Color of Money Figures in Dunn Bid to Unseat Hurtt

Waging an uphill fight to unseat wealthy state Sen. Rob Hurtt, Democratic challenger Joe Dunn has relied on the generous support of California’s powerful cadre of trial lawyers.

It could be both a blessing and a curse.

So far, about 80% of Dunn’s campaign cash has come from lawyers, who have contributed $120,000 to his campaign for central Orange County’s 34th Senate District.

The money has given Dunn, himself a lawyer, a fighting chance in the early going against Hurtt, a Garden Grove industrialist who has a seemingly bottomless reservoir of campaign cash.

The potential downside for Dunn is what his major donors do each workday.

Lawyer jokes aside, personal-injury attorneys and their powerful umbrella organization--the Consumer Attorneys of California--are reviled by Republicans as a scourge on the state, raking in huge damage awards and big fees at the expense of the state’s business sector.

While Hurtt has yet to launch a full assault on the integrity of Dunn’s chosen profession, the conservative Republican lawmaker has fired a few shots as he seeks to retain the seat he has held since 1993.

One recent Hurtt campaign mailer featured Orange County’s newly elected sheriff and a top police chief chiding Dunn for lawsuits he has filed for clients against police.

Meanwhile, a group calling itself Orange County Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse has put signs on bus shelters coyly asking which state Senate candidate takes money from personal-injury lawyers. The advertisement lists Dunn’s name and his campaign’s telephone number.

“Joe Dunn doesn’t fit this district at all,” said Andy Gharakhani, Hurtt’s campaign manager. “It’s a clear choice. Voters have a businessman like Rob, a guy who goes to work 9 to 5, who is one of them. Or they’ve got a trial lawyer who sues police departments.”

Dunn makes no apologies for his profession, saying Republicans have routinely twisted the motives of his legal brethren.

“I’m proud of being a consumer attorney,” Dunn said. “I’m not going to hide from it.”

Instead of a political liability, he considers his job the perfect training ground for politics. Dunn also says his career as a trial lawyer makes him a good fit for the blue-collar district, which swaddles the central county and includes large portions of Anaheim, Garden Grove and Santa Ana.

As Dunn tells it, he has spent his legal career fighting for the rights of the common man in some of the big consumer battles of the day.

Dunn has represented clients seeking redress for faulty breast implants and has a role in lawsuits stemming from the UC Irvine fertility scandal. He’s in on litigation over fen-phen, the controversial diet drug. And he is jousting with the tobacco industry, helping to represent Los Angeles County in efforts to recover the cost of treating uninsured patients for smoking-related illnesses.

“As a lawyer representing consumers, you know how to fight for people,” Dunn said. “When you go to Sacramento, that’s what you’re doing. It’s really like an attorney representing a client. Except you’re representing the voters.”

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He draws a contrast with the business career of Hurtt, who operates a multimillion-dollar manufacturing operation that produces plastic buckets and decorative tin cans.

Dunn argues that Hurtt, who helped found the powerful and conservative California Independent Business political action committee, has become bored with the whirl of the state Capitol and isn’t serving his constituents well.

“Being a successful chief executive does not make you a successful senator,” Dunn said. “Sacramento doesn’t operate as a business. When Rob discovered that was the case, he checked out and stopped being a good representative.”

Dunn also defends the contributions he has received from trial lawyers by taking a jab at Hurtt.

“I don’t have the ability to write large checks like my multimillionaire opponent,” Dunn said. “Nor do I have the ability to get big insurance or big oil to write large checks. Instead, I’ve been able to tap those who have represented consumers. I make no apologies for that.”

So far, Dunn’s biggest contributors have been two Los Angeles-area law firms--Engstrom, Lipscomb & Lack of Santa Monica and Girardi & Keese--that have given $10,000 each, and his own boss, Mark P. Robinson Jr. of Robinson & Phillips in Newport Beach, who contributed more than $11,000. As of Sept. 30, 116 of the 161 individuals or companies that contributed to Dunn were lawyers or law firms.

The lawyer dollars have provided the vital seed money to get Dunn’s campaign off the ground. With an operation that is mailing out campaign literature, planting lawn signs and walking precincts, Dunn now hopes to impress state Democratic leaders enough to get the tidal wave of campaign cash he needs to have a chance as the Nov. 3 election nears.

At the very least, Dunn might be able to put a chink in Hurtt’s armor.

