Torrance Congressional Election 1980: The Firebrand Conservative vs. Hollywood Liberal Royalty

Election 1980.

Ronald Reagan was not just a stellar conservative candidate.

He brought up the ticket all over the country. Republicans were winning seats in some of the bluest areas, especially in California, particularly in Los Angeles County.

Bob Fiedler, a liberal Republican who had served on the Los Angeles Unified Board of Trustees, would sweep out a West Valley incumbent Democratic.

In fact, here's how things worked out in California in 1980 for the Congressional seats:

A net gain of three seat, including Duncan Hunter Senior, who would serve for 28 years in Congress.

But what happened in West Torrance?

B-One Bob held his own--again!--against the son of Gregory Peck.

Here's an account from the Washington Post covering the West Side district, which descended all the way down to the South Bay:

'Star Wars' Campaign

Before the election in 1976 as the Republican representatives from California's 27th Congressional District, Robert K. Dornan worked as an actor, television newscaster and talk show host. He is the nephew of the late actor Jack Haley.

Can you imagine a well-known name running for Congress as a Republican, and a conservative one?

That's exactly what Bob Dornan did.

Robert K. "B-One Bob" Dornan

Dornan's Democratic challenger in the Nov. 4 election is Carey Peck, the 31-year-old son of actor Gregory Peck. And voters in the district, which runs along Santa Monica Bay, include such luminaries as Ronald and Nancy Reagan, and Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden.

Now think about this ...

Ronald Reagan was running for President that year. He won, of course.

But whom did he vote for Congress?

Bob Dornan! I can think of no higher honor than to receive the vote from the President in my bid for office.

So people here are calling this race "Star Wars." But "Jaws II" might be more apt.

This is a rerun of the 1978 race that Dornan, 47, won by just two points. And jaws are active in this campaign, pouring out oratory and occassionally drawing blood.

Notice the harsh sentiments used to depict Dornan. Unbelievable.

Voters here are concerned mostly about inflation. Peck is a self-described "fiscal conservative," who often sounds like a Republican unless he is talking about the two issues where his opponent and Dornan's normally conservative constituents part company: abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment. One result is that issues aren't getting too much attention.

Abortion was a heated subject at this time, especially since the Supreme Court deliberately injected itself into the campaign. Inflation was the issue of the day, too, which meant that the massive influx of fiat money ended up driving up the cost of goods. This signature issue was hurting Britons as well, and it ushered in the Thatcher government in 1979.

As for the Equal Rights Amendment, this proposed constitutional amendment pitted Establishment Republicans against the conservative grassroots

The contest is a unique opportunity for a California Democrat, caught in the midst of the West's conservative tide and Reagan enthusiasm, to unseat an incumbent Republican. Thus it is no surprise that each of the candidates will raise and spend in the neighborhood of $400,000 apiece. What is surprising is the level of mud into which this campaign often sinks.

Really? The media do this all the time. They keep claiming such heated and hateful attacks are unprecedented. They only write this kind of rhetoric to sell papers. It's time for them to adopt a better schtick.

Carey Peck in more recent times

Dornan is one of California's most flamboyant politicians and is well known in his district. So he might have been expected to run the traditional incumbent's campaign, saying little about his opponent and leaving it to Peck to explain to the voters why they should oust their congressman in favor of a young man whose work experience consists mostly of the Peace Corps and a stint on Capitol Hill as a Senate aide.

Ugh. Carey Peck, the son of Hollywood royalty, was looking for an easy way into Congress.

But Bob Dornan cannot stop talking about Carey Peck.

The congressman claims that his opponent accepted an illegal campaign contribution. Peck denies it. The ex-convict who is alleged to have given the money to Peck later waffled on his story and now denies it. And the Justice Department says it has investigated the charge and found it false.

Eek! It was getting pretty heated pretty quickly, wasn't it? Then 1976 Election was the first time in nearly 20 years that the Westside/South Bay seat was open for election. The fight was more than heated. Dornan was used to fights then, and he was prepared for this one, too.

