Clouds Forecast for ‘Sunny’ in Assembly Race : Campaign: Ethics charges and three Republican opponents are combining to make this the toughest challenge yet for the 75th District’s Mojonnier.

Assemblywoman Sunny Mojonnier, who has run on the slogan “It’s Sunny Along the Coast” throughout her career, confronts decidedly cloudly political conditions in this spring’s Republican primary in the 75th Assembly District.

Buffeted by serious ethical charges that compounded existing questions about her overall effectiveness, Mojonnier faces three Republican opponents in her bid for her party’s nomination for a fifth two-year term--her most serious challenge since easily winning the seat in the heavily Republican coastal district in 1982.

With her opponents determined to make the June 5 primary a referendum on her record and integrity--which they characterize as lackluster and lax, respectively--Mojonnier finds herself battling to hold on to a seat that, under normal circumstances, is a virtual lifetime job for any Republican.

“If you’re a Republican in this district, it’s like guaranteed annual income,” consultant Jack Orr, a Mojonnier critic, said of the 75th District, in which the GOP holds a daunting 52%-33% registration edge. “But Sunny just may be the one to disprove that.”

Indeed, in an unusually competitive primary season in which five San Diego County incumbents--four Assembly members and one congressman--face serious challenges from within their own parties, Mojonnier is widely seen as among the most vulnerable in June.

Largely because of the series of ethics-related and partisan controversies, the Encinitas Republican has attracted primary opposition for the first time in her career, drawing challenges from former Del Mar Mayor Ronnie Delaney, La Jolla businesswoman Fay McGrath and Poway school board member Stan Rodkin.

Although each challenger brings considerable assets to the campaign, Delaney, arguably the strongest of the three, acknowledges that the race is likely to deal less with their own qualifications than with questions about Mojonnier’s performance.

“Sunny Mojonnier herself is the major issue in this campaign,” Delaney said. “That’s why there are three challengers. If you’re doing the job, that doesn’t happen to an incumbent--especially not within your own party.”

Anticipating a bruising campaign, Mojonnier has hired a Newport Beach-based consultant and plans to spend more than $100,000 in the primary--a marked departure for someone who in earlier years went through the motions and rolled up reelection majorities never dipped below 65%.

“Just because it’s a contested primary, this race probably will be tougher than my past ones, so I’m taking nothing for granted,” Mojonnier said. “If my opponents want to debate my record, that will give me a chance to set the record straight. I haven’t done anything wrong, nothing I’d be ashamed to tell my mother or my children. Whatever mistakes occurred were just human errors. But I guess if they’re going to pick on me, they’re going to pick on me.”

For Mojonnier, recent months have produced frequent embarrassing headlines in the 75th District, which stretches along the coast from Imperial Beach to Encinitas, extending inland to Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Penasquitos, Mira Mesa and Miramar.

In February, Mojonnier was fined for double-billing the state and her campaign committee for business trips, as well as for using political donations to pay for fashion and beauty treatments for her staff. Along with other state legislators, she has been criticized for routinely using state-paid sergeants-at-arms for personal tasks, such as chauffeuring her children and escorting her home after evening parties.

Though the latter case has opponents such as Orr chortling over the prospect of “Driving Miss Sunny” campaign mailers, Mojonnier points out that her use of the sergeants-at-arms is not unlike that of many other legislators.

“The sergeants are there to provide this kind of assistance, to enable us to spend maximum time on state business,” Mojonnier said. “For anyone to criticize me over this is just so silly. It’s a non-story.”

As for the double-billing case, Mojonnier describes the mistakes for which she was assessed $13,236--double the $6,618 in disputed charges--as “completely unintentional bookkeeping errors,” stressing that the discrepancies stemmed from figures included on her various financial disclosure statements.

“Everything that was brought out was brought out because I submitted all the required disclosure statements,” Mojonnier said. “It’s not like I was trying to hide anything. It was all right there in the papers I filed. The mistake I made was not reviewing the papers more carefully before I signed them. And I’ve learned a rather severe lesson about that.”

An issue from Mojonnier’s last campaign--her 1987 acceptance of a $10,000 speaking fee from the California Peace Officers Assn. after leaving her sickbed to vote for a Los Angeles prison--also could have a lingering effect on this race. Although the state attorney general’s office ruled that the award--which Mojonnier said she donated to charity--did not violate state law, opponents argue that it at least raised ethical questions.

Republican leaders were also incensed when, early in her present term, there was widespread speculation that Mojonnier might break party ranks to reelect Democratic Speaker Willie Brown--a dispute that had some GOP officials threatening to mount a recall effort. Although she did not vote for Brown, Mojonnier refused to go along with a Republican plan to replace him with an anti-Brown Democrat, Charles Calderon of Whittier, whom she said she could not back because of his support for United Farm Workers Union leader Cesar Chavez.

Regardless, the Brown episode--more so than the subsequent ethical questions--prompted some local Republicans to begin pursuing the rare and somewhat distasteful task of trying to dump one of their own incumbents.

“Among Republicans, if you were to rank Sunny’s problems, the Willie Brown thing would be No. 1,” said consultant Orr, who has formed an independent committee aimed at defeating Mojonnier. “That really got people to asking, ‘Who’s side is she on, anyway?’ With everything that’s gone on since then, people are just fed up.”

Hoping to tap into that sentiment, Mojonnier’s challengers lace their public speeches with alternately indirect and blunt references to her woes.

