CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / ATTORNEY GENERAL : Lungren’s Fate This Time Is in Hands of Voters

Two years ago, the Democratic-dominated state Senate rejected the appointment of Dan Lungren as state treasurer, its leaders declaring that the Long Beach native’s conservative views were too far right of the political mainstream.

In November, voters statewide will get the chance to make up their own minds, in a race for state attorney general pitting the former five-term congressman against 11-year San Francisco Dist. Atty. Arlo Smith.

Unlike this year’s candidates for governor, Republican Lungren and Democrat Smith have clear-cut differences on two major issues: abortion rights and environmental protection.

Lungren, a staunch abortion foe, says that if he ignored his conscience and kept quiet, it would be similar to the silence of the German public to the atrocities of World War II. While Lungren says he would seek to enforce any legislation terminating public funding of abortions, Smith has vowed to appear personally in court to preserve abortion rights and funding.

Then there is the environment. Lungren, whose candidacy is opposed by major conservation groups, supports offshore oil drilling on a case-by-case basis. He contends that Smith’s opposition to any new offshore projects is an “extremist” view.

Unlike Smith, who waged a furious uphill battle to win the June primary against better-known Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, Lungren ran unopposed for the Republican nod. Just like Smith, Lungren is invigorated by a tough fight.

Before the June primary, he persuaded Smith to participate in a series of four highly unusual Lincoln-Douglas style debates. After going head to head before sparse crowds from Sacramento to San Diego, Lungren challenged the Democrat to a similar series of moderator-free encounters in the summer and fall.

Smith declined, and thus far has agreed to only three joint appearances on TV news conference shows--which feature a more conventional question-and-answer format. Says Lungren: “(Smith) obviously wants to avoid debates as much as possible.”

Lungren, now 44, decided two years ago to give up his secure seat in Congress in anticipation of assuming the treasurer’s post, to which he was nominated by Gov. George Deukmejian. When the Senate rejected his appointment--and the California Supreme Court turned down an appeal--Lungren took a job as a civil attorney for a Sacramento law firm.

It was clear from the start that he was plotting a swift return to public life. Politics is Dan Lungren’s passion.

At the age of 6, he volunteered for his first campaign, handing out literature for a neighbor seeking the congressional seat that he would win himself 26 years later. The same year, Lungren’s father signed on as Richard M. Nixon’s personal physician, accompanying the future President on the stump for several campaigns. Nixon remained a family friend and encouraged Lungren’s entrance into politics.

Lungren, a graduate of Notre Dame and Georgetown University Law School, worked in the early 1970s for the Republican National Committee and for two Republican senators. He did not serve in the military, a fact the Smith campaign has been quick to seize upon. Lungren says he was classified 4-F at the height of the Vietnam War after informing his draft board that he had had a major kidney operation as a youngster and had severely injured his knees playing high school football.

Returning to California in 1973, Lungren joined a Long Beach law firm whose partners included former Democratic Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown Sr. Using his support for tax-cutting Proposition 13 as his main campaign focus, Lungren was elected to Congress in his second bid in 1978.

Lungren concentrated on criminal justice and immigration reforms during his 10-year Washington tenure, earning a reputation as an aggressive, intelligent legislator.

“You have the qualities I admire in a politician,” wrote Democratic Speaker of the House Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill, in a letter that Lungren framed. “You are loyal to your party and your President, you love your country and you love politics.”

Other key Lungren traits, those close to him say, are self-confidence, strong convictions and a keen sense of competitiveness.

An avid weightlifter, Lungren practiced tae kwan do and played racquetball regularly until he needed a third knee operation. The father of three teen-agers, he views sports as an important character-builder.

“Frankly, for boys,” he said, “I’m not sure what outside of football these days provides them an opportunity to understand what teamwork and hard work and playing when hurt (are).”

“I don’t think anything pleases him more than to watch his children participate in sports,” said Lungren’s wife, Bobbi. “He’s also totally unpretentious. Fancy cars and restaurants mean nothing to him. He’s perfectly happy at McDonald’s.”

Bobbi Lungren said it was tough--but not that tough--to see her husband run for office again after losing out on the treasurer’s job in 1988. “I was looking forward to maybe a normal lifestyle, if there is any such thing,” she said. “But I realize that this was his calling and he really was happy in public service.”

At the time that Deukmejian selected Lungren to replace the late Democratic Treasurer Jesse M. Unruh, Republican insiders viewed him as a possible successor to the governor. Lungren proponents maintain that he was rejected by the state Senate more for his strengths as a political up-and-comer than for his ideology.

Nevertheless, Lungren was taken to task during the Senate hearings by organizations representing blacks, Latinos, Asians, senior citizens and environmentalists. Last week, a coalition of the organizations announced it is re-forming, charging that Lungren’s record in Congress was “insensitive” and “extreme.”

The Sierra Club’s state director, Michael Paparian, said: “He has consistently voted against allocating money for programs for clean water, parks and wilderness, toxics control and other programs.”

