‘Other’ Candidates Scrap to Be Heard

Walk into any Orange County cocktail party, the story goes, and you can spot the Republicans immediately. They are the ones in button-down shirts and blue blazers standing way to the right.

In the GOP primary in the 40th Congressional District, that may be only partly true.

The front-runners--C. David Baker, C. Christopher Cox and Nathan Rosenberg--do seem to hum the same conservative tune much of the time. In fact, it is almost an anthem in this heavily Republican district, which stretches from Fountain Valley to Tustin to Laguna Niguel.

But the other nine Republicans in the race have not been content with the role of a chorus. Though most of them stay well toward the conservative side of the political spectrum, they have gone to great lengths to grab a headline or win over a crowd in hopes of escaping the also-ran category.

Some have raised eyebrows with their antics, such as Tustin Councilman John Kelly, who serenaded a Leisure World crowd with the song “Let Me Call You Sweetheart,” rather than talk about issues or his record. The consensus after the candidates’ forum was that Frank Sinatra has nothing to worry about.

“John’s a dear boy, but he can’t sing,” one elderly woman said. “His voice didn’t win many votes.”

Others, like 60-year-old Larry F. Sternberg, have tried to win a constituency by taking controversial stands. Sternberg, the oldest contestant in the race, advocates legalizing drugs and setting up state treatment clinics for addicts to halt gang violence and curb drug trafficking.

Not to be left out, Peer Swan went so far as to pen a corny slogan to cement his name in voters’ minds. His blue campaign signs feature a white swan and read: “Put Peer Pressure in Congress.” At some forums, the 43-year-old Swan has held one of his signs as he talked.

“Hey, it works doesn’t it? You’re going to write about it,” said Swan, an Irvine

Ranch Water District director. “People may laugh at me, but they don’t forget my name.”

That is the objective, particularly when you’re bunched at the back of a political race, struggling like a salmon headed upstream against front runners who have most of the endorsements, money and luxury to campaign full time.

One county Democratic activist dubbed the field of GOP hopefuls chasing Baker, Cox and Rosenberg the “nine dwarfs.”

“It’s damn frustrating, knowing that you’re every bit as good as the so-called front runners,” said Adam W. Kiernik, a Huntington Beach sales representative. “But unless you’ve got a half-million dollars, nobody takes you seriously. The result is you wind up doing some crazy things to get attention.”

Kiernik, 38, should know. During the campaign, he has impersonated both sportscaster Howard Cosell and former President Jimmy Carter. At one forum, Kiernik, speaking as Cosell, endorsed all the other candidates and then said: “This is one endorsement, I’m proud to say, I didn’t get.”

William Yacobozzi Jr., a Newport Beach attorney, has taken a different tack. Short on campaign contributions, he has loaned himself $500,000.

A county resident for 25 years, Yacobozzi is betting his own money that voters will buy his story of self-made success. So far, he has spent most of his money on colorful circulars that chronicle his path from Chicago’s troubled South Side to wealth, sports cars and a sprawling Newport Beach home.

‘You’ve Got to Rely on Yourself’

“It’s time we had a successful, self-made businessman representing this district,” Yacobozzi said. “At times, you’ve got to rely on yourself to make things happen.”

Yacobozzi, 47, in his first run at elective office, is one of three candidates in the 40th District Republican primary who support the countywide slow-growth initiative on the June 7 ballot. The other two are Kelly and Kiernik.

All the candidates, major and minor, have serious agendas.

Swan, treasurer of an Anaheim-based electronics and aerospace company, said the federal government must help American business become more competitive in the world marketplace by “leveling the economic playing field.” One way to do that, he said, is for Congress to stop “monkeying with the tax codes,” which he claims handicap U.S. industries trying to budget and expand. “It’s like economic Russian roulette for some companies,” he contended.

A helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, Swan parts from the party line and opposes rapid deployment of the Reagan Administration’s “Star Wars” defense system. “What is there to deploy?” said Swan, a Tustin resident. “It’s still in the research-and-design phase.”

He also said he would not be a congressman who would “vote blindly on every defense project that comes down the pike. . . . I know this district is defense-oriented, but we have to be more selective in the future.”

Swan, a county resident since the mid-1960s, advocates mandatory two-year military or community service for 18- to 22-year-olds. He calls it a “a rite of passage” that would teach young adults that “this is not an E-ticket, freebie society. . . .”

Kelly, an Orange County native and at 26 the youngest candidate in the race, said he offers voters “a home-grown option.” He said he has styled himself after James B. Utt, an outspoken conservative Tustin congressman who died in 1970.

Sternberg said he believes Congress has become a “retirement home” for incumbents who manage to win reelection at an alarming rate at the expense of good government. Sternberg, a Santa Ana accountant, supports a three-term limit on members of the House of Representatives. That way, he said, lawmakers would spend more time serving their constituents rather than worrying about getting reelected.

“Serving in Congress should not be a career,” said Sternberg, a 30-year county resident.

