Even Secure Districts Reflect Voter Discontent : Congress: Speaker Foley, on friendly home ground, does not take reelection for granted. He dodges potshots as he campaigns vigorously.

By WILLIAM J. EATON

April 25, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

WALLA WALLA, Wash. — The question came like a shot at House Speaker Thomas S. Foley during an otherwise friendly town meeting.

“We pay $60,000 a year for your limousine driver,” said Todd Pascoe, a 23-year-old college senior. “Couldn’t we at least make a start on the deficit by eliminating that?”

Obviously annoyed, Foley rejected the premise and the suggestion. “First of all, it’s not $60,000--it’s less than that--and he’s not a limousine driver. He’s a police sergeant, my security officer.”

The exchange was a small cloud over Foley’s recent weeklong tour of his eastern Washington state district, where the Democratic representative’s approval ratings remain strong and his reelection to a 15th term seems assured. Even so, the unexpectedly blunt challenge to the respected 63-year-old leader illustrated a new kind of voter discontent.

Foley, like most colleagues on both sides of the aisle, is working harder than ever to stay in touch with constituents in a year when no seat can be considered absolutely safe and public opinion polls show esteem for the legislative branch of government has hit a record low.

“Any member of Congress who doesn’t expect a close race is foolish,” said Rep. David R. Nagle (D-Iowa). “A total of 1,500 votes could be the difference between reelection and alternative employment. No one is safe.”

House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), for example, is facing a primary challenge that kept him in his Atlanta-area district for the entire two-week Easter break. Gingrich, feeling heat over congressional perks, recently gave up the chauffeured car provided to him because of his leadership position.

Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento), vice chairman of the Democratic caucus who usually coasts to victory, has been exerting himself to survive in a new district where he will have a well-known Republican opponent. Fazio, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that seeks to help incumbents win reelection, estimates Democrats may lose 15 to 30 seats this year because of redistricting and anti-incumbent fever.

“The high degree of angst and frustration that people are feeling affects every incumbent,” said Fazio, who spent two weeks during the recess traveling throughout his old and new districts. “And it takes a lot of extra effort to meet new people.”

Rep. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), who was placed in a new district by reapportionment, said there is “no question that I’m running harder than I have in 10 years. I’ve put 2,800 miles on my car in the last two weeks. It’s a tough year and you have to be a fool not to recognize it.”

Fallout from the House bank disclosures also has generated intense activity among lawmakers with triple-digit overdrafts, such as Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado), who wrote 399 checks without enough funds to cover them. Hunter drove around his district, set up a card table and spread out the overdrafts for all to see. “A lot of guys were counseled to hide in the pack,” he said. “I wanted to bring the issue to closure.”

With a record number of retirements and a higher-than-usual casualty rate expected in November, as much as one-fourth of the 435-member House and one-fifth of the 100-member Senate may consist of newcomers next year.

“Even for Foley, this is no year to take voters for granted,” wrote the Spokane Spokesman-Review, the Speaker’s hometown newspaper, which praised him as an honest, talented statesman.

Buffeted by Republican attacks and grumbling by House Democrats over his handling of the House bank scandal, the Speaker is making doubly sure of his political base. “I don’t take anything for granted,” Foley said. “This is a time of evident public restlessness.”

The views of some of his constituents underscore that.

Colletta Graham, lunching at a senior center in the Snake River town of Clarkston, voiced both criticism and faint praise of Foley when she said: “If you believe everything the TV has said, he’s lost a lot of his glimmer . . . but I think he’s one of the cleaner ones.”

Rebecca Wallace, a student at Eastern Washington University who challenged Foley’s defense of overdrafts at the House bank, said he is “trying to minimize the voters’ concerns on that issue. He’s living in a different world.”

Foley, however, declined to be apologetic about the troubled House. He spoke instead of changes that he said would introduce unprecedented business-like management and financial safeguards.

Immaculate in a dark pin-striped suit, the silver-haired Speaker spent more time chatting with voters and focused more on local issues than he did in a similar Eastertime trip a year ago. Although he agreed with most constituents on such issues as opposition to gun control, Foley continued to take risks by advocating a gasoline tax increase to raise money for public works and saying that a controversial congressional pay raise was “one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.”

Wherever he went this week--from the elegant Spokane Club to a labor union audience to a Rotary lunch--Foley received a warm welcome that would be the envy of any politician, especially a Democrat in a generally conservative area.

“If you don’t come under fire, you’re not doing your job, and we in the labor movement know that very well,” John Leinen, secretary-treasurer of the Spokane Labor Council, told Foley. “You’re among friends here.”

Wheat farmer Bill Schmeck of Colfax added, “He’ll get a lot of support from us.”

Equally encouraging words came from Tom White, a business executive who is president of Leadership Spokane. “I’m a Republican,” White said, “but I never would think of not voting for Tom Foley. He’s thoughtful and, we believe, honest.”

Asked about the uproar over the House bank, White replied: “He inherited the situation and it probably couldn’t be changed without a scandal. You can’t have a phoenix without the ashes--and we’ve got the ashes.”

Despite a recent newspaper poll indicating that 69% of the voters in Spokane County approved of Foley’s performance as a representative and 60% approved of his conduct as Speaker, it appears that he will face more serious opposition this fall than he has in the last six years.

Three Republicans have filed for the GOP primary election in September. Duane Sommers, who is regarded as most likely to win the Republican nomination, said he regarded the House bank and post office scandals as a byproduct of 38 years of Democratic control of the institution.

“There’s so much anger at the way Congress is running and he is the Speaker of the House and he is ultimately responsible,” said Sommers, 59, a three-term state representative from Spokane.

“There’s never been an experienced legislator who ran against Tom Foley,” he added. “He was considered unbeatable (but) I have six more years experience than he had when he first ran.”

In his own way, Foley acknowledged the changed odds by telling a favorite story. Shortly after he became the 49th Speaker of the House, he said, he received a visit from his British counterpart, the 379th Speaker of the House of Commons.

When Foley expressed awe at the longevity of the office, his visitor replied that eight of his predecessors had been beheaded by royal decree, including two on the same day.

“No beheadings yet, but some greater risk, maybe,” Foley quipped.