O.C. Assemblyman Urges State Senate to Deny Hayden a Seat

SACRAMENTO —  An Orange County assemblyman urged the state Senate on Tuesday to refuse to seat Sen.-elect Tom Hayden, claiming that the Santa Monica Democrat aided the enemy during the Vietnam War.

But Senate leader David Roberti (D-Van Nuys) said he would oppose any move to keep Hayden out of the Legislature’s upper house.

“It’s absolutely fundamental in our democracy that people have the right to elect whomever they choose to represent them,” Roberti said.

Hayden, a former anti-war activist who has been a member of the Assembly since 1982, was elected to the Senate on Nov. 3. He represents a district that covers portions of Los Angeles, plus Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Malibu.

Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange) urged senators on Tuesday to refuse to seat Hayden when the Legislature begins its 1993-94 session next Monday.

Conroy, a former Marine, charged that Hayden had violated a provision of the California Constitution that bars anyone from holding state or local office if he or she has advocated the support of a foreign government against the United States during hostilities.

He said Hayden told a congressional committee in 1968 that he supported “revolutionaries” in Vietnam.

Hayden, in a memo to members of the Senate, said Conroy was recycling “false and slanderous charges.”

“I opposed U.S. military intervention in Vietnam in every way I possibly could because I thought it was immoral, undemocratic and mistaken,” Hayden said.

He said the FBI did “everything possible” to send him to jail.