Councilman, Insider Vie for Assembly Seat

Republican voters in state Assembly District 67 on Tuesday can pick a party insider with ties to prominent politicians or a Huntington Beach councilman who wants to champion environmental causes.

Tom Harman, a 58-year-old attorney who has served on the Huntington Beach council for five years, says the state should do more to help find the source--and a solution--to the pollution that closed Huntington Beach for much of last summer. Harman said he also wants to shape the debate in Sacramento on education, transportation, health care and the environment.

Jim Righeimer, a 41-year-old Fountain Valley real estate consultant, also is gunning for the Assembly seat. Righeimer, a friend and protege of both U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and state Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach), says he wants to slash taxes and snip the strings often placed on education dollars.

Righeimer and Harman are dueling over the seat that Baugh must vacate this year because of term limits. District 67 includes Cypress, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Rossmoor and Seal Beach.

Three other names also will appear on the March 7 ballot--Republican Dennis Brown, who has since dropped out of the race; Democrat Andy Hilbert, a 34-year-old engineering firm manager from La Palma; and Libertarian Autumn Browne, a junior high school drama teacher and former model who lives in Huntington Beach. Browne’s father, Harry Browne, was the Libertarian nominee for president in 1996 and is a favorite to again represent the party that champions bare-bones government.

Neither Autumn Browne nor Hilbert have opposition in their primaries.

For now, the battle is between Harman and Righeimer. Whichever Republican wins Tuesday’s primary will have an advantage in November because Republicans hold a 50% to 32.5% registration edge over Democrats.

Some say the Harman-Righeimer match personifies the ongoing struggle in Orange County’s Republican Party, in which the party leadership grooms its picks for office against a band of insurgents. They say the closed process shuts out loyal Republicans with more moderate views on such issues as gay rights, abortion and the environment.

Harman, who has never lost an election, says there is an easier way to distinguish the candidates.

“The most obvious difference between the two of us is experience, experience, experience. I’ve got lots of experience, and Jim Righeimer has none,� Harman said. “People say, ‘Wait a minute.’ They don’t want to send anyone who has no prior government experience to Sacramento.�

Righeimer dismisses Harman’s argument, saying voters care about more than a candidate’s resume.

“This is not like a job promotion in some company,� Righeimer said. “It’s people looking to hire you by saying, ‘What do you believe in?’ They want someone who will be an activist and represent them. I’m not going to Sacramento just to keep the seat warm.�

While Harman has a lead in the polls, Righeimer has a slim edge when it comes to raising campaign cash. Righeimer--who has collected nearly $210,000, including $33,000 he lent himself--has been trying to capitalize on his connections to Rohrabacher and Baugh.

Righeimer has long been Rohrabacher’s campaign chairman and once rented the congressman a room in his house. Righeimer had been eyeing the Assembly seat for years but pulled out of the race in 1995 when Baugh ran.

Instead, Righeimer shifted gears and helped defeat the sales tax measure proposed in the wake of Orange County’s bankruptcy. Righeimer declared victory in that effort but has lost two bids for school board seats.

Harman, meanwhile, had collected $197,103 by Feb. 19, including $28,000 he lent himself, according to reports filed with the state.

Both candidates say they are fiscal conservatives. But Harman, a 26-year Huntington Beach resident who has fought development on the edge of the Bolsa Chica wetlands, says the state must do more to remedy the pollution commonly called urban runoff that shut down local beaches for much of last summer.

“We need to figure out where that pollution is coming from, and what we can do to stop it,� Harman said. “Urban runoff is not just a coastal concern. Finding a solution is very important.�

Both candidates agree that education should be a priority. But they disagree on the details.

“State government has way too much control over local schools,� Righeimer said. “Local people should be free to run the schools, and teachers free to teach new methods.�

Righeimer said he is willing to take on California teachers unions. He was a co-author of Proposition 226, the unsuccessful 1998 measure that would have required organized labor to get permission from union members each year before using their dues for political purposes.

Righeimer boasts that union representatives despise him so much that they picketed a fund-raiser he held last year in Sacramento. He felt more union scorn this week when the Opportunity PAC, a teachers and health care workers political action committee, spent more than $32,500 sending out pro-Harman mailers.

Harman supports many causes important to teachers. He says California must do more to keep its best teachers in the classroom.

“We need to have some type of incentive to retain good teachers,� Harman said. “We need to pay teachers more money. Period. It’s a tough job anymore.�

Harman also would like to dismantle the system of social promotion--in which students advance to the next grade regardless of achievement--a process already underway in Los Angeles Unified School District.

Righeimer, who has supported a full-scale voucher program in the past, now advocates a modified program that would give tax rebates for parents of students attending low-performing schools. The parents could apply that money toward tuition at a private school. “We’ve got to give kids a ticket out of those schools that fail year after year,� he said.

Harman does not support vouchers.

“I think they would have a tendency to dilute or diminish the effectiveness of our public schools,� he said. “Public schools have worked well for 150 years. We shouldn’t try to destroy the system. I want to fix the system and make it work.