Gallegly’s Minor-Party Challengers Focus on a Host of Disparate Issues

Dr. Cary Savitch hasn’t seen a case of smallpox in his life. But he’s running for Congress to stop it.

“Bioterrorism rises to the top of all issues for me,” said Savitch, 51, a Ventura physician who specializes in infectious diseases. “The chance of an outbreak is very, very small. But the consequences are very, very extreme. Smallpox kills 50% of people who become infected.”

Smallpox remains a threat today, he said, because the world stopped defending against it when it was eradicated in the wild--but not in government repositories--two decades ago. Experts believe that several nations could have stores of the smallpox virus, he said, although only the U.S. and Russia are known to have them for sure.

“I don’t want to sound like an alarmist,” said the Reform Party candidate, “but I’m just very concerned.”

Savitch is one of three minor party candidates challenging seven-term Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) in the 23rd District, which includes nearly all of Ventura County.

The other two are Libertarian Roger Peebles, 49, an electronic engineer from Simi Valley, and Stephen P. Hospodar, a 57-year-old businessman from Santa Barbara running on behalf of the Natural Law Party. Democrats Michael Case and Albert Goldberg are also involved in a contested Democratic primary for the same seat.

Hospodar, who received his master’s degree from Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, and was a transcendental meditation teacher for 17 years, said he’s running to spread the philosophy of his party.

“I’m not motivated to hold political office myself,” said Hospodar, who is now a computer consultant. “But I very much support the principals and goals of the Natural Law Party.”

In particular, he supports organic farming, opposes genetic engineering of plants and backs the use of herbs, instead of drugs, to fight illness.

“I oppose any kind of attack on natural law and nature’s intelligence,” he said.

Both Hospodar and his wife, Miriam, author of a cookbook titled “Heaven’s Banquet,” are running for Congress in districts where they do not live. If elected, he would represent Ventura County and she would represent the 27th District in the Pasadena-Glendale area. Both live in Santa Barbara, but federal law does not require district residency to run or serve.

Stephen Hospodar also ran for the Ventura County congressional seat in 1996, and received about 1% of the vote.

A first-time candidate, Peebles said he ran for Congress when another Libertarian dropped out. If it were up to him, he said he would end gun control, pull the U.S. out of the United Nations and abolish presidential use of executive order to set government policy.

“He’s locking up lands in the West as wilderness areas,” Peebles said of President Clinton. “And many of the gun-control initiatives are by administrative fiat, such as continuing a record of the names of gun owners after they’ve done their [criminal background] check.”

The war in the Balkans was carried out unconstitutionally without a declaration of war by Congress, he said.

“Basically, we’re losing our liberties,” he said, “because the government is expanding so fast into areas beyond its constitutional authority.”

Of the three, Savitch may be running the most active campaign. He says he’s running early, despite no opposition in the March 7 primary, because his issue is so important.

Previously known as an outspoken proponent for mandatory registration of HIV patients, the controversial physician has turned his attention to bioterrorism. He insists, in fact, that the nation’s gravest threat is that of a biological attack because its leaders are almost totally unprepared for an assault that could kill millions.

As a congressman, Savitch said, he would press for widespread development and distribution of smallpox and anthrax vaccines.

“The military and civilian populations are now considered as one by terrorists,” he said. “Isn’t it important that all of our children have the option to be immunized?”

He cites lectures on the issue by Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, chairman of the Infection Control Advisory Network and former head of the state of Minnesota’s epidemiology unit. At a recent conference in San Diego, Osterholm told a group of infectious-disease experts that a deadly biological attack is inevitable--and that the airborne agent would spread silently and quickly.

Indeed, there is a growing national debate over how seriously to take the threat of biological attack.

Because of concerns about the intentions of other nations, President Clinton refused last year to follow through on a commitment to destroy the U.S. stocks of the smallpox virus kept at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

The Pentagon has forced anthrax inoculations on 400,000 military employees, but concerns about long-term effects of the vaccine prompted a congressional committee to recommend last week that inoculations be voluntary.

Savitch said it is the politicizing of such an important issue that prompted him to run.

“I believe that the threat of bioterrorism is so real that we shouldn’t just send lawyers and real estate brokers to Washington. We should send doctors.”