But Dornan, although he has pledged more than once that he will not repeat that accusation during this campaign, seems unable to let it go.

At a candidates' forum in the South Bay last Monday night Dornan and Peck shared a platform for the first time this year. It was Peck who first departed from the intended discussion of issues by stating that "one of the issues" he wanted to challenge the incumbent on was "his style of campaigning." 

Oh brother! Democrats once again raising alarm over the style rather than the substance of the campaign. Give me a break!

Carey Peck

In particular, Peck objected to Dornan having referred to him as a "sick, pompous little ass." Dornan subsequently told a reporter: "I never said that. Why would I call him sick? He's obviously a tall, healthy guy. What I said that he is a sycophant and a pompous little ass."

LOL! Good one. B-One Bob!

"And," Peck continued, "he attacked my father on the floor of the House. . . [he owes me] an apology."

B-One Bob with the El Camino College Republicans
(Credit: Armand Vaquer) 

Then it was Dornan's turn. He again brought up the illegal contribution matter. Dornan said he would file charges against Peck as soon as Ronald Reagan is elected president and gets rid of Jimmy Carter's "highly politicized" Justice Department.

Wow! Highly politicized Justice Department ... where have I heard this before? (Obama-Holder-Lynch)

Then he complained that Peck never called to congratulate him on election night in 1978. With that, the congressman angrily slapped a coin down on the table in front of Peck and said: "So here's a dime, character. Use it to call and congratulate me on Nov. 4." Peck just smiled.

The next day, Dornan admitted that the illegal contribution charge had "boomeranged" and done more damage to his campaign than to Peck's.

I wonder why there was such an obsession with this character and style campaign agenda?

Easy ... Democrats had nothing substantive to campaign on in 1980. There was widespread anger, and many Democrats were probably convinced that Jimmy the Peanut Farmer was going down. They could only imagine how bad it was going to be.

Dornan said he wished he had stayed away from the candidates' forum and "taken the flak for not showing up. Or maybe I should let him do a soft-shoe [sic] dance on my forehead and just restrain myself. But it is insufferable for him to ask me for an apology, when he owes me so many. And he uses those buzz words, 'He's attacked my family,' because he knows his father is a respected, elegant man."

Gregory Peck, Academy Award Winner
Father of Failed Democratic Congressional Candidate

Peck's campaign manager, Terry Pullan, concedes that his side needs to keep Dornan on the offensive. "If we win," Pullan says, "a lot of the credit will be due Bob Dornan."

They really believed that setting off Dornan was going to make him lose?

When Peck is not trying to goad his opponent into campaign theatrics, he is out in the precincts he has been walking for the better part of three years, saying the same words again and again: "Hi. I'm Carey Peck, I'm running for Congress. How're you doing? I hope you'll take the time to read the brochure, it's just a straightforward issues statement." Big smile. Extended hand. "Great to catch you at home. 'Bye."

That's part of the problem for Democrats in general, and I guess for Carey in particular.

Peck has walked so many precincts, rung so many doorbells and smiled at so many people that the faced become a blur. And sometimes skin blurs into fur, so that when a dog whose registered voter-owner is talking to the candidate barks for attention, Peck smiles down and says to the dog, "Hey, how're you doing?"

Oh brother! It's so obvious that WaPo Hate wanted Carey Peck to win. This is the least substantive piece of writing I have found yet.

B-One Bob meeting with volunteers at his Santa Monica Headquarters
(Credit: Armand Vaquer) 

But Peck stops short of giving the animal a brochure. And if the dog could talk, he probably wouldn't ask for one. He'd just ask that burning question that most humans keep asking this candidate: "Is Gregory Peck really your father?"

FYI: Dornan beat Peck a second time, and by a wider margin than in 1978.

