Recall Brawl : Intense Battle Is Waged Over Horcher’s Pivotal Assembly Seat

With hundreds of campaign workers involved and more than $1 million being spent, a suburban swath of the San Gabriel Valley has become the site of an intense political battle in the ongoing war between Republicans and Democrats for control of the state Assembly.

At stake in a May 16 special election is the seat of Assemblyman Paul V. Horcher, the Republican-turned-independent who last December single-handedly thwarted the expected GOP takeover of the chamber he has served in since 1990. To the shock of friends and foes alike, Horcher, a Diamond Bar resident, renounced his Republican affiliation and gave Democratic Speaker Willie Brown of San Francisco the one-vote edge he needed to retain his leadership post.

Horcher was immediately targeted for a recall. As the special election nears, partisans on both sides are going for broke to win over voters.

On a recent weekend, 700 Republican foot soldiers came in buses from throughout California and, like an invading army, fanned out over the Assembly’s 60th District.

Their battle cry: “Recall Horcher. He betrayed us.”

On another weekend, Democrats and other Horcher supporters--about 400 strong--marched across the district, imploring voters to keep him in office. They praised him as a “courageous reformer” who forced the current power-sharing agreement in the highly partisan Assembly.

The race is pivotal; the Republicans need Horcher’s seat to have any hope of gaining control of the lower house before the next general election in 1996. Also on next week’s ballot are six candidates--four Republicans, one Democrat and one Libertarian--vying to serve the remainder of Horcher’s term, which expires in 1996. Should the recall succeed, the winner among the six will replace Horcher.

“This seems to be one of the most labor-intensive special elections that I’ve witnessed in many, many years,” said veteran Los Angeles political consultant Joe Cerrell. “This is a cause celebre on both sides.”

A spot survey of several neighborhoods Horcher represents found that virtually every voter knew about the recall campaign (the district includes the communities of Diamond Bar, West Covina, Walnut and Rowland Heights, and portions of the City of Industry, La Habra Heights, La Mirada, Pomona and Whittier).

Residents in Horcher’s hometown seem especially fired up. “We feel very let down,” said Gary Smith, a Republican, who, along with his wife, wants the incumbent recalled.

Across the street in Diamond Bar, Democrat Ted Benson said he will vote to keep Horcher in office. “There’s a lot of hate generating this thing against him,” Benson said.

Horcher is fighting an uphill battle, political pundits say.

Voter registration in the district is a virtual dead heat between Democrats (43.5%) and Republicans (43.1%). But Republicans tend to vote more faithfully than Democrats, and GOP candidates have easily carried the district in the past.

Gov. Pete Wilson received 58% of the district’s vote in November. Horcher, running as a Republican, easily won reelection with 61% of the vote.

Also, Horcher’s act of defiance is expected to galvanize Republicans as few issues can.

“When there was a time for a party-line vote, this man didn’t cast it,” said political scientist Alan Heslop, a professor at Claremont McKenna College. “It’s an election involving a strictly partisan issue, an issue that can bind conservative Republicans and liberal Republicans.”

One early indicator of the outcome of the recall vote--absentee ballot requests--does not bode well for Horcher. As of last week, Republican requests numbered almost 22,000, compared to about 13,400 from Democrats, a county elections official said.

To survive, Horcher must rely on the support of Democrats, many of whom voted against him in the last three elections. And it doesn’t help to have a Democrat--Andrew M. Ramirez--among the candidates hoping to replace him.

Fearing that some district Democrats may support the recall because they can vote for Ramirez, state party operatives sought to persuade him not to enter the race.

Assemblyman Joe Baca (D-San Bernardino), now Speaker pro tem, even called Ramirez at the county registrar of voters office the day he filed his nomination papers. “I told him, ‘What you’re doing now is you’re going against 39 Democrats (in the Assembly), not just Paul Horcher,” Baca said recently.

Horcher acknowledges that he is an underdog, but insists his bid to stay in office is making headway.

“It’s still uphill, but it’s getting less steep,” said Horcher, who has been spending much of his time on the phone and at forums urging voters to let him finish his term.

Not surprisingly, Assembly Republican Leader Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga), who would have been Speaker had Horcher not jumped ship, is personally involved in the recall effort. His letter to other GOP Assembly members urging them to mobilize people to walk the 60th District helped attract the 700 volunteers last month.

So far, the committees working to recall Horcher have raised $430,000, according to campaign finance reports. Brulte’s campaign committees are among the largest donors, contributing $108,000.

About 400 pro-Horcher partisans, including union members from outside the district, kicked off their precinct-walking campaign in April as well.

The campaign committees fighting the recall have drawn considerable financial support, reporting contributions of $812,000, according to campaign finance statements. A campaign fund controlled by the Assembly Democratic Caucus, headed by Brown, provided $208,000 of that amount.