“My ethics are beyond reproach,” McGrath said at a Rancho Bernardo forum last week. Rodkin told the same group: “It’s time for a change.”

“People expect certain things from elected officials: integrity, honesty, good judgment, setting a good example,” Delaney told the Battle Mountain Republican Club. “That’s the least they have a right to expect. . . . That is not something that they’ve felt they have received.”

Amid predictions by some political activists of an overall anti-incumbent sentiment in this year’s elections because of recent scandals in Sacramento and Washington, Mojonnier’s problems could make it difficult, if not impossible, for her to separate herself from that backlash.

“If it were a single transgression, or maybe even two, you might be able to get away with it, but there’s just too much on Sunny’s list,” said consultant Jim Johnston, whose local firm, Johnston & Lewis, ran Mojonnier’s successful 1982 race. “Plus, she’s done the kinds of National Enquirer-type things that really penetrate. When you spend money to send your staff for cosmetic make-overs, voters tend to remember that.”

Unwilling to allow debate over the controversies to dominate the primary, Mojonnier’s current consultant, Harvey Englander, recognizes that doing so would keep her on the defensive by allowing her opponents to dictate the campaign’s agenda and tempo. However, Englander concedes that the campaign plans to directly confront the ethics and related questions--probably via a mailer--in an effort to defuse the issue and shift the focus to what he sees as the more welcome turf of Mojonnier’s legislative record.

“At some point, we’re going to explain what really occurred,” Englander said. “When the facts, not the rhetoric, are explained, we’ll have no problem. Our job is to remind citizens who the full Sunny Mojonnier is. As soon as we can get these other candidates to talk about Sunny’s legislative record--which is a strong one on law enforcement, child protection and the environment--we’ll change the course of the campaign.”

Like any incumbent, the 47-year-old Mojonnier can point to a long list of legislation she has carried for communities within her district. In her campaign appearances, she often ticks off literally dozens of such bills--most of which she did not actually author but simply sponsored--in an effort to portray herself, in her words, as “an attentive, responsive, effective representative.”

Last month, however, the California Journal ranked Mojonnier among the bottom 10 members in the Assembly in integrity, intelligence and overall performance.

“I certainly wouldn’t call it a distinguished record,” Delaney said. “There’s a general sense that, years ago, Sunny retired to a caretaker mentality.”

With all four candidates holding similar positions on most major issues--with a notable exception being Rodkin’s anti-abortion stance, in contrast to the three others’ advocacy of abortion rights--voters are unlikely to be guided by philosophical distinctions in making their choices. Instead, the major differences are found in the candidates’ personal backgrounds and political experience.

Delaney, who served on the Del Mar City Council from 1985 to ‘88, the last year as mayor--a largely ceremonial job rotated among the council members--owns a property management company, a background she says gives her a blend of business and political experience unmatched by the other challengers.

“My whole philosophy is to look at more local control, not delegating more authority to Sacramento,” said Delaney, 45. “That approach is more likely to produce common-sense solutions to our problems.”

While on the council, Delaney was part of its conservative coalition, pushing for improvements in public-works projects and city services. During emotional, divisive referendum debates over proposed developments, she supported development of the shopping mall and hotel that today form the nucleus of the coastal city’s downtown, a controversial position that contributed to her defeat when she ran for reelection.

McGrath, meanwhile, describes herself to campaign audiences as a “coal miner’s daughter from Alabama,” who, after divorcing in 1972, raised seven children on her own, worked her way through college and established the Auntie Fay Agency, a La Jolla-based firm that specializes in the placement of live-in housekeepers. Two years ago, she was named San Diego Small Businessperson of the Year.

“I’m not a politician, I’m a citizen responding to the call for representation,” McGrath said. “In my business, I listen to people, determine their needs and figure out solutions. That’s a proven record of success that I’d like to take to Sacramento. My personal life has also prepared me for the job. Listen, after raising five teen-age girls, I’m ready for Willie Brown or Moammar Kadafi.”

A first-time candidate, McGrath says that one of her longtime goals has been to serve in elective office before reaching age 60. If she wins in June and is elected in November, McGrath will beat that target by about two weeks.

Rodkin, who also is 59, has served on the Poway Unified School District board since 1978, and unsuccessfully sought appointment to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in the early 1980s.

Though Mojonnier’s opponents worry that the anti-incumbent vote could be split by the three challengers, Rodkin speculates that, as the only male and anti-abortion candidate in the field, he is well positioned to capitalize on that division.

“People who want to see a woman or (abortion rights) supporter in office will have three choices,” said Rodkin, a retired mechanical engineer. “I pretty much have the other side on those two points to myself. I also expect to get my share of the anti-incumbent sentiment. So I see myself benefiting three ways on a split vote.”

In the end, however, the primary may turn more on Mojonnier’s ability to capitalize on the considerable clout of her incumbency--high name recognition, fund-raising advantages and endorsements from GOP officeholders here and statewide--to fend off her challengers.

“Even in a situation like this, it’s still very, very difficult to beat an incumbent,” McGrath conceded.

Declaring herself “eager, ready and upbeat” in the face of the stiffest test in her career, Mojonnier professes confidence that the June primary will once again demonstrate that political axiom.

“Even with all I’ve gone through lately, I wouldn’t change a single day in my life,” Mojonnier said. “I expect to feel that same way on Election Day.”