With a Heavy GOP Edge, Moorhead Stays Low-Key

The words were hurled at John G. Simmons as if they were the worst possible slur. “Go to the Westside!� shouted a man, angry that the liberal Democratic candidate with views seemingly more in tune with Santa Monica than with Glendale had the nerve to run in the 22nd Congressional District.

The comment was made at a forum in Glendale last month sponsored by the seven-term Republican incumbent, Carlos J. Moorhead. Simmons had showed up and tried, without success, to get Moorhead to debate. What Simmons got instead was a fairly hostile reaction from the mainly elderly and Republican crowd.

A retired Lutheran minister and former hospital administrator from Burbank, Simmons stayed through the meeting and afterwards engaged in some lively arguments with potential voters. “I’m not ashamed of being a Democrat,� he later said. “I’ll never throw in the towel.�

But, Simmons concedes, the odds of winning the Nov. 4 election are heavily against him in the district, which includes Glendale, La Canada Flintridge, Montrose, parts of Burbank and Pasadena, and stretches of the San Gabriel and Santa Clarita Valleys.

About 56% of the district’s registered voters are Republicans, contrasted with the 35% who are Democrats. That breakdown is so discouraging that in 1984 the Democrats could not even find a candidate willing to run against Moorhead, who wound up with 85% of the vote against a Libertarian.

Incumbent Low-Key

Moorhead is a low-key--his opponent says practically invisible--legislator who does not make a lot of headlines. But Moorhead’s genial manner and political conservatism have won him loyal constituents and contributors. The congressman has spent about $90,000 so far this year on his campaign and still has $440,000 left, according to official campaign finance reports. Simmons expects to raise and spend about $23,000 by Election Day.

Simmons nevertheless is running an active campaign as an unreconstructed liberal in a time and place when neo-conservatism is popular even among some Democrats. As a result, the race presents voters with a choice between men of different temperaments and philosophies.

Moorhead, a lawyer and former state assemblyman from Glendale, is dean of California’s 18-member GOP caucus in Congress. He shuns the spotlight and spends a lot of time in subcommittees on technical issues of patent protection, hydroelectric power and telecommunications.

Of his work in the recent session of Congress, Moorhead said he is most proud of passage of a bill he carried that extends daylight saving time for three weeks in April and of an amendment he wrote to the immigration reform package that would increase the Border Patrol by 50%.

High Conservative Rating

His voting record last year earned a 90% rating from the American Conservative Union and a 5% rating from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action. He rarely votes against President Reagan’s wishes. Recent exceptions include Moorhead’s traditional votes against foreign aid packages and his opposition to the recently passed tax-reform bill, which the congressman said unfairly limits Individual Retirement Accounts and will lead to higher rents because of cuts on real-estate deductions.

But Moorhead, 64, is not one to shout his opposition to anything. He speaks in a near whisper, and his gentle personality in public reminds people of a kindly high school teacher.

Saying he has no time and it would serve no purpose, Moorhead refuses to debate Simmons. But he handed over the microphone to the challenger for a few minutes when Simmons showed up at what Moorhead said was supposed to be a nonpolitical meeting last month with constituents.

Moorhead even refuses to criticize his opponent. “I very seldom put anyone down,� he said.

‘Laid-Back, Non-Leader’

Simmons, on the other hand, regularly blasts Moorhead as “a laid-back, non-leader� who “hides in committees that don’t mean anything to the general public.�

The Democrat is an outspoken, aggressive campaigner who can turn on the sermon-like style of a preacher even though he is retired from the pulpit. His usual theme is that the Reagan Administration is pursuing a dangerous military buildup while abandoning the poor and the elderly.

“The first object of society is how it takes care of people at the dawn of life, at the dusk of life, and the disabled,� he says. “People in their middle years can pretty much take care of themselves if given the opportunity. Unfortunately, this Administration believes life begins at conception and ends at birth.�

Simmons proposes that the nation rebuild its cities and basic industries with a domestic version of the Marshall Plan--the massive aid program that helped Western Europe recover from the ravages of World War II.

