GOP Candidates Quietly Build Momentum for Senate Primary

State Sen. Ed Davis said it reminds him of hunting deer on a bad day: “You know they’re out there, but you don’t see any tracks.”

The 1986 U.S. Senate primary is more than a year away. But Davis and other candidates are traveling all over California, seeking support and assailing the man they would like to unseat, Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston. The GOP candidates are not leaving many tracks, for this is the stage when commitments are quiet, if they are made at all.

This is when the candidates actually have time to listen and talk to people one-on-one, before the campaign becomes rushed and there suddenly are not enough days in the week.

“This is the most important period of the campaign,” said Davis, one of two Republicans who have formally announced their U. S. Senate candidacies. “It’s when you establish your beachheads, your finance committees and your network of supporters. If you don’t get your network in place, you will never do it later when things heat up.”

Davis has plenty of company in the early GOP Senate campaigning. Also hungering for the chance to take on Cranston are Assemblyman Robert Naylor of Menlo Park; Reps. Bobbi Fiedler of Northridge, Dan Lungren of Long Beach and William Dannemeyer of Fullerton; Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich; economist Arthur B. Laffer; state Sen. William Campbell of Hacienda Heights, and Los Angeles television commentator Bruce Herschensohn.

The pace has been brisk.

In less than two weeks, Davis recently made a networking tour that took in Solvang, Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Francisco, San Diego, Carlsbad, Irvine, Redding, Chico, Hillsborough, Monterey and San Bernardino.

He was also in Beverly Hills for his first major fund-raiser, a small but stylish affair that featured a dance band pumping out such songs as “In the Mood” and “Sunny Side of the Street.” Davis and his wife, Bobbie, danced to almost every tune and then took home about $70,000 in contributions from guests that included a number of Los Angeles judges and former Mayor Sam Yorty.

Davis manager Martha Zilm said the campaign has about $165,000 of the $1.5 million Davis thinks he will need to win the primary. Much of it is being plowed into direct mail solicitations, including a letter to potential donors from actor Jimmy Stewart.

At the Beverly Hills dinner, Davis talked about his private poll, which showed him to have high name identification, particularly in Southern California. He got that name identification while serving as Los Angeles police chief in the 1970s.

The senator knew, however, what was on the minds of many in the Beverly Hills audience: Why did he open himself up to attacks from conservatives by voting last year for legislation that would have barred job discrimination against homosexuals.

‘I’m Never Afraid’

“I am a true conservative,” Davis told the guests, somewhat plaintively. “But I am a conservative with compassion. I’m never afraid to take a courageous position.”

Davis said he expects the homosexual rights issue to dog him throughout the Republican primary.

Recalling his clashes with homosexual groups when he was police chief, Davis added: “Who the hell ever thought Ed Davis would wind up carrying this cross? I’m not an advocate of that kind of life style. The guys who should be carrying this cross are liberal Democrats.”

Naylor, former Assembly minority leader who, like Davis, has formally announced his Senate candidacy, has been on the road almost non-stop for the last three months. Over just a few days recently he was in San Diego, Santa Monica, Long Beach, Napa, Nevada City, Auburn, Visalia, Hollister, Newport Beach and Monterey.

“To me this is the only way you build a broad geographical base and fund-raising apparatus,” Naylor said. “All of us have vast areas of the state where we’re not known, especially if you haven’t run for statewide office before. You just have to go and meet with these small groups and hope they will sign on.”

Naylor does not talk about name identification at his meetings, because a three-term assemblyman does not have much of that. Instead, he talks about how the candidates from Southern California will carve the southern vote into small pieces, allowing Naylor, the only candidate from Northern California, to slide by.

Farmers’ Endorsements

“I expect to do well enough in the south to combine that with strong support up north and in the San Joaquin Valley,” Naylor said, adding that he has been endorsed by a number of farmers who had done business with him in the Assembly.

“Wilson showed you can win the nomination with only 37% of the vote,” Naylor said, referring to Republican Sen. Pete Wilson, who won the 1982 primary and defeated former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. for California’s other Senate seat.

Naylor’s manager, Frank Schubert, said the campaign has raised $110,000 and has nine “small to medium” fund-raisers scheduled in the next two months.

