CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS CONGRESS : 3 Incumbents Face Tough Challenges in House Races

They may live in a trend-setting state where the latest is invariably the greatest, but California voters have displayed a stubborn allegiance to tried and tested members of Congress, reelecting incumbents at a rate that could discourage the heartiest of challengers.

Since 1982, when the current boundaries for the state’s 45 congressional districts were drawn, only one incumbent on the general election ballot--Jerry Patterson in Orange County--has been unseated.

November, 1990, is not likely to be much different. But there are three hot races--two in the rapidly growing Inland Empire and one in the southern San Joaquin Valley--where the outcomes remain unpredictable.

The flocks of newcomers settling in the Inland Empire have forced Democratic Rep. George E. Brown Jr. of Colton and his Republican neighbor in the 37th District, Rep. Al McCandless, to mount spirited defenses against aggressive, well-financed opponents.

Brown, a cerebral sort known for his command of science and technology issues, has been numbered among the most liberal Democrats in the House since he was first elected in 1962.

That was not a problem when the 36th District, which includes San Bernardino and industrial suburbs such as Colton, Rialto and Fontana, was dominated by working-class people who favored Democrats. But a steady stream of young families--fleeing high housing costs in Los Angeles and Orange counties--are migrating into the district. They have helped boost Republican voter registration from 30% in 1986 to 38% today.

That shift, GOP and Democratic strategists agree, has weakened Brown’s grip on the seat, and challenger Robert Hammock, a San Bernardino County supervisor for 14 years, is trying his hardest to exploit the situation.

Hammock has charged that Brown, 70, is “out of touch� with his district, arguing that the congressman’s dovish views clash with the defense-oriented economy of the district.

But Hammock, 49, has been forced to play a defensive game for much of the campaign, as Brown’s staff and Democratic Party officials have fired a barrage of charges alleging, among other things, that the challenger had a conflict of interest on votes he made as supervisor.

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Highland), House Republican conference chairman, conceded that the conflict of interest charges hurt the candidate for a time. That has turned around, Lewis said last week, and the race--in which the candidates have spent close to $1 million combined--is too close to call.

The neighboring 37th District covers nearly all of Riverside County, and McCandless of Bermuda Dunes has grown accustomed to scoring comfortable, inexpensive victories over political unknowns since his election to Congress in 1982.

The arrival of television actor Ralph Waite, however, gave McCandless a Democratic opponent with name recognition, a homespun image and enough money to be reckoned with.

Waite, a Rancho Mirage resident whose best-known role was as the hard-working father on “The Waltons,� has been aided by the tremendous growth in the district. A poll by his campaign showed that nearly half of the voters who said they were likely to cast ballots Tuesday had not heard of McCandless; only 29% could name their congressman.

“That’s the key element, the name recognition,� McCandless, 63, conceded. “I’ve added something like 400,000 people to my district in the last five years. They’re all commuters . . . and they’re too tired for politics when they get home at night. So a lot of them haven’t gotten to know me.�

Waite, 62, has tried to spoil that introduction by linking McCandless to the savings and loan crisis. Waite said McCandless, a member of the House Banking Committee, was “asleep at the wheel while this financial disaster was developing.� He faulted the congressman for accepting $54,900 in campaign contributions from banking and savings and loan political action committees.

McCandless called the accusations a “nasty political trick,� but the message has hit home with some constituents.

“McCandless . . . has to shoulder some of the blame for this savings and loan debacle,� said Palm Springs insurance agent Stephen Platt, 56, a Republican who gave $200 to Waite. “I believe . . . in the Republican Party, but McCandless is just keeping the seat warm.�

The Inland Empire races have attracted considerable interest from party officials in Washington, who have supplied money and other help.

The tightest congressional race, observers seem to agree, is in California’s heartland, the 17th District. Stretching from Fresno south to Bakersfield and eastward into Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, this district is part of the nation’s food basket, producing every conceivable fruit and vegetable, as well as cotton and other crops.

For 12 years, Republican Charles (Chip) Pashayan Jr. has represented the district and faced only token opposition. A lawyer of Armenian descent, Pashayan has been aided by Fresno’s small but influential Armenian-American community and by the large agribusiness concerns whose interests he has vigorously defended.

This year, Pashayan has a tough Democratic foe in Calvin Dooley, a Visalia cotton grower. Dooley, 36, is a local boy whose down-home style is helping him win support among farmers in Tulare and Kings counties, traditionally Republican territory.

Dooley has hammered away at what strategists say could be Pashayan’s Achilles’ heel--his ties to the savings and loan crisis. In 1986, Lincoln Savings & Loan chief Charles H. Keating Jr. and his family donated $26,000 to Pashayan’s campaign.

The congressman returned the money last year, but recently he has been accused of lobbying federal regulators on behalf of Lincoln. Pashayan concedes that he was asked for help by a friend who worked for Lincoln, but he insists that his lobbying efforts were strictly to aid Presidio Savings, a thrift in his district that failed in 1986.

Tulare County farmer Tokkie Elliott, a former Pashayan supporter now backing Dooley, does not buy it. “Baloney,� he said. “This is just another example of how he goes for the big easy money and to heck with the little people.�

A recent poll by the Dooley campaign suggested that the charges may be paying off. It showed Dooley leading Pashayan, 37% to 32%. In contrast, a June poll by Dooley gave the incumbent a 39% to 29% lead.

Although Pashayan spokesman Fred Asselin disputed the new numbers and insisted the congressman was “ahead in all of our polls,� Lewis called the contest “a race we (Republicans) could conceivably lose.�

In other races, four-term incumbent Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) would normally be expected to waltz to victory over Republican Randall (Duke) Cunningham, a decorated Navy fighter pilot who calls his opponent “just another MIG.� But there is a wild card in this year’s 44th District contest: Bates was formally reprimanded by the House Ethics Committee last year over charges that he had sexually harassed female members of his staff.

Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R-Lomita) is expected to handily defeat his under-funded Democratic challenger, Guy Kimbrough, in the heavily Republican 42nd District, but the campaign has been juicy. Rohrbacher is under attack for opposing federal funding for art he considers obscene, and the conservative--who supports drug testing for congressional staffs--has been dogged by allegations that he used marijuana and LSD as a young man.

There are two open House seats to be filled Tuesday and, ironically, the likely winners represent opposite extremes of the California political spectrum. Veteran Los Angeles Assemblywoman Maxine Waters--a liberal Democrat known as a relentless champion of the poor--is a safe bet to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Augustus F. Hawkins in the 29th District. Waters’ opponent is former South Gate City Councilman Bill DeWitt.

State Sen. John Doolittle of Rocklin, a conservative Republican whose numerous AIDS-related bills have made him an archenemy of the gay community, is running against former teacher Patricia Malberg for the 14th District seat vacated by Republican Norm Shumway of Stockton.