A Minnesota protege of Hubert Humphrey, Simmons moved to California in 1952 and became involved in civil rights and other liberal causes. In 1962, his home in North Hollywood was badly damaged by a bomb while he was speaking before a Jewish group about what he said was the danger of radical-right political groups. No one was injured and no arrests were made, but Simmons still says he was a target of one of the groups he denounced.

Simmons was also the administrator and one of the founders of Lake View Medical Center. Weighed down with debt since it was destroyed in the 1971 earthquake and subsequently rebuilt, that 145-bed hospital went bankrupt and closed last year. Some former employees say the facility suffered from poor administration. But Simmons blames cuts in government-subsidized health programs for low-income people.

Simmons, 69, is knocking on doors, distributing flyers, attending civic functions and holding gatherings in private homes. “We have to let them know,� he joked, “that Democrats don’t have horns.�

Failed to Secure Debate

His effort to provoke Moorhead into a face-to-face debate failed. That refusal, Simmons charges, “is absolutely undemocratic, against the very fundamentals of this country.� Moorhead shrugs that off, saying “circumstances don’t call� for a debate.

According to census figures, non-Anglo minorities made up about 24% of the district’s population in 1980. That is thought to have increased in the last few years with a wave of Latino, Asian and Armenian immigrants to the south Glendale area.

Early in the campaign, Simmons said he hoped to find many new Democratic voters among those immigrants. But his staff last week said it had registered only 200 new Democratic voters and pronounced the effort a flop.

Moorhead, meanwhile, says that he expects support from the growing number of Armenians, Cubans and Southeast Asians in his district. Those people, he said, are strongly anti-Communist and support conservative candidates in America.

Moorhead, back from Washington for his eighth congressional race, is making the rounds of pancake breakfasts and club meetings.

‘Not Heavy-Duty Campaign’

So far, neither candidate has done much broadcast or print advertising. “We are not running a heavy-duty campaign,� explained David Joergenson, Moorhead’s press secretary.

Moorhead, however, has done very well in raising funds in what is a relatively affluent area. (Median household income in the 22nd District was $23,570 in 1980, contrasted with $17,938 countywide.) Since the start of last year, Moorhead has received $84,825 from individuals and $133,376 from political action committees of industries and special-interest groups.

Of Simmons’s $20,945, only $3,000 came from PACs, all of them from labor unions. The rest came from small individual contributions and not from his own pocket. Simmons criticizes Moorhead for taking so much PAC money but concedes that is one of the advantages of incumbency. “I am frustrated by the process, but I enjoy the discussion of issues,� he said.

The two men differ on most issues.

Moorhead voted for aid to the contras in Nicaragua and is a strong backer of the Strategic Defense Initiative. Simmons opposes both, but would have voted for other foreign aid and the tax-reform measures that Moorhead voted against.

Pleased at Apartheid Vote

Simmons said he is pleased that Congress recently overrode Reagan’s veto and approved economic sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa. Moorhead said he opposes apartheid but voted against those sanctions because he fears they will hurt black workers in South Africa and help foment a violent, leftist revolution there. “I don’t think that turning that country over to the Soviets is going to be any big blessing to the South Africans,� Moorhead said.

Also running in the 22nd District are Jona Joy Bergland, a Libertarian, and Joel Lorimer, candidate of the Peace and Freedom Party. Neither has raised more than $500.

Bergland, 28, is a computer service technician and member of the Air Force Reserve. A Glendale resident, she is the daughter of David Bergland, the Libertarian Party candidate for president in 1984.

She said she has done no campaigning, but wants to make sure there is a Libertarian on the ballot. If elected, she promises voters, she would “work to get the government off their backs and give them control over their own lives.�

Lorimer, 38, is a gardener and lives outside the district in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Congressional candidates are not required to live in the district in which the run.) He said he has done some door-to-door pamphleteering and calls for general disarmament and the closing of American military bases in foreign countries.