Son Considering Campaign for Rep. Dannemeyer’s Seat : Politics: Irvine attorney Bruce Dannemeyer, 34, who has never run for office before, says he learned about public service through his family background.

Bruce Dannemeyer, son of Orange County’s senior congressman, Republican Rep. William E. Dannemeyer, said Wednesday that he is considering a campaign for the House seat his father plans to leave next year to run for the U.S. Senate.

Dannemeyer, a 34-year-old attorney in Irvine, said he has just begun to think about the race and has not yet talked to any party officials or campaign strategists. William Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), one of Washington’s most passionate conservatives, said Wednesday that his son’s interest in elected office was “news to me.”

Although the younger Dannemeyer has never run for office before, he said he learned the ropes of campaigns and admired the public service that he saw while growing up in a political household.

“I grew up with it, so it’s hard not to think about it,” he said Wednesday. “I haven’t done anything to advance a campaign, but . . . I’m considering it.”

Bruce Dannemeyer, who served as a general counsel in former President Reagan’s U.S. Department of Interior from 1983 to 1986, said he is not certain when he will make up his mind about the race, but noted that “the sooner you make the decision, the better.”

Only one candidate has announced plans to run in Dannemeyer’s heavily Republican 39th Congressional District: state Sen. Edward R. Royce (R-Anaheim). Royce has already lined up some high-powered supporters, including three colleagues from the state Senate and two Orange County congressmen.

“I think ultimately there will be other Republicans who file for the race, but at this point I’m in the advantageous position of having represented North Orange County for nine years in the state Senate,” Royce said Wednesday. “I feel confident of what I’ve been able to accomplish in California and what I’ll be able to do at the federal level.”

Bruce Dannemeyer would enter the race as a political neophyte, but his name is well-known in the district his father has represented for more than 12 years. Dannemeyer also said his possible primary challenge is not a reflection of unhappiness with Royce.

“This would not be a reaction to Ed Royce because he’s doing an inadequate job,” Dannemeyer said. “I don’t know enough about Ed. I haven’t really been in a position to assess whether he would be someone who could fill my dad’s shoes.”

Bruce Dannemeyer, oldest of the 61-year-old congressman’s three children, graduated from law school at UC Berkeley and is now practicing business litigation at the Irvine law firm of Palmieri, Tyler, Wiener, Wilhelm & Waldron. Ironically, it is the same law firm that employs Orange County’s only Democrat in the state Legislature, Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove).

Dannemeyer, who lives just outside the 39th Congressional District in El Toro, said his political philosophy is much like his father’s. “I would say that I’m very similar,” he said. “On the whole, I am in line with what he says.”

The deadline for filing for the race is March, 1992. There is no requirement that congressmen live in the district they represent.

William Dannemeyer was elected to Congress in 1978 representing a district that stretches from Disneyland in Anaheim to the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda. Dannemeyer has become known in Washington as the government’s most outspoken critic of homosexuality and an advocate of laws that seek to isolate AIDS victims.

“It would be a tough race,” the congressman said. “My son, with my name, would have that benefit. . . . He’s at a threshold point in his career where, if he wanted to run for a seat, it would be a good time to do it.”

Dannemeyer announced earlier this year that he would challenge Republican U.S. Sen. John Seymour in the California GOP primary next June. Seymour, former mayor of Anaheim, was appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson to the Senate in January.

The conservative Dannemeyer charged that Seymour was too moderate on several key issues, including abortion and taxes.