Kim Voices Confidence Despite Rival Kerns’ Focus on Federal Probe

In many ways, the political debate in the Republican contest for Rep. Jay C. Kim’s seat hasn’t changed much in the last two years.

A federal investigation of Kim’s 1992 campaign finances is still proceeding, as it was two years ago. Kim’s lone Republican rival in next week’s primary, Upland businessman Bob Kerns, is arguing that the investigation is good enough reason to vote Kim out of office.

“Truth and integrity. The American way,” is the message Kerns leaves on his campaign telephone answering machine.

But unlike two years ago, when Kim fought hard to beat a field of five GOP primary challengers, including Kerns, Kim appears unfazed by this year’s opposition.

After winning the 1994 primary with 41% of the vote, Kim said voters in his 41st Congressional District looked beyond the political charges and approved of his conservative voting record in Congress during his first term.

“In spite of all the attacks, [the voters] love me. They have faith in me,” he said then. Now, in his reelection campaign, Kim says he believes “a vast majority of constituents continue to support” him.

Kim also has confidently turned the “integrity” spotlight on his low-financed opponent, calling him a “hollow and dishonest” campaigner who only has moved into the district at election time. The district includes the southeastern corner of Los Angeles County, and slices of San Bernardino and Orange counties.

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The district is 47.3% Republican and 38.8% Democratic. Ten percent of the registered voters list no affiliation and the remainder belong to other parties. Richard L. Waldron, an Anaheim lawyer, is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. Also running are Libertarian Richard G. Newhouse, a Garden Grove businessman, and David F. Kramer, a Chino Hills golf course owner and a member of the Natural Law Party.

Kerns said he has been a continuous resident of the district since 1991 and calls the carpet-bagging charge a desperate attempt by Kim to divert attention from the ongoing federal investigation into alleged violations of election, tax and labor laws stemming from Kim’s first campaign for Congress in 1992.

Kim has not been charged in the case. But in recent months, Samsung America, Hyundai Motors America and Korean Airlines pleaded guilty to making illegal corporate contributions to Kim’s campaign and paid a total of $1 million in fines to the federal government. Kim, a native of South Korea, where the corporations are headquartered, has maintained that he was unaware of the illegal corporate donations to his campaign.

As the first Korean American elected to Congress, the former Diamond Bar mayor was hailed as a success story. After immigrating to the United States at age 22, Kim earned advanced degrees in engineering and public administration and formed his own company, JayKim Engineers.

He takes pride in never having missed a vote on the floor of the House and has been a faithful soldier of the Republican “revolution,” supporting the House Republican proposals to slash spending in order to balance the federal budget, and to cut federal regulations to spur economic growth.

On one vote, Kim supported a welfare reform bill that would have cut cash benefits to legal immigrants--a provision about which he had second thoughts until he was persuaded by House Speaker Newt Gingrich to back the measure. Gingrich joined Kim in Orange County for the official kickoff of his campaign.

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Hanging like a cloud over his head is the federal probe, which began after The Times reviewed Kim’s 1992 campaign record and found that his engineering firm had provided the campaign with money and office space, a violation of election laws.

Kim, who has maintained that he did not knowingly commit violations, claims the media have “sensationalized this situation for their own self-enhancement and profit-making purposes.”

His opponent, however, sees the alleged campaign irregularities as a “pattern of dishonesty and lack of integrity” on Kim’s part.

Kerns argues, for example, that Kim switched his position on abortion rights and is now opposed. He also said Kim eventually voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement even though he publicly questioned some provisions.

If elected to Congress, Kerns said, he will sponsor legislation that “helps American workers. I’ll be fighting to stop these trade deals and lowering our tax burdens.”

He also vowed to “fight against the leadership when necessary. . . . I don’t think Jay’s willing to do that.”

The 40-year-old small-business owner says he has various business interests, including a financial group, a company that cleans up toxic waste and an oil company.

Kerns says the reason Kim came out on top two years ago was that five opponents split the “anti-Kim” vote. “Two years ago, we got almost 60% of the vote against Jay and it was split,” Kerns said. “It’s something that’s on my side.”

With little money, Kerns is relying on press coverage of the Kim investigation and on his campaign mailer.