Bono, Lee Look Poised To Join Largest Female Delegation
By Marc Birtel and Alan Greenblatt, CQ Staff Writers
If California's two April 7 special elections follow the script, two women will complete the 52-member House delegation and the state will make history with its largest class of female lawmakers.
Republican Mary Bono and Democrat Barbara Lee are poised to win their respective races, which would push California's total number of women in the House to 13 in addition to its two women in the Senate.
Twenty-five years ago, there were 15 women in the 92nd Congress. Today, there are 53 in the House and nine in the Senate.
California already has conducted one closely watched special election. That contest yielded the state's newest woman in Congress, Democrat Lois Capps. She won the March 10 runoff election over Republican state Rep. Tom Bordonaro, to succeed her husband Walter in the coastal 22nd District. (Weekly Report, p. 687)
The race was widely seen as a bellwether of the nation's electoral mood and tested the spending power of interest groups who inundated the district with television ads on issues such as abortion, term limits and the environment.
But the April 7 elections are not getting the same attention. In fact, most political observers are viewing the contests as generally uncompetitive, given the solid Democratic registration advantage in the 9th District and strong prevalence of Republicans in the 44th District.
Bono is vying to continue the legacy of her husband Sonny Bono, the entertainer-turned-politician who died Jan. 5 in a skiing accident. He was in the middle of his second term representing Riverside County's 44th District.
She faces three lesser-known Republicans and two Democrats, including Ralph Waite, an actor best known for his lead role in "The Waltons." All candidates, regardless of party, will appear on the special election ballot. If no candidate receives a majority, the top vote-getters from each party will advance to a runoff on June 2, California's regular primary day.
The race has been getting some national attention, but from unlikely sources. The celebrity allure of Sonny Bono's widow vs. "Pa Walton" has made the contest a feature on tabloid entertainment television programs and morning network shows.
Bono has some clear advantages, with the most obvious being the district's clear GOP tilt. In his two general elections, Sonny Bono won the seat by wide margins and Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole scored a rare California victory over President Clinton in the Palm Springs-based district in 1996.
Republican leaders made the electoral picture easier for Bono by promising to clear the GOP field of viable candidates if she decided to run.
Also working in Bono's favor is the so-called widow's mandate. History has shown that widows have a distinct advantage when seeking to complete their husband's unexpired terms in Congress.
Thirty-four widows have succeeded in holding their husband's House seat; only one has failed. Capps is the most recent candidate to prevail.
Bono has no plans to be a temporary office-holder and has filed for the GOP nomination for the full term.
"I don't see any way that Mary Bono can lose this election," said Shaun Bowler, a political scientist at the University of California at Riverside.
But Waite, who received 45 percent of the vote against Rep. Al McCandless in 1990, cannot be counted out.
Although he has been performing six days a week in a New Jersey playhouse production of "Death of a Salesman," Waite's campaign claims strong grass-roots support and expects to force a runoff.
Bono has attacked Waite for his extended absences during the campaign, while Waite has countered that Bono is not particularly informed on the issues.
"I think it's a serious mistake for a community to send somebody to Congress based on the sympathy factor," Waite said.
Bono has made television a central part of her campaign and is expected to spend about $400,000 through the special election. Waite's campaign has an estimated budget of $250,000.
Dellums' Successor
In the emphatically Democratic 9th District, which takes in Oakland and Berkeley, the election of Democrat Barbara Lee has taken on the air of a foregone conclusion. Heavy jockeying already is under way for the state Senate seat she currently holds but would have to vacate to come to Washington.
Lee is supported by Ronald V. Dellums, the Democrat who resigned the seat in February, and by local powers such as Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris and the bulk of the Bay Area delegation and Congressional Black Caucus.
Her rivals -- Emeryville City Councilman Greg Harper and human resources manager Randal Stewart on the Democratic side, and Republican realty consultant Claiborne Sanders -- have not been able to match Lee's fundraising or her organizational muscle.
Anticipating anemic turnout, Lee has focused her direct mail and phone banking campaign on voters already accustomed to casting absentee ballots.
Before her service in Sacramento, Lee worked for Dellums for a dozen years and can be expected to adopt his progressive mantle, continuing his line of questioning about the need for massive military expenditures in light of persistent social problems.
Harper, her main rival, is also a liberal, using the campaign to push environmental issues and press the need for more urban mass transit funding.
Neither Stewart, who took 15 percent of the Democratic primary vote against Dellums in 1996, nor Sanders is expected to be much of a factor.
© 1998 Congressional Quarterly Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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