CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / U.S. SENATE : Vote Should Not Be Based on Gender, Seymour Contends

U.S. Sen. John Seymour, fighting to retain his seat in an election that may pit him against a formidable woman opponent, said Monday that gender should not be a basis for electing the nation’s legislative leaders.

At the same time, the Republican from Anaheim emphasized his position on an issue of particular interest to women voters: He vowed to support a piece of abortion-rights legislation, even if it means overriding the President’s veto.

Seymour is favored to win the Republican nomination to fill the last two years of the Senate seat vacated by Gov. Pete Wilson, and there is a good chance that he will face Dianne Feinstein, former mayor of San Francisco, in the fall election. Feinstein, seeking the Democratic nomination against state Controller Gray Davis, is urging voters to send more women to the Senate.

Speaking with reporters at a breakfast meeting, Seymour said: “Gender is not a basis in politics to elect somebody. . . . I would hope you’d go beyond that.”

He said he understood the need for more women in the Senate as a way to broaden representation but that it should not be a significant factor in casting one’s vote.

Seymour also defended his television commercials, in which he campaigns as an outsider despite his 15-month tenure in office.

In the ads, which began airing in March, Seymour is not identified as a senator, and he blasts Congress as the “epitome of arrogance.”

Seymour denied that he was trying to disassociate himself from the responsibilities of his office.

“I’m not hiding from it,” he said. “I’m saying it (the Senate) needs to be reformed.”

The former state senator and onetime mayor of Anaheim conceded that he is not very well known in California and that raising his profile is one of his biggest campaign challenges. The ads, he said, “focus on the name” without cluttering it with titles.

Seymour reiterated his support for abortion rights--an issue that can be used to appeal to women voters. He said he will fight to see the proposed freedom of choice act made into law. The act would prohibit states from restricting a woman’s right to choose an abortion.

Seymour has been criticized for flip-flopping on the abortion issue, and his stance these days has angered the conservative wing of the state Republican Party.

Thus far, Seymour holds a comfortable lead in most polls over Rep. William E. Dannemeyer of Fullerton in the Republican primary.

Seymour was scheduled to be back in Washington today after two weeks of campaigning and fund-raising in California. What was on the minds of California’s voters and supporters?

Time and again, Seymour said, they wanted to know more about Ross Perot.