Leftists in sheep's clothing

National Review, Dec 2, 1991 by Harold Johnson

THE Grand Ballroom of the Disneyland Hotel teems with smartly suited members of the Chinese American Association of Southern California: doctors, lawyers, business chiefs-mostly immigrants. The banquet celebrates an achievement ethic that is one of the Pacific Rim's most promising exports.

The speaker, U.S. Representative Tom Campbell from Palo Alto-faststarting Senate candidate and prophet of a sleek, modernized Republicanism-can relate. Just shy of forty, he boasts both a JD (Harvard) and a PhD (economics, University of Chicago). A White House fellowship, a Supreme Court clerkship, and stints at Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, as well as on Stanford's law faculty, preceded his election to the House of Representatives in 1988.

It's no surprise to hear this achiever, to this audience, talk up meritocracy and blast racial spoils: "One of my constituents was turned down by a University of California law school. He was told, You are number seven on the Asian waiting list.' How offensive that there is such a thing as an Asian waiting list! How offensive that a unit of government should distinguish among people on the basis of their race!"

Heavy applause. But then, a jolt: Campbell goes on to brag about being the only Republican in the California delegation to back the Kennedy civil-rights bill. Say what? A bill that, by any objective reading, would have compelled counting by race?

As it happens, the congressman also voted for an even more radical measure, the Towner-Schroeder version, drafted defiantly without an antiquota disclaimer or a ban on "race-norming." Confused? Welcome to the "New Conservatism," billed as a melding of liberalism on social issues with fervor for free markets and balanced budgets. If Tom Campbell has his way, it will be the creed of California's GOP for the Nineties and beyond.

Although traditional conservatives scoff, they have their work cut out for them. Next year's primaries for both of California's U.S. Senate seats offer a clear-cut battle over the party's definition and direction. In one race, appointed Senator John Seymour, tuned to the same ideological frequency as Campbell and Governor Pete Wilson, is favored over hard-Right Representative William Dannemeyer and Civil Rights Commissioner Bill Allen.

It's in the other primary, for the Senate seat being vacated by Alan Cranston, that Campbell is running. He'll face off against Los Angeles television commentator Bruce Herschensohn. Conservative in the classic Reagan mold (the abortion issue included), Herschensohn is an unreconstructed hawk on defense and favors a flat tax and sunset review of federal agencies. One problem: he's philosophically opposed to term limits, and Campbell, who favors them, will find that a tempting target.

Herschensohn's TV forum has given him name-ID) to die for in the most populous part of the state. He was runner-up in a crowded Senate primary six years ago; with the right side of the playing field all his this time, he ought to be in a position to romp.

So why do so many of his boosters seem spooked? Maybe they sense the sagging spirits among the rank and-file following the cave-ins on taxes in D.C. and Sacramento. For some, the alienation is profound. "I won't endorse any Republican who won't denounce George Bush and Pete Wilson," says economist Art Laffer.

A more concrete worry is the hum of Tom Campbell's operation. Along with his Silicon Valley-based House district, he inherited the fund-raising network of computer magnates erected by Ed Zschau, who bested Herschensohn in that 1986 Senate primary. Billionaire industrialist David Packard cochairs Campbell's campaign; at least 150 CEOs have signed on. Also, as a champion of the gay-rights agenda, Campbell can tap into one of the state's most prosperous sources of funding.

Beyond that, there's the candidate's personal energy and his smoothness on the stump. "I talk to business people in my district who are bowled over by his pro-capitalist rhetoric," says Assemblyman Pat Nolan, a Herschensohn supporter.

The pitch is impressive. Campbell argues for the line-item veto, the balanced-budget amendment, a capital-gains-tax cut. Citizens against Government Waste, he notes, ranked him among the most frugal members of the House.

And the former Stanford professor has won endorsements from some Hoover Institution heavies, including George Shultz, Martin Anderson, and his mentor from Chicago days, Milton Friedman.

All very impressive except for one small problem. No matter his choice of camouflage, the fact is that, with a career American Conservative Union rating of 50, Tom Campbell is the most liberal member of the state's Republican delegation in the House; and on certain issues may even be to the left of some of the Democrats.

Pat Nolan has an antidote for folks under the spell of Campbell's lectures on economic conservatism: "I tell them his record," including the support for higher gas taxes and the spottiness over the years on key defense and foreign-policy questions, such as the Contras and SDI (which contributes to his reputation for parsimony).