Orange County Elections : LaRouche Answers Sumner’s Debate Bid : But He Rules Out Issue of Whether His Followers Are Democrats

In a rambling, nine-page mailgram from his Leesburg, Va., farm, political extremist Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. said Thursday that he would be happy to debate Orange County Democratic Party Chairman Bruce Sumner, but not on the issue Sumner had chosen: whether LaRouche followers are really Democrats.

“It is false and libellous (sic) to repeat the calumny, that you do not believe that I am a Democrat. Those matters are not debatable,” LaRouche wrote to Sumner, a write-in candidate for Congress against LaRouche follower Art Hoffmann.

But, LaRouche said, he would like to debate local Democratic officials on issues that will affect the party for the next two years, and added, “I am disposed to hold discussions or debates with local Democratic Party officials in any part of the nation and would place a relatively high priority on such matters in my schedule.”

Presidential Candidacy

Hoping to bolster his 1988 candidacy for president, LaRouche, 64, claims to be backing several thousand Democratic candidates for public office this year, including at least 14 in Orange County.

Although they run under the banner of LaRouche’s National Democratic Policy Committee, the group is not an officially recognized unit of the Democratic Party. Indeed, party leaders like Sumner call their beliefs “bizarre” and “anathema” to Democratic ideals.

LaRouche’s platform includes identifying and quarantining AIDS victims, creating a laser beam defense system and increasing steel production. In addition, LaRouche and his followers have warned of conspiracies involving the Queen of England, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the Rockefellers and “the drug lobby.”

‘Wild Falsifications’

His letter to Sumner touched on some of these themes, noting at one point that “San Francisco is already virtually a necropolis of the walking dead” because of AIDS cases and claiming that Sumner was “a victim of the wild falsifications concocted by the unchecked and malicious imaginations of drug lobbyists” and so had “libeled” him and his local candidates.

On May 22, Sumner wired LaRouche, challenging him to debate whether he and his followers belonged in the Democratic Party. But after reading LaRouche’s letter, Sumner said he would not meet with LaRouche to discuss the future of the party.

“He wants to talk about what the Democratic Party should do, and he wants me to acknowledge that they are Democrats, and I don’t acknowledge that,” Sumner said.

“So how can I talk to him when I don’t acknowledge he has standing in the Democratic Party. He can have his own political party. He and his people should not try to sneak into the Democratic Party and try to change the party to his own beliefs.”

Central Committee Seat

A retired judge and former state assemblyman, Sumner, 61, began a write-in campaign for the 40th Congressional District seat after he and other local party leaders discovered to their embarrassment in late March that Hoffmann was the only Democrat on the ballot. If Hoffmann were to run unopposed, the 30-year-old technical writer would automatically win a seat on the Democratic Party Central Committee.

Over the last six years, LaRouche Democrats have won seats on the Central Committee but mostly caused little concern; they usually failed to show up for meetings, party leaders said. But county Democrats became alarmed after March 18, when two LaRouche followers scored upset victories for secretary of state and lieutenant governor in the Illinois Democratic primary.

Calling the LaRouche philosophy “evil,” Sumner said he did not want Hoffmann to be the Democrat’s “standard bearer” in the 40th district and so was trying the political long shot of a write-in campaign. The other LaRouche candidates in Orange County have Democratic opposition on the ballot, however. They are housewife Maureen Pike in the 39th Congressional District, restaurant manager Peter Dimopoulos in the 64th Assembly District, retiree Marion E. Hundley in the 67th Assembly District and 10 others seeking Democratic Central Committee posts.

Foundation Endorsements

Also Thursday, the Democratic Foundation of Orange County, a prestigious party fund-raising group, announced that it was breaking its policy of not endorsing in the primary and would back Democratic candidates facing opposition from LaRouche Democrats. As it did once before--in 1984--the foundation will be taking out newspaper ads that say, “Stop the LaRouches! Vote for the endorsed Democrats,” foundation executive director John Whitehurst said. The ad will include a list of endorsed Democrats, including 10 Central Committee members, Sumner, David Vest in the 39th Congressional District, Jo Marie Lisa in the 64th Assembly District and Ray Anderson in the 67th Assembly District.

Hoffmann said late Thursday that he was not surprised by the foundation endorsements or Sumner’s response to LaRouche’s mailgram.

And Hoffmann, whose campaign so far has consisted of circulating a LaRouche initiative against AIDS, announced that starting today he would circulate 30,000 flyers that claim Sumner is “the chosen candidate of organized crime.”

Flyer Called ‘Absurd’

Hoffmann took a copy of the flyer to Sumner’s office Thursday afternoon. The judge said he was partly amused, partly angry. “I’m in pretty good company there,” he said, noting that Hoffmann also accused a movie star, a large bank and an airline of involvement in organized crime. Still, he added, “it’s absurd, and it’s further evidence of the bizarre and kind of slashing, indiscriminate attack that is so typical of the LaRouche people. . . . They’re trying to intimidate me and it won’t work. They got the wrong guy.”

Sumner, who has been sending mailers to registered Democrats in the district, has amassed phone banks and dozens of volunteers to get out the write-in vote on Election Day.