ARTICLES

The Majority Thing Is Ridiculous

A Look at November, 2002

By Robert Kumpel

The outlook for pro-life candidates in the 2002 elections is as bleak as ever. The state assembly and state senate are solidly in the hands of pro-abortion Democrats, a trend likely to continue as a result of redrawn districts. State term limits will force some pro-lifers to retire, but only few races will have much effect on San Diego's state delegation this time. San Diego's congressional delegation is split among Republicans Duncan Hunter and Darrel Issa (who have pro-life voting records), Randy "Duke" Cunningham (whose pro-life voting record has lapsed), and pro-abortion Democrats Susan Davis and Bob Filner.

Perhaps the most interesting race will be for the new 36th District senate seat. Charlene Zettel, a pro-choice "Catholic" assemblywoman and pro-life assemblyman Dennis Hollingsworth are expected to have a spirited contest in the Republican primary for a seat that is almost certain to go to the Republican candidate. Joel Anderson of the San Diego Pro Life Council, who is working for Hollingsworth, says Zettel is positioning herself by "running to the right." "Charlene doesn't fit the district and is out of step with its conservative voters. It is obvious from her reelection results in 2000." Bob Ward spent less than $5,000 and received 27,724 votes while incumbent Zettel spent over $200,000 to win with only 55,339 votes. Over the last year Zettel claims to have made a conservative voting shift, but closer examination reveals a pattern of abstaining. One glaring example was SB 370 (Senator John Burton) which repealed the penal codes for prosecution of back-alley abortions and illegal abortions -- essentially those performed by non-physicians, or physicians whose licenses are under suspension. Zettel abstained.

Zettel's Republican appointments to the state party include Marjorie Van Nuys, who publishes a newsletter called "The Mainstream Voter Project," in which she proclaims its missions is to root out Christian conservatives from politics.

There have been two huge battles over the last four years for Republican leadership of the state party. In each case, Zettel has endorsed and supported former assemblyman Brooks Firestone, who has voted in favor of partial-birth abortions.

Dennis Hollingsworth has a track record of being pro-life, and his Republican appointments reflect his pro-life views. 36th District state senator Ray Haynes has endorsed Hollingsworth. Local Republican leader and senior member of the county board of education, Jim Kelly, said, "I don't think there is any doubt that Dennis is the odds-on favorite. His fiscal conservatism, positions on education, as well as his strong defense of private property rights makes him tailor-made for the 36th District." Hollingsworth's present assembly district includes 28 percent of the senate district, La Suer has 28 percent of the district, Zettel has 40 percent of the district, and Rod Pacheco from Pomona has four percent of the district.

Anderson believes that the Hollingsworth-Zettel fight will be the most crucial pro-life contest in San Diego County. "San Diego will be losing two great state senators, Bill Morrow and Jim Battin, due to term limits and redistricting. After they leave, it will be harder for pro-life candidates to get the support current candidates receive. If Dennis Hollingsworth is elected that void would be filled." Zettel spent $50,000 dollars last election cycle to defeat local pro-life assemblymen Jay LaSuer and Mark Wyland.

On the congressional level there is only one big surprise. Supposedly pro-life Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham waffled when it came to stem cell research. Last year he asked to increase funding for Planned Parenthood from the floor of Congress. At press time, a protest was planned for a November 15 Charlene Zettel fundraiser in Poway at which Cunningham was scheduled to speak in support of Zettel. The protest, coordinated by the California Life Coalition and San Diego Christians United, was intended to exposed the anti-life positions of both politicians.

The biggest statewide stir this year is the governor's race. Gray Davis, is sitting on over $30 million in campaign funds. On the Republican side there are three credible candidates. Los Angeles mayor, Richard Riordon, on the record as pro-abortion and pro-homosexual-rights, has supported Democrats like Maxine Waters and Gray Davis over Republican rivals. Secretary of State Bill Jones and businessman Bill Simon are both pro-life candidates. Jones hasn't been able to raise the amount of money necessary for a statewide race up to now. Jones' problem dates back to the last GOP presidential primary, where Jones switched his support from Bush to McCain in the last weeks of the campaign and offended his supporters. Simon has raised over $3 million in the same period. Simon is currently suffering from low name identification but has the funds and a growing volunteer team to overcome it.

A pro-life source behind the the scenes in Sacramento says that the Democrats have further entrenched themselves by realigning the districts. "The reapportionment was done by the legislature, for all districting: Congress, state assembly, state senate, and state board of equalization. As a result of that, congressmen and their staffs have made 'pilgrimages' to Sacramento. I saw today where some Democratic congresspersons have paid 20 thousand dollars each to a consultant, (Congressman) Howard Berman's brother, to see to it that he would make nice districts for them. Phil Burton, who made the districts in the 80s called his work there his 'contribution to modern art'. Someone should make a puzzle that would have 80 pieces for the assembly and 40 pieces for the senate and 53 pieces for congress. Make them all the same color and put them all in one big box. If you put them together right, you'd get three states of California out of them! But have you seen what the districts look like? It's patently absurd. They have these long, thin tongues that stick out and they also have little dents in them. The dents in some districts are to exclude some particular person's home. The reason for that is exclude a particular person from running in that district! So they put a long corridor in the district to take that person's house out of the district. They've done that in several districts to keep out particular individuals that they wanted to block from running. It makes gerrymandering seem like artless, disinterested districting!"

