Tunney was close to Ted Kennedy. He was Kennedys go-between in the traitorous deal Kennedy tried to make with the Soviets to influence the Presidential election of 1984
Tunney took part in an epic airline flight with Kennedy in which they ran up and down the aisles of an in flight airplane throwing bread rolls at each other and the stewardesses while laughing like children.
Behavior like this somehow caused Californians not to take Senator Tunney seriously.
"Ted Kennedy Secretly Asked {Through John Tunney} The Soviets To Intervene In The 1984 Elections"
"The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov.""Kennedys message was simple. He proposed an unabashed quid pro quo. Kennedy would lend Andropov a hand in dealing with President Reagan. In return, the Soviet leader would lend the Democratic Party a hand in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election."