Election 1976: B-One Bob vs. Gary Familian in CD 27 (West and South Torrance)

Ugly campaigns are nothing new to the South Bay, unfortunately. I covered the congressional race that pitted Robert K. Dornan against Gary Familian in 1976. The mudslinging was particularly intense, fueled by more than $1 million in campaign expenditures, a record for that time. Familian linked Dornan to the KKK and alleged he was a wife beater; Dornan responded by filing a libel suit. It always struck me how even the nicest candidate could resort to really ugly behavior in the heat of a campaign. I once asked Jim Brooks, who managed his wife's campaign against Jane Harman, why they resorted to negative tactics instead of sticking to policy debates. Negative campaigning works, he replied. -- David Hunt

This comment above piqued my interest about Congressional politics in the South Bay.

I found it underneath the article about me and members of the Beach Cities Republicans when we went after Al Muratsuchi and his Big Green liberal cronies following a contentious debate. We tried to confront him on his liberal lunacy and the terrible lies that he printed about Assemblyman David Hadley in the last two months of mailers stuffing everyone's mail boxes.

Robert Dornan

This Dornan vs. Familian race was particularly riveting.

Following another search, I found a number of articles covering this race.

Why was it particularly interesting to me, though?

1. Robert "B-One Bob" Dornan the fiery, outspoken conservative, actor, and radio host was running against a well-connected Democrat. I'm a fan of Bob Dornan, and was pleasantly surprised that he represented the Torrance area at one time!

2. The contest was an open seat, the first time since 1962. Alphonzo Bell, who had headed the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, retired from the seat to attempt a US Senate bid. Bell would lose the primary to S. I. Hayakawa, who would win the seat in the general election.

3. It was the Westside seat, where Henry Waxman was trying to work his political machine with UCLA friend and fellow graduate Howard Berman.

4. This race was tied to the campaign events I was engaging in against Al Muratsuchi in my club's efforts to help David Hadley's re-election bid.

Then I found this incredible blog which featured the efforts and exploits of the Young Republicans and the Los Angeles County Republican Party from the late 1970s and the early 1980s!

The name? The Rancho del Cielo blog.

In the late 1970s, Torrance was divided into three Congressional Districts.

Bob Dornan ran in the 27th Congressional District:

Here's the close up of the parts of Torrance which fell within the district's boundaries:

Election 1976 was one of the most expensive on record for its time.

From the Washington Post:

1976 Gary Familian, a California Democrat defeated by Dornan while outspending him, $637,080 to $403,675

Notice that even though the Democrat outspent Dornan, he still lost!

Here's some information from the Rancho Del Cielo blog about that race:

From right to left:
B-One Bob, Armand Vaquer, and Frank Lunney

It was the late summer of 1976 and I had previously returned from the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. I attended as a California Ronald Reagan Delegate. Unfortunately, Reagan lost the GOP nomination by a whisker to President Gerald Ford.

Following the convention, I devoted my time working in the Paul Bannai (for re-election to the state Assembly) and Robert K. Dornan's campaign for congress against Gary Familian.  I was 2nd V.P. of the Los Angeles County Young Republicans at the time, so I, at least, had some official party standing (to a degree).

The Dornan Campaign set up a "Youths For Dornan" campaign group and a photo session to publicize the organization was scheduled.  I enlisted Frank into the group (it didn't take much persuasion as Frank was a Dornan fan anyway) to take part in the campaign and photo shoot.

We met at Dornan's campaign headquarters to do the shoot.  The accompanying two photos are from the photo session.  I was 22 at the time and Frank was 18.

...

B-One Bob with Young Republicans

Dornan went on to win the seat in Congress. When President Jimmy Carter (who defeated Ford in the 1976 general election) decided to kill the B-1 bomber program, Dornan led the outrage over the action ("They're breaking out the vodka bottles in the Kremlin!"). He gained the nickname of "B-1 Bob." 

Final Reflection

Delving into Congressional history in the South Bay has become increasingly intriguing and rewarding.

I will be editing and updating this blog in the next few months as I gather more information.

Stay tuned!