1 of 2 Californians Assured of House Post

WASHINGTON —  House Republicans today will elect as the newest member of their leadership a conservative Californian who has served in Congress for less than a decade, representing a district that covers vast tracts of Southland desert.

Reps. Jerry Lewis of Highland and Duncan L. Hunter of Coronado both expect to win.

For the state, the vote for chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee--the fourth-ranking spot in the GOP hierarchy--will increase Capitol Hill clout, whoever wins.

For Republicans nationally, however, the race highlights growing division over the party’s message for the post-Reagan era: Hunter is part of a vocal group of mostly younger House Republicans who argue that the GOP can again become the majority in Congress through repeated confrontations with the Democrats. Lewis’ voting record is also conservative, but “Jerry is Establishment,” as one Midwestern GOP member of Congress says.

Nomination Fight

And House members suggest that the race, a test of strength between the rival camps, may foreshadow the fight over the party’s presidential nomination. Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) has been closely associated with younger conservatives, and they, in turn, often have criticized Kemp’s chief rivals, Vice President George Bush and Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas.

“It’s a question of style and approach,” said one California Republican congressman who has followed the race closely. “It’s the ins versus the outs.”

Lewis is the one of the ins. Sitting in his Capitol Hill office this week--French cuffs on his light blue shirt, gray hair carefully coifed and suit neatly pressed--he was the picture of the successful small-business man (life insurance). He describes his political style as “one step at a time” and has seldom slipped on his careful climb up the legislative ladder.

His speech is flecked with typical business world terms like “effectiveness,” “consensus” and “responsibility.”

“There are those who want to believe that, because one is elected to Congress, that suddenly a revolution will take place,” he says, a note of disparagement creeping into his voice. “That’s not the standard pattern.”

Hunter--tie askew, jacket off, shirttail hanging out and comb sticking out of his pocket--portrayed himself during an interview in his office as the man with a message. In 1980, at age 32, a storefront lawyer in a Latino neighborhood in San Diego, “I ran as a conservative in the barrio,” he said, and shocked Democrats by defeating veteran Rep. Lionel Van Deerlin.

“When the differences between the Republican and Democratic parties are not made plain, then America votes its registration,” Hunter says. “Point out those differences,” he insists, and the GOP can emerge from its longtime minority status.

Both men confidently claim support of a majority of their colleagues. Hunter campaigned vigorously across the country last year for Republican candidates and has the support of many House freshmen. Lewis already has a low-ranking position in the leadership and has built up political credits by assisting other Republicans with internal House matters. He has the support of a large majority of the state’s Republican congressmen.

Each has approached the race in a characteristic manner.

Lewis first consulted other members of the leadership and the state delegation, following a habit of deliberation that has served him well in a generation-long career in public office that would be a perfect illustration for a political science textbook: local Republican politics in San Bernardino, a spot on the city school board, a decade in the state Assembly, then election to the House when the district’s congresswoman retired.

His constituents in the San Bernardino suburbs and east across the desert to the Nevada and Arizona borders mostly “have some money” and expect little of government, he says, leaving him largely free to pursue his own interests, such as developing a successful policy research staff for his GOP colleagues.

Pentagon Supporter

Hunter, by contrast, entered the race on his own, a year ago, even before the job was formally open. He showed a similarly impetuous side in his 1980 election. “I walked out of my office one day, locked it and literally ran around in the rain getting the signatures to get on the ballot,” he recalls.

By campaigning ceaselessly against his opponent’s “anti-defense” record in a city heavily dependent on military paychecks, Hunter won 53% of the vote in a traditionally Democratic district and took a seat on the House Armed Services Committee, where he has been a strong supporter of the Pentagon and, particularly, of the Administration’s “Star Wars” anti-missile defense program.