Dannemeyer Drops From Senate Race, Attacks Cost of Ads

Saying he could no longer afford to buy radio or television time, Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) Monday withdrew as a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and said he would seek reelection to the House of Representatives. Dannemeyer, easily the most conservative Republican candidate for the Senate and with little statewide recognition, issued a diatribe against the high cost of statewide campaigns.

“A person (running for Senate) must have several million dollars available to, in effect, sell soap,” Dannemeyer, 56, told a news conference in Santa Ana.

“It has little to do with the candidate’s qualifications, his position on the issues, his or her voting record or aspirations for the future,” Dannemeyer said. “You have to be able to buy those 30- and 60-second spots that say nothing about issues or the candidates but that in some cases make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”

Dannemeyer was the second of 10 Republican candidates--each seeking to be the Republican nominee against Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston--to quit because of lack of funds. On Jan. 15, Rep. Daniel E. Lungren of Long Beach dropped out for the same reason.

When he announced for the race on Dec. 9, Dannemeyer claimed $200,000 in cash and $300,000 in pledges and insisted he could raise a total of $2 million. And, off and on during his colorful campaign, he sometimes gained statewide attention.

Leading a group called “The Bird Watchers,” Dannemeyer in late summer frequently carried a stuffed turkey to his speeches in a campaign to mock Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird that sometimes embarrassed other anti-Bird groups trying to unseat her. He decried deficit spending, sought a return to a gold-backed currency and enthusiastically argued for deep cuts in defense, health and welfare spending.

Recently, Dannemeyer gained publicity for his denunciation of homosexuals (“God created Adam and Eve--not Adam and Steve,” he would say) and his claim that those with AIDS emit a dangerous “spore.” He later said he had no medical evidence for his spore theory. State Sen. Ed Davis, another Republican U.S. Senate candidate, attacked Dannemeyer for running a campaign based on “hatred and bigotry.”

But even with growing attention to his campaign, Dannemeyer’s fund raising was not successful. Most of his cash was spent on travel, brochures and stamps, Dannemeyer said Monday.

A Times Poll released last week said only 3% of Republican voters would have supported him if the election were held now. And last week, when his staff tried to buy television and radio ads, Dannemeyer said he had realized his campaign was over.

“There’s an old saying in life: ‘You can’t push a string,’ ” the congressman said Monday. “If you don’t have the money in the bank right now to go out and buy the time . . . to be involved in purchasing those 30- and 60-second radio spots around the state to build up your name ID, you’re not in the race and you have to face that,” he said.

A bitter foe of federal deficits, Dannemeyer said he wasn’t going to engage in any deficit spending of his own.

May Have Solved Problem

Dannemeyer’s announcement that he was quitting the Senate race ended for Orange County Republicans a political version of musical chairs that had left county central committee chairman Thomas A. Fuentes on tenterhooks, worried that county Republicans might lose a few seats.

Had Dannemeyer continued to run for the Senate--and not sought reelection to his 39th Congressional District seat--state Sen. Edward R. Royce (R-Anaheim) was planning to run for Dannemeyer’s congressional seat, Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) was planning to run for Royce’s 32nd Senate seat and former Westminster Mayor Kathy Buchoz, another Republican, was planning to run for Allen’s Assembly seat.

But with Dannemeyer taking out nomination papers for reelection, Allen and Royce now say they will run for reelection too. Buchoz has dropped out. Meanwhile, Fuentes was delighted. “Bill’s return to his congressional seat assures of us not having to spend possibly as much as $2 million” in contested June primaries, Fuentes said.

Now any Republican expenditures in primaries in Orange County will be “minimal,” Orange County Republicans can devote their money to reelecting Gov. George Deukmejian, and “we will not have bloodied ourselves in costly (primary) battles,” Fuentes said.

‘Death of a Dream’

As for Dannemeyer, his decision to give up the Senate race, was “the death of a dream,” said Evie Dannemeyer, the congressman’s wife of 32 years, as the press conference ended. For several months, many of Dannemeyer’s friends had been quietly asking him to get out of the Senate race because they believed he would probably lose and they didn’t want him to also lose his job as congressman.

A conservative Republican in a conservative district, Dannemeyer was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1978 by a 64% margin. He has been reelected handily ever since, including in 1984 by a 76% margin.

But the Senate race had its hold on Dannemeyer, some of his strongest supporters said, becoming almost a crusade.