GOP Facing Threat of Losing 2 Seats in Congress Delegation

Despite the apparent lead in California of Vice President George Bush, the Republicans find themselves the party at most risk of losing ground in the state’s Nov. 8 congressional elections.

Close races are under way for two House seats that have been held by Republicans for many years. The longtime representative in the Santa Barbara-Ventura district where President Reagan has his ranch, Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino, is locked in the battle of his political life. And in the suburbs south of San Francisco the GOP is resisting an intense Democratic push for the seat that Rep. Ernie Konnyu (R-San Jose) lost in the June primary.

No Democratic incumbent faces the same circumstances, so it appears likely that the Democrats will at least hold onto their 27-18 edge in the California delegation. If the voters feel independent, or if Gov. Michael S. Dukakis rallies in the last days of the presidential campaign, the Democrats have a chance to pad their majority.

Lagomarsino is involved in one of the most expensive House campaigns in the country with Democratic state Sen. Gary K. Hart. Together they are spending more than $2 million in the 19th District, which covers all of Santa Barbara County and the Ventura County cities of Ventura, Oxnard and Santa Paula.

If nothing else, they are offering the voters a clear choice in political thinking. Lagomarsino, one of the key boosters in Congress for the Reagan Administration policy on Central America, supports the MX missile and the Strategic Defense Initiative and takes the conservative side of most issues. Hart, a former anti-Vietnam War protester, opposes both the MX and SDI in a district in which perhaps 60,000 jobs are tied in some way to the military, many at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Hart’s campaign presumes that voters along the central coast are looking for a change from Lagomarsino. Hart is pushing his record on education and strong backing from environmental groups in contrast to Lagomarsino, who supports the Reagan Administration’s call for offshore oil drilling outside the Santa Barbara area and was selected to the list of “dirty dozen” House members by the group Environmental Action.

The campaign in the 12th District south of San Francisco is of almost equal importance to the GOP. Tom Campbell, a 36-year-old Stanford professor, took the unusual step of challenging Konnyu in the Republican primary, calling the incumbent’s one term in Congress an embarrassment. Campbell shocked Konnyu by winning, and now he has to prevail in November or be known as the upstart who cost the Republicans a seat they have held for decades.

Campbell is an economics and law prodigy whose moderate stands on Central America and women’s issues suit the district better than Konnyu’s Reagan conservatism. The district covers the academics-oriented towns around Stanford and the Silicon Valley area where much of California’s high technology is brewed.

The Democrat, Anna Eshoo, 45, has spent six years on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. She has argued that Campbell is still too conservative for the district, and the two have been sniping over who is stronger in their support of women’s equality. Eshoo sent out potholders suggesting that Campbell believes that women belong in the kitchen, and Campbell plans to counter with appearances for him by former Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole and former U.N. Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick.

Eshoo is expected to announce today an unusual tactic that might appeal to some in the high-technology capital--an eight-minute videotape of Eshoo on the issues that is to be hand-delivered to 110,000 homes.

No matter what happens in those contests, the Republicans expect to greet two new California representatives in Washington next year. They were nominated in the June primary election to replace two retiring GOP incumbents in districts where the Democratic contenders have little chance of winning.

Dana Rohrabacher, a former Reagan White House aide, received the Republican nomination to succeed former Rep. Daniel E. Lungren in a district that reaches from the South Bay area of Los Angeles into Orange County.

Farther south in Orange County, another former White House aide, C. Christopher Cox, received the nomination to succeed Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach).

Although all 27 Democratic incumbents are considered safe by party leaders, some will be watching the vote total of Rep. Matthew G. Martinez (D-Monterey Park) on Los Angeles’ Eastside. Martinez survived a bruising Democratic primary campaign and is being tested by Republican businessman Ralph Ramirez, who has run before in this heavily Latino district.

THE TIGHT RACES FOR CONGRESS DISTRICT 19: LAGOMARSINO-HART Democratic state Sen. Gary K. Hart, left, is attempting to oust veteran Republican Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino, the one incumbent in the California delegation who appears to be in trouble. DISTRICT 12: CAMPBELL-ESHOO After upsetting incumbent Ernest Konnyu in the Republican primary, Stanford professor Tom Campbell is opposing Democrat Anna Eshoo, a San Mateo County supervisor, in the southern San Francisco Bay Area.