Lungren, who did support reduced funding for some environmental programs, insists that his votes reflected the need for fiscal conservatism rather than a lack of compassion.

Along those lines, Lungren noted, he once voted against funding for a new federal building in his Long Beach district, incurring the wrath of local officials who had eagerly fought for the project.

Despite his self-acknowledged ambition for higher office, Lungren says, he would not use the attorney general’s post to impose his political ideas.

“Public-policy decisions will be made by the governor, the Legislature or the people if there is something on the statewide ballot,” he said. “The attorney general is duty bound to defend laws unless they clearly violate the Constitution.”

For example, Lungren opposes the sweeping “Big Green” environmental initiative on the November ballot, but he says he would defend it in court if it is approved because it appears to pass constitutional muster.

Abortion is another example.

While in Congress, Lungren co-sponsored a proposed constitutional amendment to ban virtually all abortions. But he says that as state attorney general, he must follow California’s Constitution, which he interprets as allowing most abortions under its right-to-privacy provisions.

“I will not go off half-cocked in trying to make a name for myself in a manner that contravenes what the law in California is,” Lungren said.

Lungren sees only two principal areas in which the attorney general would become involved in the abortion issue: representing the state in court on any legislation to restrict Medi-Cal funding and seeking enforcement of a parental-consent law limiting teens’ access to abortions.

Activists on both sides say the attorney general’s role looms increasingly large as support for reproductive rights erodes on the federal level.

To Janet Carroll, legislative director for the California Pro-Life Council, Lungren’s election is essential. “Because of the good decisions we’re getting from the U.S. Supreme Court, it gives the states more latitude and we want a more vociferous defender of the laws we do get passed.”

In his campaign addresses, Lungren has insisted that the most important concern of the state’s chief law enforcement officer should be the battle against crime, drugs and street gangs.

Over the months, Lungren has called for life sentences for kidnapers convicted of rape and the confiscation of driver’s licenses of casual drug users.

He demonstrated his leadership role as a crime-fighter while in Congress, he says, helping draft and win passage of legislation including the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, which resulted in more than 50 changes to the law, including authorization for authorities to seize the assets of drug dealers.

Smith, for his part, has enforced the laws for 36 years--heading the criminal division of the state attorney general’s office before winning the San Francisco prosecutor’s post in 1979.

Police organizations are split down the middle in their endorsements.

Art Reddy, president of the Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Assn., said his group backs Lungren because “we feel that he is a respected leader in the community and we believe he will be a true fighter on our behalf in the war against crime.”

Lungren has also received the backing of Los Angeles’ two top police officials--Sheriff Sherman Block and Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates. Both said they are impressed with Lungren’s personal integrity and staunch anti-crime stance.

Smith’s police supporters counter that Lungren’s experience is secondhand.

“Very frankly, the gentleman has a tremendous ego if he thinks merely being strong on crime in Congress is a qualification to be the attorney general of the state of California,” declared Al Angele, executive director of the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs (COPS). “This is a guy just looking to run for some public office. He didn’t get the treasurer’s job, so now he wants the attorney general’s job.”

Lungren says he is seeking the post “to try to make a difference on the issues of crime and drugs and gangs and public integrity.”

His lack of prosecutorial experience is not a handicap, he adds, because “the position of attorney general is a position of leadership, a position that challenges someone to make a difference. . . . It’s not being a prosecutor at large.”

With less than two months to go, polls show the two candidates neck and neck, with the biggest bloc of voters undecided.

Based on appearances alone, the articulate and telegenic Lungren would seem to have the edge over the balding, frequently tongue-tied Smith. But neither candidate has been able to raise large amounts of cash for TV ads.

In its most recent financial documents, the Lungren campaign reported $217,000 cash on hand--only $20,000 more than Smith.

As the race heats up, both candidates seem as interested in attacking each other’s credentials as in putting their own best feet forward.

In his first post-primary press conference, Lungren, citing an 8-year-old audit, accused Smith of mismanaging his office. He also called Smith, 63, a “Rose Bird liberal,” citing the San Franciscan’s attendance at a 1985 fund-raising dinner for the then-state chief justice.

Late last month, Lungren unveiled his first TV ad, scoring Smith for accepting a plea bargain from an influential campaign contributor accused of drug and sex charges involving teen-age prostitutes. (The ad, which Lungren toned down after its initial airings, was criticized in editorials in The Times, the Sacramento Bee and the San Francisco Examiner as being “dirty,” “exploitative” and “a cheap shot.”)

The Smith camp has also taken its share of shots at Lungren, accusing the Republican of waffling on abortion and duly noting his lack of military service.

While bristling at most of Smith’s allegations, the confident Lungren readily pleads guilty to one--being branded a Ronald Reagan conservative.

“I’ll gladly admit to that,” he said. “It shows . . . that their concept of mainstream California is certainly to the left of where it really is.”