Kemp Rolls Into Fillmore for Rally and Wife’s Birthday Party

Jack Kemp’s vice presidential campaign discovered Friday what Hollywood has known for years: The tiny town of Fillmore is a picture-perfect backdrop for an old-fashioned political rally.

Pulling into the station on a train draped in red, white and blue bunting, Kemp addressed a boisterous crowd from the back of the same rail car used by actor Anthony Hopkins in the filming of Oliver Stone’s “Nixon.”

“Thank you for having my wife on her 60th birthday,” Kemp told the crowd of schoolchildren and Republican boosters. “I told her I would bring her home on her birthday, but I didn’t think it would be on a train.”

The Fillmore and Western Railway, known as the “movie train” for its more than 200 silver screen credits, actually traveled only a few miles to plant Jack and Joanne Kemp at the center of her hometown.

The whistle stop put the Republican VP hopeful and his wife amid 2,500 sign-waving supporters.

They sang “Happy Birthday” to Joanne Kemp, led by Fillmore Mayor Roger Campbell, who was sporting a bushy, new mustache--the kind worn by singers in a barbershop quartet.

The noontime rally was marred briefly by a couple of dozen teenage protesters, who booed Kemp and his wife as the couple reminisced about getting married in a church just a few blocks away 38 years earlier.

Kemp suddenly turned protective, taking the microphone from his wife and shooing away campaign staff. “I’ll take care of this,” he said. “I’m the quarterback here.”

He offered the protesters a deal: He would go talk to them and they could boo him, as long as they would pipe down during his wife’s speech.

“I want you to respect my woman, my wife, as I respect Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore and your wife, or your sister or daughter. So boo me, don’t boo Joanne Main Kemp.”

Joanne Kemp then continued, introducing her mother, brother and four of her 11 grandchildren.

She recounted fond memories of growing up in Fillmore, where she knew everyone by name.

She said she recently compared notes about small-town life with Bob Dole, when she accompanied her husband to Russell, Kan., after he accepted Dole’s offer to join the GOP ticket.

“We both agreed that there is so much support you get from a small community,” Joanne said. “There is nothing like family, school, churches and community to provide the support that young people need today.”

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Three teenagers were arrested at the rally Friday after sheriff’s deputies mounted on horseback tried repeatedly to herd them away from the train.

One teenage boy was arrested for throwing a soda can at a mounted deputy and another for punching a deputy’s horse, said Sheriff’s Capt. Bruce Hansen. A 17-year-old girl was arrested for battery after she tried to snatch a “Dole-Kemp” sign from another girl and then hit her, he said.

All three were cited and released.

Some Kemp supporters were clearly disturbed by the outbursts and unruly behavior.

“I thought it was terrible, I thought it was stupid, I thought it was ignorant,” said Minnie Lou Benedict, a 1953 graduate of Fillmore High School and a staunch Republican.

Others dismissed the behavior as reflecting poorly on all protesters, including the more peaceful ones holding up “Clinton-Gore” signs.

“It shows a very strong contrast between decency and civility and the more extreme elements of the Democratic Party,” said Republican Assembly candidate Tom McClintock. “I think it backfired.”

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Mayor Campbell called Friday’s rally a historic event. It was the first time, he said, that national political leaders had ventured to his town (pop. 12,000) since Richard M. Nixon and Robert F. Kennedy visited in 1960.

“I got to shake Nixon’s hand when I was in junior high, and a week later I got to shake Bobby Kennedy’s hand, too,” Campbell said. “For that reason, I wanted to bring in a lot of schoolkids.”

Indeed, school-aged children made up about one-third of the screaming, sign-waving audience. They included the Fillmore High School band, along with dozens of cheerleaders and others in uniformed pep squads.

Ventura County’s Republican legislators--including state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard) and Assemblyman Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos)--warmed up the crowd with pre-event speeches.

“Anybody who is a student of history and who understands Jack Kemp and Joanne Kemp will know that they may come down that track in the future as the president and first lady of the United States,” Firestone told the crowd. “They deserve a big welcome.”

After the rally, the “Kemp Vice Presidential Express” rolled another quarter-mile out of the station to an awaiting motorcade.

The Kemps drove off to a private birthday luncheon for Joanne at the nearby home of her mother, Lois Main.

The afternoon schedule included another gathering with friends, a chance for Jack Kemp to play tennis and then dinner at a Mexican restaurant before driving back to Los Angeles.

In an interview, Joanne Kemp said that Friday’s protesters were the first she had seen on the campaign trial this year. She knew it bothered her husband, she said, but she was untroubled by their outbursts.

“I learned to accept this early on,” she said. “It goes with the territory. . . . They don’t know me.”

Moreover, she said, she was delighted that the campaign could diverge from its path through bigger cities to bring her home on her birthday.

“We are in the middle of a campaign and every day is precious,” she said, emphasizing that she did not mind mixing a touch of campaigning with her birthday celebration.

“It was kind of nice,” she said. “It got me back to Fillmore.”

* ‘WEDGE ISSUE’

GOP ticket won’t focus on state’s Prop. 209. A15

* RUNNING MATE

Joanne’s birthday is a banner day for Fillmore. B9