of President Clinton’s personal behavior, Farber added: “If Bill Clinton can be held accountable for what he did 20 years ago in his love life, certainly Bob Dornan has to be held up to the same light.”

From the start, vitriolic rhetoric has typified the Farber-Dornan rivalry, which was born out of the local Democratic Party’s frustration at not being able to defeat the conservative Republican in a district where Democrats are in the majority.

The election contest got personal when Farber distributed a campaign mailer last year that quoted excerpts from old court records in which Dornan’s wife, Sallie, accused her husband of abuse. Sallie Dornan has recanted those charges, which she said were made in the early years of their 40-year marriage.

In the heat of the campaign, the Dornans filed a libel suit against Farber, and Farber responded with his own defamation lawsuit against Dornan.

After Dornan won reelection by 21 percentage points, he dropped his lawsuit. Farber then dropped his case.

Since the election, Farber has mailed two fund-raising letters to help retire $108,000 in debt leftover from last year’s campaign.

In a letter dated Dec. 31, 1994, Farber accused Dornan of sending letters to Farber’s wife, Gail, “encouraging her to file for divorce.”

Farber’s second fund-raising letter, which was mailed recently to voters outside California, alleged that Dornan was jailed in Los Angeles “for savagely beating his wife.”

In an interview, Farber said that his attorney, Mark S. Rosen, had acquired a nearly 30-year-old document that shows Dornan was “released” two days after he was sentenced to jail.

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However, a copy of the document provided by Farber does not show that Dornan actually served time in jail.

A Times review in 1993 of court records showed that in June, 1966, a judge found Dornan guilty of a “violent attack” on his wife and ordered him to jail. But police records showed no evidence that the sentence was carried out. Dornan has consistently denied ever spending time in jail.

Farber’s letter also stated that Dornan demanded on the House floor that President Clinton “be tried for committing ‘treason.’ ” In fact, Dornan accused Clinton of giving “aid and comfort to the enemy” during the Vietnam War, but he did not say the President should be tried for treason.

“Dornan plots to destroy anyone who opposes his hate-filled, militant right-wing agenda,” the Farber letter stated.

Of Farber’s continuing attacks, Dornan said simply: “Mike, get a life.”

Dornan said he had decided not to publicly discuss Farber’s charges, which he learned about from a fan in Indiana who had received a Farber letter. But when he was asked about it by a reporter, Dornan denied Farber’s allegations, calling them “the exact opposite of the truth.”

Dornan said Farber was using him to “get money to get the (Democratic) nomination early on while I am in the public eye.”

The congressman said he never encouraged Farber’s wife to seek a divorce.

“In fact . . . I said (to the Farbers during the campaign), ‘You two better cling to one another. Protect your marriage,’ ” Dornan said. “All of my seven prior opponents have gotten a divorce, except for one bachelor, within six months after running against me.”

Dornan contended that the post-election letters to Farber and his wife were “compassionate” personal letters, and were meant to offer advice to stay out of politics because of the strain it can place on marriages.

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Saying it was at his wife’s request, Farber refused to release the Dornan letters, except for two excerpts.

A section released by Farber stated, “Remember what I told you about the Pharaoh’s curse: Five out of five of my married opponents divorced, all within months after I defeated them.”

They do not specifically encourage Gail Farber to get a divorce, although Farber said that is how he and his wife interpreted the passages.

Farber’s onetime campaign treasurer, Fred Judd of Irvine, admired Farber for taking on Dornan.

“You have to have a thick skin when you run against Bob Dornan,” Judd said.

Still, some of Farber’s fellow Democrats are not coming to his defense.

“(Farber) has done a number of things which have appeared to be for the purpose of raising money, presumably to cover this debt, and I suppose this is another way of trying to do it,” said one prominent Democrat who spoke on the condition he not be named. “He has less than zero credibility; I don’t know who would contribute.”

Should Farber decide to run again for Dornan’s congressional seat, he may be facing Jim Prince, a former Capitol Hill staffer and Farber’s former campaign aide who quit just days before the November election.

And while Farber appears to be preparing for a rematch with Dornan, it is unclear whether Dornan will seek reelection to a 10th congressional term.

Currently waging an uphill battle for the GOP presidential nomination, Dornan could pull out in time to file for reelection before the California primary. But he said last week the odds are 100-to-1 against him running for reelection to Congress.