Local News in Brief : No Sheepskin for Wieder

Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder, under attack in the increasingly bitter campaign for the 42nd Congressional District, admitted Tuesday that she never graduated from college as her biographies claim.

Wieder said the error first was written by someone else into her biography 25 years ago, when she worked for then-Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty. “I never would have thought of it, but it looked good and it was wishful thinking,” said Wieder, a supervisor for 10 years, who previously served four years on the Huntington Beach City Council.

She added that she was “ashamed” that she never was able to go to college because of family finances and said she let the error pass.

“It was a mistake and I don’t think I deserve to be destroyed by this,” said Wieder, who is the front-runner among eight GOP candidates in the campaign to succeed Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach) in the heavily Republican 42nd District, which includes part of southern Los Angeles County. The issue over her education was raised by one of Wieder’s GOP opponents.