Dunn did well against Hurtt in June’s open primary face-off, finishing within a few percentage points despite mounting no campaign. Though the district’s Democratic voters slightly outnumber the GOP, the Republicans usually turn out in bigger numbers to vote.

Dunn also could benefit if Democratic turnout is whipped up by the intense battle in the overlapping congressional district between Democrat Rep. Loretta Sanchez and the GOP’s Robert K. Dornan.

Hurtt, meanwhile, is ready to bankroll a big defense of his seat with his own funds, if necessary. He has loaned the campaign $700,000 from his business and contributed $45,000 himself. An additional $235,000 in contributions has come mainly from special interests with a stake in Sacramento politics, among them oil companies, life insurance firms and the gaming industry.

So far, Hurtt has spent about $300,000. How much more he’ll shell out depends on what sort of fight Dunn puts up.

Dunn has raised $151,000 in cash and spent almost all of it. He also has $37,500 in unpaid bills. Most of the money has gone for campaign mailers that attack Hurtt’s performance in the Capitol, where the Republican has the worst record of missed votes of any senator seeking reelection.

Hurtt has fought back with a flood of mail that heralds his votes on the three-strikes sentencing law and against taxes.

“We’re running on Rob’s record,” Gharakhani said. “He’s tough on crime and he’s voted against every tax increase.”

Hurtt has been conspicuous in recent weeks at numerous events around the district. Dunn also has been hustling to meet the voters and hosting campaign fund-raisers.

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Just as their career backgrounds differ, the two men have little in common on the issues.

Hurtt opposes access to abortion, while Dunn supports a woman’s right to choose. Hurtt favors vouchers to help parents more easily afford private schools; Dunn opposes them as an erosion of support for public education. Hurtt doesn’t want government to tamper with health maintenance organizations; Dunn wants broad reforms. Hurtt wants to further cut the state’s vehicle license fee; Dunn opposes such a move.

And on issues affecting civil litigation, the two foes could not be further apart.

Hurtt wants to reform the way California’s tort system works, while Dunn backs the existing system. During this year’s legislative session, Hurtt backed an unsuccessful bill that would have put a 10-year limit on product liability lawsuits against companies. Dunn and other trial attorneys opposed the measure.

So far, Hurtt’s most pointed attack on Dunn is a districtwide mailer featuring a letter from Orange County Sheriff-elect Mike Carona and Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters.

They endorsed Hurtt and chastised Dunn for “wasting taxpayer’s money for legal fees” by suing Southland police departments over traffic chases that killed innocent bystanders. “Luckily for decent, law-abiding citizens, Mr. Dunn lost.”

Dunn, however, says he didn’t lose.

In one case, Dunn represented the wife of a 30-year-old insurance salesman killed in 1989 when his car was broadsided by the driver of a stolen pickup truck being chased by police in Perris. Dunn also filed suit on behalf of a family whose baby was killed when their van was hit by a suspect fleeing after police in Ontario attempted to stop him for driving with his lights out.

Both cases, Dunn said, were settled out of court for substantial amounts. He also argued that the cases helped prod police departments around the state to draft more concrete pursuit policies.

“I’m never one to say police shouldn’t pursue, but there has to be an analysis by departments of whether it really is worth chasing every suspect through areas with pedestrians, churches, schools,” Dunn said. “We’re not saying the police were bad people. We’re just saying that those pursuits were inappropriate.”

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34th State Senate District

Rob Hurtt, Republican

Age: 54

Residence: Garden Grove

Family: Wife and four grown children

Education: Bachelor’s degree in economics, Claremont McKenna College, 1966

Career highlights: Helped build family firm into multimillion-dollar business; founded California Independent Business PAC, which has poured $10 million into conservative candidates and causes; won Senate seat in 1993; former Senate GOP leader

Issues: Favors school vouchers, tax cuts and business deregulation; opposes abortion access, HMO reform and weapons bans

Joe Dunn, Democrat

Age: 40

Residence: Santa Ana

Family: Wife and two children, 6 and 4

Education: Bachelor’s degree in political science, Minnesota’s College of St. Thomas, 1980; law degree, University of Minnesota, 1983

Career highlights: Started with large Minnesota law firm, moved to its Southland office in 1985; joined Newport Beach firm in 1996; has handled consumer cases involving breast implants, UC Irvine fertility scandal, health care costs from smoking

Issues: Wants HMO reform; supports women’s right to choose abortion; favors ban on assault weapons and cheap handguns known as Saturday night specials; opposes school vouchers

Source: Times staff reporters