Republicans Try for Peace Within Party

Lashed by rain and divided over abortion, state Republican Party activists struggled Saturday to forge a fragile peace and common cause heading into the 1998 campaign.

But tactical skirmishing over symbolic resolutions highlighted the gulf between the party’s two wings and raised the possibility of a major embarrassment for gubernatorial hopeful Dan Lungren. The state attorney general was scrambling to nail down the party’s formal endorsement in a vote today, despite the fact he faces no serious opposition in the June primary.

Publicly, Republican leaders put on determinedly sunny faces, to match those of assorted candidates and other glad-handers moving among a convention crowd of 1,500 delegates. Lungren delivered a politely received keynote address in which he stressed education reform and crime fighting.

The activists also had their first chance to see up close and side-by-side the GOP’s three major U.S. Senate candidates: state Treasurer Matt Fong, businessman Darrell Issa and Rep. Frank Riggs of Windsor. They staged a generally docile debate that served more to highlight differences in style than substance.

But like the rain and blustery winds that pummeled the San Francisco peninsula through much of the day, the convention was buffeted by elements clearly beyond the control of party leaders.

The leadership successfully thwarted a debate over retention of two Republican state Supreme Court justices targeted by anti-abortion foes, shelving a resolution until the next convention in September. But rank-and-file activists, defying efforts to stifle debate, vowed to bring a controversial abortion litmus-test measure to the convention floor today, holding Lungren’s endorsement hostage in the process.

Lungren has been a consistent opponent of abortion. But last month he antagonized some anti-abortion activists by opposing a national party resolution that would have prevented the GOP from helping any candidate who supports so-called late-term partial-birth abortions.

The measure was defeated at the national meeting, but Saturday a group of abortion foes introduced their own version of the resolution at the state party session. Lungren, in turn, reiterated his opposition.

“I don’t think it furthers the cause,” he told reporters. “I am not a litmus-test type guy.”

Anti-abortion activists responded by threatening to scuttle Lungren’s endorsement, which requires a two-thirds majority vote of the convention delegates today. “If he opposes the resolution, he has a real problem,” said one veteran party activist.

The Lungren camp publicly expressed confidence that the candidate will walk away with the party endorsement. “I can’t believe that folks will fail to do that,” said campaign manager David Puglia. Behind the scenes, however, Puglia and others were hustling to make sure they avoided any such embarrassment.

Lungren’s problems were compounded by gun advocates unhappy with his support for certain firearm controls and party moderates who worried that an endorsement would only serve to enhance the power of conservatives who dominate the GOP machinery.

“There is a lot of concern,” said Marc Wolin, a Bay Area delegate who said he supports Lungren, but is opposed to a pre-primary endorsement.

In the Senate candidate debate, the three contestants are united in chorusing familiar GOP themes of lower taxes and smaller government. Their greatest differences emerged over abortion and, naturally, over who would be the strongest candidate to face Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer in the fall.

All three Senate hopefuls stated varying degrees of opposition to abortion, with Riggs--the most recent convert to the cause--staking out the hardest line.

After acknowledging his change of position, Riggs was alone among the three candidates in supporting a constitutional ban on abortion and criminal penalties for doctors who perform the procedure, with exceptions in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman.

Fong opposed such a constitutional measure, and Issa said he would prefer to leave abortion laws up to individual states.

The candidates were gentlemanly throughout their 60-minute joint appearance, which was structured to avoid any direct engagement. Still, the three managed to exchange a few glancing blows.

Issa, a multimillionaire car alarm mogul making his political debut, contrasted himself with his two officeholding rivals by asserting, “I’m the only candidate that is not running for a better job but a better America.”

Riggs boasted of his six years of experience in Congress and--in a gibe at the voluble Issa--suggested: “It takes persistence to pass legislation in Washington. You don’t just show up and start talking.”

For his part, Fong took aim at Issa and particularly Riggs by citing his experience running as a statewide candidate. “I have stood before California voters before, throughout the state, not just one district,” Fong said.

Issa, whose free-spending campaign has catapulted him from anonymity to serious contention in the Senate race, at one point defended himself against suggestions he was trying to buy the GOP nomination. “I’m spending my money,” he pointed out, with a what’s-it-to-you shrug, calling the millions he has sunk into the contest an “investment in a better America.”