Judith Ryan

The California Abortion Rights Action League said Monday that it has launched its largest Congressional campaign ever on behalf of Judith M. Ryan, the first GOP candidate to try to unseat conservative Republican Rep. Robert K. Dornan in a primary.

To a roomful of rowdy cheers and applause, Patricia Ireland, the controversial president of the National Organization for Women, on Friday night implored women to join "a quiet revolution in Orange County" by electing women into office and ousting conservative males. On the swing through California to kick off NOW's Elect Women for a Change national movement, Ireland made her first visit to Orange County to campaign for former Superior Court Judge Judith M.

Republican women who advocate abortion rights are organizing a nationwide fund-raising network to back GOP women candidates and might test their strength against one of Orange County's veteran congressmen. The group, which plans to meet in Washington tonight with Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-Kan.) and six Republican congresswomen, has raised more than $100,000 in six weeks, said founder Glenda Greenwald, publisher of a woman's magazine based in Michigan.

In a last-minute push to raise cash, a top aide to Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) pleaded with Washington lobbyists for campaign contributions to fend off an unexpectedly tough primary challenge. In telephone calls made last week, the aide reportedly told lobbyists who represent Orange County interests that a private poll shows Dornan's Tuesday primary opponent, former Orange County Superior Court Judge Judith A. Ryan, trailing by only 5 percentage points.

Robert Dornan's comment classifying Judith Ryan's supporters as "every lesbian spear chucker" reflects the blatant bigotry that helped spawn the Los Angeles riots. When we elect leaders who have no reluctance about making statements directed at any minority, we ask for a world without reason. My question: What prompted people to vote for a man like Dornan? KATHLEEN MOHN, Orange

Poor Bob Dornan. It wasn't good enough that he won the primary race; now he has to go crying to the Ethics Committee about nasty things the (Judith) Ryan campaign said about him ("Campaign by Dornan Foe is Condemned by GOP Ethics Panel," Dec. 22). Get a backbone, Bob. You had some pretty nasty things to say about the Ryan campaign, and especially Eileen Padberg, who wasn't even running for office. I didn't appreciate being called a "lesbian spear chucker" (I am a heterosexual and have never hurled a spear)