Fiedler, who has all but announced for the Senate race, just took a swing through Stockton, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Palm Springs, Irvine, Newport Beach, Tustin and San Diego.

“This is when you organize at the grass-roots level statewide,” said Fiedler, “And of course the other intensive focus is fund raising.”

Fielder leads in fund raising among the Republican hopefuls, thanks to more than $300,000 that she had left over from her 1984 House race.

Her top aide, Paul Clarke, has hired a film crew to follow Fiedler to many of her campaign appearances.

“It (video tape) is a good thing to have in the bank,” said Clarke, who has already put together a slick film of Fiedler’s political career going back to the mid-1970s, when she rose to prominence in the Los Angeles anti-busing movement.

Fiedler served on the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District during the busing controversy, which probably accounts for a recent California Poll showing that she has unusually high name identification for a member of Congress, known mainly in their districts.

Fiedler recently was invited to be a keynote speaker at the spring convention of the California Republican Assembly, a conservative group of activists whose endorsement next year will be eagerly sought by all the Republican Senate candidates. The other Senate hopefuls were there, too, but it was a Fielder-dominated event.

During a recent speech to a group of Los Angeles business people, Fiedler stressed her grasp of tax issues and showed that she knew which button to push with her audience.

Asked about tax reform, she said any changes would have to include “a phase-in period,” allowing businesses to adjust without disrupting their operations. This drew strong applause, and many people later walked to the podium to shake her hand. She said she will definitely give up her House seat and go for the Senate.

Some Republican consultants privately say that Fiedler’s strong opposition to Los Angeles’ proposed Metro Rail subway could hurt her fund-raising efforts with business people who support the project. Fiedler, however, recently dismissed these Metro Rail backers as “Tom Bradley Republicans,” referring to the city’s Democratic mayor, a supporter of the subway project.

Neither of the two other members of Congress exploring the Senate race, Lungren and Dannemeyer, has made a final decision to give up his House seat and jump into the race.

The 38-year-old Lungren, who has one of the most conservative voting records in the House, acknowledged that he is not known outside his district.

“The L.A. media market is crucial,” Lungren said, “but the fact is, if you are member of the Los Angeles school board or even the Board of Supervisors, you get more press in L.A. than if you are a member of Congress passing major legislation. And name I.D. begets campaign money begets name I.D.”

Lungren’s consultant, Jackie Campbell, said the campaign has raised about $20,000. Lungren, who has $65,000 in his 1984 House campaign fund, has scheduled his first major fund-raiser for June in Long Beach.

Bird Opposition

Dannemeyer, whose voting record rivals Lungren’s for conservatism, appears to be more interested in criticizing California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird than in assailing Cranston. Dannemeyer has formed one of several groups seeking to defeat Bird at the polls in 1986.

Dannemeyer was the only Republican Senate hopeful to quickly accept a religious group’s challenge that all the candidates turn down contributions from homosexuals. Later, however, a Dannemeyer aide told The Times that Dannemeyer had urged the group to write the letter and was consulted as it was being written.

Laffer, a professor at Pepperdine University, has raised $100,000, according to an aide.

Herschensohn, a commentator for KABC-TV in Los Angeles, said he was not ready to formally announce his candidacy because it would mean he would have to give up his television forum because other candidates would demand equal time from the station.

Two other possible candidates--Campbell and Antonovich--said they are seriously considering a run but have not done much more than that.

And then there are what one consultant calls “the phantoms”--actor Charlton Heston and Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth. Both are frequently mentioned as possible candidates by political insiders.

Reached recently in London, where he is appearing in a play, Heston said: “I just don’t see it for me. I like acting too much and I have plenty of access to public forums as it is.”

Ueberroth, who gained much positive name identification when he ran the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, declined a request for an interview. He has said in the past, however, that he is not interested in running for the Senate.

Still, some people have not given up hope for a Ueberroth candidacy.

President Reagan’s political consultant, Stuart K. Spencer of Newport Beach, said in an interview: “Peter and I sat down on one occasion after all this talk that he might run and he said, ‘What the hell is this all about?’ I explained the process and what his opportunity might be, which is excellent. He is without a doubt the premier candidate for the Republicans. If he decided to run, I would help him.”