Elections ’88 : Orange County : Wieder’s Foes See New Hope in Flap Over College Degree

County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder’s three major opponents for the Republican nomination in the 42nd Congressional District were reassessing their campaigns Thursday in light of revelations that Wieder lied under oath about having a college degree.

“I think it’s a whole new ballgame,” said Bob Wolfe, campaign director for candidate Andrew Littlefair. “Of the four candidates who are well-funded, I think it is anybody’s horse race right now.”

Littlefair, a former White House advance man, and the other two major opponents, former Cal State Long Beach President Stephen Horn and former White House speech writer Dana Rohrabacher, had raised $70,000 to $80,000 each in campaign funds as of March 31. Wieder reported raising about $175,000 for her campaign as of the March 31 filing deadline. The primary is June 7.

Front-runner Wieder has taken several heavy hits recently, with most of her opponents’ fusillades aimed at her.

But her campaign said that its own polls indicate that she has maintained a comfortable lead, even a few days after Wieder admitted last week that she did not have a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Wayne State University in Detroit, as she had said on resumes for the last 25 years.

Wieder, 67, under pressure from Rohrabacher, said she had perpetuated a mistake made by someone else because she was “ashamed” that she did not have a college education.

This week, however, it was disclosed that Wieder herself claimed under oath, in a deposition taken in October in an Orange County Superior Court lawsuit, to have the Wayne State degree.

And just last month she signed, under penalty of perjury, a declaration saying that a transcript of the deposition--including the degree assertion--was accurate.

“Before, it was simply an opponent in the campaign nit-picking away,” said political consultant David Vaporean, who is not involved in the 42nd District race. “But this story now has a whole different dimension.”

The impact of that new dimension will depend on the extent of the backlash against Wieder and the question of where voters who abandon her will redirect their support.

“The only thing that Harriett should be somewhat happy about is that there are so many candidates running,” said Rohrabacher’s political consultant, Allan Hoffenblum. In the multi-candidate primary, it takes only a plurality of the vote to win.

Hoffenblum said the question being asked now is: “ ‘Who else is there?’ That is what is on everybody’s mind. It’s what candidate is going to be able to do the most effective job and say, ‘Hey, I’m here.’ ”

Wolfe agreed that while his candidate, Littlefair, could benefit from Wieder’s problems, Rohrabacher and Horn could “benefit as well.”

Wieder’s political consultant, Tony Marsh, said: “We’re regrouping, needless to say. . . . Harriett made a major mistake. She corrected the error and apologized for it. Nevertheless, it’s a problem for us.”

Marsh said the campaign will continue to concentrate on Wieder’s accomplishments during her years as a city councilwoman and supervisor.

“The good thing about being around for 14 years is (that) a lot of people know her personally,” he said. “She’s done a lot of things that touched people’s lives that they appreciate.”

He said her opponents “don’t have the same kind of affection among the voters that Harriett has developed, and that affection is real.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “Nobody is saying what happened with respect to Harriett lying was minor, least of all Harriett. But people will forgive if they feel the apology is heartfelt, and I’m convinced it is.”

State Sen. Robert G. Beverly (R-Manhattan Beach), whose district includes portions of the 42nd District, said he believes Wieder remains the candidate to beat.

He said each of the other candidates seems to be carving out a base: Littlefair in his native Torrance, Horn in Long Beach and Rohrabacher among more conservative Republicans. But despite her problems, Wieder is the only one who has a strong base in Orange County, he said.

“You pay your money and take your choice,” Beverly said. “But if I had to, I’d bet on Harriett.”

Hoffenblum said he has made adjustments in Rohrabacher’s campaign in reaction to Wieder’s troubles: “We thought maybe we had to create a contrast (between Rohrabacher and Wieder) in Orange County, but I do not think that is as necessary as when we started laying out our strategy.”

District Is Split

The district, now represented by Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach), is split between Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Wolfe said Littlefair will continue to hit Wieder on the slow-growth issue. Wieder has been threatened with a recall by Orange County slow-growth advocates over her votes on development agreements, which supporters of the slow-growth initiative say are a way around the measure, which is expected to pass overwhelmingly June 7.

“In my opinion, we’ve been on the forefront of the growth and traffic issue in Orange County,” Wolfe said. “We do not intend to give that away to another candidate.”

Recall organizers did not serve Wieder with papers Wednesday, as they did another supervisor, so there is no formal recall effort under way. But the recall threat has already made top billing in a mailer sent out by Littlefair.

The mailer, in huge letters, asks, “Why are thousands of Orange County residents recalling Supervisor Harriett Wieder?”

Horn is also trying to capitalize on anger in the county over traffic and growth.

Fred Karger of Horn’s campaign said Horn is shifting his efforts more into Orange County because of the slow-growth issue. He said Horn has already garnered endorsements from several key slow-growth leaders.

“She (Wieder) is on the wrong side of that, just by being an incumbent,” Karger said.

“To voters, that is a much more potent argument” to vote against Wieder than the degree issue, Karger added, so the Horn campaign is “not planning on discussing” the degree uproar.