Surprised Sumner Focuses on Next Fight : Starts Thinking of Badham After Topping Hoffmann

The mood quickly turned morose among Orange County Democratic Party leaders Tuesday night as early returns rolled in showing party chairman Bruce Sumner losing badly in his write-in bid to prevent a Lyndon LaRouche supporter from winning the party nomination in the 40th Congressional District.

With the absentee ballots barely in, former party chairman Howard Adler began lashing out at Democrats who “didn’t care enough” to vote in what had become one of the party’s major campaigns. Sumner himself was hopeful but glum. But hardly anyone was surprised. In a county where Republicans have captured every congressional and legislative seat but one, losing has become almost a habit.

Rare Write-In Victory

The surprise came Wednesday morning, when the final returns showed Sumner ahead with an apparent 52.3% of the vote, compared to LaRouche candidate Art Hoffmann’s 47.7%. Hoffmann has refused to concede until the write-in ballots are officially counted today. But unless the results change, the vote marks a rare write-in victory against a candidate whose name appeared alone on the ballot after a campaign that barely spanned two months.

Now, winding down from a $53,000 blitz of mailers, phone banks and volunteers handing out write-in packages at the polls, Sumner faces the even more formidable prospect of a campaign against six-term Republican incumbent Robert E. Badham of Newport Beach. The veteran congressman emerged Tuesday from one of the most vigorous primary campaigns ever waged against him with a nearly 2-1 victory.

Sumner, a former Superior Court judge and state assemblyman from the Newport Beach coastal area that is part of the 40th District, one of the most heavily Republican districts in the nation, says Republican Nathan Rosenberg’s 34% showing against Badham leaves the incumbent more vulnerable than ever. In his campaign, Rosenberg hammered away at what he said was Badham’s failure to listen to constituents’ concerns, global travel and campaign fund expenditures for personal use.

The support Rosenberg received, Sumner said, “reflects deep dissatisfaction on the Republican side with Badham. . . . I’ve heard from Republicans last night and this morning, people who voted for Badham, who are delighted and who are going to support me. They would rather have Badham than Rosenberg, but they would rather have me than Badham.”

Self-Described Moderate

Sumner’s credibility as a former state assemblyman and judge and his own description of himself as “a moderate who is not an intensely partisan person” could win friends among the 58% Republican registration in the district.

“If anyone can do it, it’s Bruce,” said Adler.

But privately, the old doubts surface among party leaders.

“Rosenberg ran a great campaign, and he lost 2 to 1. So do you expect someone who voted for Badham to turn around and vote for Sumner? I don’t,” said one party activist.

While Democrat Carol Ann Bradford won 34% of the vote against Badham in 1984--the same percentage Rosenberg captured this week--by raising similar issues, many Democratic strategists say those issues may now have reached the point of diminishing returns.

Badham, moreover, has close ties to President Reagan and quick access to plentiful campaign funds to draw on quickly in the event any potential challenger draws dangerously close. These factors led to the Democratic establishment’s early decision not to field a serious campaign against Badham next fall until the LaRouche issue thrust Sumner into the race.

With all of those negatives, none of the Democratic Party leaders could predict how much money it would take to defeat Badham. It would certainly require more than the $170,000 Rosenberg raised, but then again, Adler theorized, is there enough money anywhere to defeat Badham in a district so evidently tailored to him?

“I’m not sure money’s going to be the issue in that district,” he said. “If Bruce defeats Badham, it won’t necessarily be because he’s able to raise a lot of money. There’s going to be another dynamic there, which is mainly Republicans looking for an alternative to Badham’s record.”

Badham, for his part, thinks that his showing in Tuesday’s primary shows the Republicans are happy. “The final result showed that I won by 2 to 1 roughly, and that with the active opposition of a major metropolitan daily and the apparent mild opposition of another metropolitan daily,” he said.

“I was out-fund-raised, I was outspent; I was supported only by the President, the vice president, the governor of the state, all the Republican representatives of the California delegation . . . so there must’ve been something out there working for me, and that was the people I have served.”

Claims Some Success

But Rosenberg, while pledging to help unify the party, said his campaign against the incumbent succeeded in several respects.

“Basically, I got into the race with a commitment to having people participate in their government, and also that people would have a representative back in the district listening to them and talking with them, and as far as I’m concerned, we succeeded fully in that.

“We got the congressman back in the district talking to people. Hopefully, he’ll listen to that 34% who voted for me because I think there’s a statement in that.”

To which Badham responded: “Lord o’ mercy! You spend $300,000 to get a little bit more than 30% of the vote, and if you consider that a victory, that’s super. That, to me, is demonstrative of the altered-mind state we’re dealing with here,” he added, referring again to Rosenberg’s connections to the est human potential movement founded by his brother, Werner Erhard.

In fact, Badham campaign coordinator Dave Vaporean said the upcoming campaign will reflect a much higher level of visibility for the congressman than in the past--perhaps a small tip of the hat to Rosenberg’s challenge, which he called “an affront to his (Badham’s) incumbency.”

“On the one hand, the reality is that Bob has essentially been returned to Congress as of the vote yesterday,” Vaporean said. “But in practical terms, Bob is going to use the opportunity to make another statement in terms of his commitment to the district. You’re going to see a much higher profile Bob Badham.”