GOP congressional candidate Dana Rohrabacher is a man of many contrasts.
The odds-on favorite to become the next congressman from the 42nd District, Rohrabacher says he is a conservative Republican, but he has a long history of sympathy for the Libertarian Party's causes of personal freedom and limited government.
As a student activist at Long Beach State and as a young adult, Rohrabacher acknowledges that he was an outspoken advocate of Libertarian positions, including support for decriminalizing drugs.
He remained actively involved in Libertarian circles throughout the 1970s, and was an editorial writer for the Orange County Register, which often espouses Libertarian positions.
When he went to work for President Reagan as a speech writer 7 1/2 years ago, Rohrabacher switched his voter registration from Libertarian to Republican and disavowed his support for decriminalizing drugs.
Today, as he campaigns for Congress in the district--which hugs the coast from Torrance to Huntington Beach--Rohrabacher portrays himself as a "Reagan Republican." His campaign signs, literature and speeches reinforce his association with Reagan.
During the June primary campaign, his mailers featured a glowing testimonial letter from the President and numerous pictures of Rohrabacher and Reagan in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One.
Confident of Victory
With that kind of backing, Rohrabacher, who lives in a Lomita apartment, is expected to defeat Democrat Guy Kimbrough of Huntington Beach and Peace and Freedom Party candidate Richard D. Rose of Long Beach.
Rohrabacher is so confident of victory in the district--where 52% of the voters are Republicans--that he plans to send only one mailer before the election Tuesday. He also intends to run ads on local cable television stations.
The candidate, 41, would rather discuss his speech-writing for the President's crusade for a drug-free America than his one-time advocacy of decriminalizing drug use. He would not say whether he had ever used marijuana when asked last week in an interview. Both of Rohrabacher's opponents said they have tried marijuana.
"I don't think that any mistakes that I made in my distant youth are relevant and anything in this area . . . was distant youth," Rohrabacher said.
"Obviously, there is no one who is running for public office who is perfect because no one is perfect," he added. "I think that what is more relevant is how I stand on these particular issues and . . . what I've done concerning this social problem as a responsible adult as compared to any indiscretion that I might have had as a young person."
The former presidential speech writer was all but unknown in the sprawling district when he returned home to the Palos Verdes Peninsula last March to run for the congressional seat being given up by Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach).
Endorsed by North
Although his campaign tipped off reporters to damaging information about his chief primary opponent, Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, Rohrabacher trailed in private campaign polls until his friend, former Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, appeared at campaign events a week before the June primary.
With North--a central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal and the darling of some conservatives--at his side, Rohrabacher won national attention and went on to victory in a crowded field of eight GOP candidates, winning 35% of the vote.
"I owe Ollie a lot and I appreciate him," Rohrabacher said. "He turned what would have been a very small victory into a landslide."
The son of a retired Marine officer, Rohrabacher favors a strong defense--a major source of jobs in the district--and is a staunch supporter of the U.S.-backed Contras in Nicaragua and other self-proclaimed "freedom fighters" around the world. Rohrabacher did not serve in the military.
Selective Service records indicate that shortly after he graduated from college in June, 1969, Rohrabacher was classified 1A--available for military service.
But in February, 1970, he was found unfit for service at his pre-induction physical.
"I brought some X-rays in, and they looked at them and decided I was 1Y," Rohrabacher said, explaining that he had sustained a hip injury while playing high school football. He was reclassified 1Y--available only in times of national emergency.
Opposes the Draft
The GOP candidate said he opposes the military draft and supports an all-volunteer Army. "I've always been against the draft," he said. "However, the fact that I had a 1Y doesn't relate directly to my position on the draft."
When he was a history student at Long Beach State in the late 1960s, Rohrabacher was active in politics and was "an ardent supporter of conservative and Libertarian causes," according to a campus newspaper article published after he became a presidential speech writer in January, 1981.
