Conservative Bordonaro wins runoff spot over lib Firestone

Santa Maria, Calif.-One could almost hear the shouts of joy from California conservatives last week when stalwart conservative Tom Bordonaro took the Republican nod for Congress in the nationally watched special primary in the state's ??nd U.S. House District. The election is being held to fill the seat of late Democratic Rep. Walter H. Capps.

As expected, Capps` widow Lois (the lone Democrat among the seven candidates) topped the field with 45.5% of the vote.

But to the surprise of most pundits. State Assemblyman Bordonaro placed second with 29.4% of the vote, outpacing liberal Republican State Assemblyman Brooks Firestone. who took 24.9% of the vote.

Because no candidate won a majority: Capps and Bordonaro will meet in a March 10 runoff.

The 38-year-old Bordonaro has been accustomed to overcoming long odds ever since he was paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident at age 17. The odds were stacked against him in this campaign from the beginning because, with much fanfare, Firestone had been recruited to run by several California Republican congressmen, assisted by a number of national GOP bigwigs--including former President Gerald Ford and House Speaker Newt Gingrich-and the wealthy tire fortune heir indicated he would spend $500,000 of his own money to win the nomination. Firestone was also endorsed by such Golden State GOP fixtures as former State Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle and Fess Parker (best known on the silver screen as "Davy Crockett").

In addition, Firestone was the beneficiary of a $100,000 independent expenditure by U.S. Term Limits, which slammed the conservative Bordonaro for not joining liberals Capps and Firestone in signing its pledge to serve only three terms in Congress.

To the anger of many conservatives, U.S. Term Limits ignored the fact that Bordonaro had backed every term-limit measure raised in California, and said he would support "any and all term-limit proposals that come before me for a vote in Congress so long as the limits apply to all states across the country, not just California."

In the end, however, Firestone's money and establishment backing failed to trump his liberal record. In the state assembly he had backed partial-birth abortion, gun control and employee benefits for homosexual partners. He not only opposed Proposition 187, the California initiative that banned state benefits for illegal aliens, but also the upcoming statewide ballot measure to end bilingual education.

Firestone also lost votes because of a widely reprinted quote from a speech he had given to a League of Women Voters Forum in which he said: "Higher taxes, lesser benefits . . . that's precisely what has to be."

Bordonaro hit those stands hard, contrasting them with his own pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment positions, his support for the immigration and bilingual ballot measures, and his advocacy of the flat tax.

CRA in Action

Bordonaro's outspoken conservatism won him the support of California's most energetic Republican grassroots organization, the California Republican Assembly (CRA), which ran a significant all-volunteer get-out-the-vote effort.

An independent television expenditure by the Campaign for Working Families (CWF), a political action committee headed by Family Research Council President Gary Bauer, helped define the candidates' positions on the abortion issue. After being denied the right to air its original commercials on partial-birth abortion by local network affiliates (see HUMAN EVENTS cover box story last week), CWF decided to drop $85,000 on watered-down spots that nonetheless pointed out the differences on the issue between the candidates.

In addition, 20 conservative GOP House membersamong them House Government Reform and Oversight Chairman Dan Burton (Ind.cut substantial checks for Bordonaro.

"The Republican voters of California's 22nd District have chosen a candidate with a complete conservative message," declared Bauer, who was in Southern California during the race. "Lower taxes, smaller government, family values, and respect for the sanctity of human life-together they are a winning formula in California, as in the rest of the country."

Bordonaro agreed that his victory had national ramifications and announced that he intended to go to the January 1617 Republican National Committee meeting in Palm Desert to make a strong endorsement of the resolution being debated there that would bar funding for GOP candidates and officeholders who do not support a ban on partial birth-abortions.

Coastline Conservatism

On election day, U.S. Highway 101, which runs up the coast from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, was testimony to the Bordonaro Brigades. From the district line north, trucks with huge "Bordonaro" signs dotted the roadside.

At the Santa Maria Inn, where the CRA was holding its convention, numerous Bordonaro enthusiasts were extremely busy. "I walked 18 precincts for Tom this weekend," beamed State Sen. Dick Mountjoy of Los Angeles County. Mountjoy, the state chairman of Pat Buchanan's 1996 presidential campaign and now the front-running GOP hopeful for lieutenant governor, reported that "of all the Republican households I went to, all responded favorably to Tom's conservative message except one or two, who asked me what his problem was with term limits"-a sign that the attacks on the conservative by U.S. Term Limits had reached some voters.