Campaigning fiercely with GOP support

State Senate candidate Diane Harkey is not afraid of a fight, and in this round, nearly every GOP heavyweight in Orange County is in her corner.

Harkey, a Dana Point City Councilwoman, is one of three candidates ? and two Republicans ? running for the 35th District Senate seat, which represents Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and all or part of 12 other cities in Orange County.

Demo- crat Larry Caballero and Republican Tom Harman will vie for the seat in a special election Tuesday. If no candidate wins more than 50%, Caballero and the top Republican will face off in a June 6 general election.

The race has been somewhat a question of which will tip the scales: Harman’s built-in name recognition as a state assemblyman and former City Councilman from Huntington Beach, or Harkey’s overwhelming support from local, state and federal Republican leaders?

Now retired after a three-decade career in banking, Harkey boasts an impressive endorsement list that includes Reps. Dana Rohrabacher and John Campbell, and more than 50 local elected officials.

She’s not entirely new to politics ? she said she’s worked on Dana Point issues and campaigns, and she won a seat on that city’s council in 2004. If she wins this race, Harkey said she will be California’s highest-ranking Republican woman in a state office.

Although she is politically far less experienced than her GOP opponent, Harkey doesn’t see that as a weakness. She knows all about the effects political decisions have on the business community, she said.

“I’m not a career politician,” she said. “If I were a businessman from Newport Beach and had never run for council, I don’t think anybody would be questioning my background with my career experience.”

Harkey started in banking as a clerk, when she began helping support her family at age 17. She worked her way up into corporate banking, taking time off to raise her daughter and eventually putting herself through college.

Immigration has been the campaign’s hot-button issue in the media and in candidate mailers, and Harkey has placed herself on the side of stricter immigration controls, particu- larly by co-chairing a 2005 ballot campaign to create a state bor- der police force. But some Republicans chose to support Harkey because of fiscal concerns.

“I think probably the issues relative to business are the ones that I care about most, and I see Diane as being someone who’s going to be more friendly toward business interests than Tom Harman would be,” said Dale Dykema, a member of GOP fundraising groups the Lincoln Club and the New Majority.

Harkey has portrayed herself as the conservative choice for Republican voters, and her top issue after immigration is the state budget and taxation.

“I have supported Republican goals and policies and candidates for many, many years,” she said.

“My fiscal philosophy [is] that lower taxes, freer markets, less government intrusion works to create a strong economy every time it’s tried.”

The former banker also has been willing to spend what it takes to win the Senate race, putting at least $500,000 of her own money into the nearly $800,000 campaign.

Much of the money has gone into mailers, and some of those have attacked Harman ? for his backing by some Democrats, and his support for taxes on diapers and day labor centers, for example. Harkey has even cited Harman’s record as one of her reasons for running.

“I don’t think my opponent has made too many friends on the Republican side of the aisle,” she said.

It’s hard to find a prominent Orange County Republican to speak in Harman’s favor. But a challenge for Harkey has been Harman’s significant support in Huntington Beach, which includes nearly a quarter of the district’s voters.

Huntington Beach Mayor Dave Sullivan is a Republican who said he is backing Harman because Harman “has a track record and has been able to show that he has been a leader.”

Sullivan also said Harman has been an ally of the city and has tried to keep the state from taking funds designated for local governments.

Even without that kind of experience, Harkey believes she’s earned respect through her campaign and her life experience.

“I am 54, and I’ve lived, and I’ve been on stage before in the corporate arena, just not in the political arena,” she said.dpt.05-harkey-CPhotoInfoND1PKP2P20060405ix7zrtkn(LA)Diane Harkey