The deficit, Kiernik said, is the most pressing issue. He favors giving the President line-item veto power, and he added that, if elected, he would return $10,000 of his congressional salary. He said that House members should be ashamed that they raised their annual salary to $89,500 last year. “It was deplorable,” he said. “I would immediately take a pay cut and give the money to the Contras or use it to reduce the deficit.”

John Hylton, a 43-year-old commercial airline pilot, is another of the long shots in the race. Because of his job and the recent birth of his fourth child, Hylton has done limited campaigning. He is pro-family and often quotes from the Bible.

“Between flying and feedings,” Hylton said, “it’s been a bit tough to make the rounds. . . . But we’re still committed to winning.”

David M. Williams must be too. Why else would someone live in Northern California and run for office 600 miles away? The Livermore businessman has made the commute south for campaign forums at least two dozen times since January. Two years ago, he ran for Congress in his home district and lost badly. Federal law does not require a candidate for Congress to reside in the district he seeks to represent, and the opportunity to run for an open seat in a largely Republican district wooed Williams south for the race, he said.

“Whoever wins this seat is going to be set for some time to come,” the 52-year-old Williams said. “It is a golden opportunity.”

2 Candidates Agree

Patricia G. Kishel and Kathleen B. Latham agreed.

Kishel, a Laguna Hills business consultant and college instructor, said she entered the race because she wanted to offer a “moderate alternative.” For too long, she said, Congress has failed to address issues like day care and long-term care for the sick and elderly. Kishel, 39, said government should offer tax incentives for businesses to open day-care centers.

Upset with the negative tone of some of the mailers sent by others in the race, Kishel recently advised her fellow candidates: “I’m running a grass-roots campaign, and any hit pieces that I generate will be hand-delivered.”

Kathleen Latham, 46, is also a management business consultant. The Irvine resident said she decided to run after seeing a newspaper photo of the first eight candidates to file for the GOP primary. They were all men.

“It triggered a sense that we needed a woman in the race,” said Latham, who has lived in the for county 14 years and supports campaign-finance reform and more extensive programs on drug abuse for young children.

“I’m a real person, just like thousands of women struggling with their careers, and it’s time a woman represented this district,” she said.

Name: John Hylton

Occupation: Airline pilot (Alaska Airlines)

Age: 43

Residence: Newport Beach

Party affiliation: Republican

Public offices previously held: None

Name: John Kelly

Occupation: Self-employed

Age: 26

Residence: Tustin

Party affiliation: Republican

Public offices previously held: Tustin city councilman, April, 1986-present

Name: Adam W. Kiernik

Occupation: Sales representative

Age: 38

Residence: Huntington Beach

Party affiliation: Republican

Public offices previously held: None

Name: Patricia Gunter Kishel

Occupation: Management consultant, Kishel Consulting Group. College instructor, Cal State Long Beach and Orange Coast College

Age: 39

Residence: Laguna Hills

Party affiliation: Republican

Public offices previously held: None

Name: Kathleen B. Latham

Occupation: Management consultant (K. Latham & Associates)

Age: 46

Residence: Irvine

Party affiliation: Republican

Public offices previously held: None

Name: Larry F. Sternberg

Occupation: CPA, financial planner

Age: 60

Residence: Santa Ana

Party affiliation: Republican

Public offices previously held: None

Name: Peer Swan

Occupation: Treasurer, Pacific Scientific Co.

Age: 43

Residence: Tustin

Party affiliation: Republican

Public offices previously held: Director, Irvine Ranch Water District, 1979-present; director, County Sanitation District No. 14, 1983-present; commissioner, Santiago Aqueduct Commission, 1981-1986; director, Southern California Water Committee, 1984-present

Name: David M. Williams

Occupation: Businessman--D.M. Williams Inc.

Age: 52

Residence: Livermore

Party affiliation: Republican

Public offices previously held: None

Name: William Yacobozzi Jr.

Occupation: Attorney

Age: 47

Residence: Newport Beach

Party affiliation: Republican

Public offices previously held: None

40TH DISTRICT PROFILE Voters

Total registered voters: 326,236

Republicans: 58.8%

Democrats: 30.5%

Declined to state and Minor parties: 10.8%

(Total more than 100% because of rounding) Source: Orange County Registrar of Voters

Statistics

Population: 525,935

Foreign born: 58%

Median age: 31

Primary industry: Durable manufacturing

Primary occupations: Clerical; craft/repair; assemblers

Government employment:33,937

Federal contracts (in billions, 1984): $1.3

People under 24 with at least four years of college: 99,307

Ethnic Breakdown

Asians/Pacific Islanders: 5%

Latino origin: 8%

Blacks: 1%

Whites: 90%

Others: 1%

(total not 100% because ethnic/racial breakdowns overlap)

Households

Total households: 201,948

Receiving Social Security: 40,112

Receiving public assistance: 7,157

Household income (mean): $29,003

Households with income more than $50,000: 23,134

Households below poverty level: 5,282

Single-parent households: 11,920

Six or more in household: 6,973

Live in rented housing: 173,716

Live in owner-occupied housing: 338,865 Source: 1980 Census