One such district is the new 51st congressional district. To guarantee a base of Hispanic voters who tend to vote Democratic, the district envelopes all of San Diego's South Bay, all of Imperial County and connects the two areas with a long, narrow corridor along the Mexican border. "If you look at it you wonder if it was put together by the border patrol! You ask yourself, 'Is this some kind of security zone? What's this little thin strip?' These districts are just bizarre."

The difference between the redistricting of the 1980s and the newest effort is the reality of term limits. "Back then, they made deals and told members, 'If you vote for this, we'll give you districts that will guarantee you reelection for ten years without even campaigning. This time it was a little different because some of the assembly incumbents wanted to see state senate seats carved out for them because they were finished with their assembly careers after six years. But they simply bought the votes by giving them what they wanted, including enough Republicans to get a very safe two-thirds vote for the whole thing. As a result, the Republicans bought into permanent minority status."

The Sacramento insider is also intrigued by the Hollingsworth-Zettel race. "She (Zettel) is a pseudo-Republican. She's pro-choice, pro-abort and very unimpressive. The trouble with is that now the Republican party plays a dual role: She claims to be Hispanic and she plays the feminine card, so some in the leadership are saying, 'Oh, we have to support her, because we need more Latinos and more women to show that Republicans are a real, genuine party.' Those are the ones who are still talking about getting a majority, but now the majority thing is ridiculous. I would hope that Hollingsworth would win that one nicely."

He sees the pro-life outlook in the upcoming elections as pretty bad overall. "The Republican Party will no longer be expecting pro-lifers to show any sort of loyalty. They think they should accept pro-abortion Republicans in order to get a Republican majority. The Republicans have made it clear that even if they get a majority it's not going to be a pro-life majority and they're not going to use party discipline to provide anything for the pro-lifers. Rob Hurt, the former Republican leader of the senate, who himself got defeated in a sort of poetic justice, came to their January 22nd rally and said, 'We want you to keep working for a Republican majority, but we're letting you know that that's not going to advance your agenda. You've got to get not only a Republican majority, but you've got to elect some pro-life Democrats to get your agenda, because we're supporting pro-abortion Republicans now in order to get a majority. Well, there are no pro-life Democrats and there won't be any unless there was some sea-change, like for instance if the Catholic Church got really active and serious about the abortion issue -- and there won't be any either."

"Some of the 'true believer' Republicans took the idea that the pro-lifers are destructive to the party, because they won't support the full slate of candidates. But we could argue back that they won't make protecting life a caucus position and enforce it on their members. If they would, we could go along with that. If they'd all agree that they'd oppose funding, which they could do, and stop funding -- that's a two-thirds issue. If they'd support us on that, we could go along with that, but they never offered anything. It finally gave the liberal Catholic Democrats a reason to say, 'You sold your soul for nothing. You gave false loyalty to the Republicans, who never did anything for you."

According to the insider, the blame goes to Pete Wilson. "A lot of astute Republicans now realize that Pete Wilson destroyed the Republican party in California, and Dan Lungren died for Wilson's sins. One of the lefties once said, 'We're going to use Wilson to destroy the Republican party' and they did. The ironic thing is, even though he didn't uphold the Republican principles, especially on social issues, the reason for putting Wilson in was that Republicans thought they needed him to get a fair reapportionment to gain a majority in the 90s. That was a classic Faustian deal. They got him into office and what did he do? The reapportionment wasn't done by the governor anyway, it was done by the court. They took care of that problem already when they got rid of Rose Bird and company from the California supreme court. The supreme court was Republican. In the Republican landslide of '94, they thought they had control of the assembly, but one of their own people, who the pro-lifers would have like to throw out, Paul Horcher, sold them out to Willie Brown. Horcher, a liberal Republican, turncoated and voted for Willie Brown to get the speakership."

"There're hardly any districts that have any ambiguity in the general election at all. They're either solidly Republican or solidly Democrat. There're virtually no swing districts left at all. The whole thing now is primaries, where most of the candidates, especially in the minority districts are selected by the party leadership. In those districts, they don't really have elections, but 'selections.'"

The "selection" for the 51st Congressional district is almost certain to be more heated than most as Assemblyman Juan Vargas is not hiding his ambitions to challenge Congressman Bob Filner. The October 26th San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Vargas is suing to invalidate Filner's new district, claiming that the consultant who drew the district lines, Michael Berman, admitted to "diluting the Latino vote to protect Filner's incumbency."

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