GOP Endorsements in O.C. Exact a Price

As the Orange County Republican Party makes its first wholesale foray into local elections, the move is coming at a cost -- to officeholders.

For the first time, the county’s GOP is requiring incumbent candidates to join a special party association and pay a $200 membership fee if they want to receive the party’s “early endorsement.”

The designation would give the candidates an early edge against Republican challengers in local races, offering them official GOP bragging rights during the campaign and for fundraising. In local elections, where voters are often unfamiliar with the candidates and media coverage is scarce, a party endorsement is a powerful signal to voters.

Party officials say the plan is intended to familiarize city council members, school board trustees and other candidates with the Republican Party’s political ideals early in their careers and foster a GOP farm system of sorts to groom people for higher office.

But the practice is raising hackles in Republican circles, leading to public sniping in a party that is often loath to reveal internal disputes.

“I understand the intention behind it in trying to get folks more involved,” said Tim Whitacre, an elected member of the county party’s central committee.

“However, it’s not very well thought out because it comes across as more of a shakedown.”

The fee, and the membership in the newly created Local Elected Officials Assn., does not guarantee that the candidates will be endorsed. And all candidates, including incumbents, are free to seek the party’s endorsement during its regular process at no cost.

However, in all races, once the party endorses one candidate -- “early” or not -- no other candidate in the contest will be endorsed.

Party officials defend the practice. Chairman Scott Baugh said there had been a “misunderstanding” of the club’s purpose.

“Once people understand how the process works, I think a lot of the concerns will be cleared up,” he said.

“Number one, you don’t have to pay any money to be considered for endorsement. Number two, the money that is collected for the association is unrelated to the campaigns in the fall. So if somebody is paying money just for the purpose of getting an early endorsement, they’re missing out on 100% of the benefits the club brings.”

The practice comes as Orange County’s GOP committee, like many county parties around the state, has decided to become deeply involved in what have historically been nonpartisan local races.

Though the county party got involved in local elections on a piecemeal basis in the past, it is now expanding that effort to try to field candidates at every level, in every jurisdiction.

The elected officials group has held one event so far this year: a breakfast at Disneyland’s Paradise Pier Hotel that featured a speech by Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle. The organization is modeled on a similar group founded in San Diego County in 2002.

Ron Nehring, chairman of the Republican Party of San Diego County, said that organization created its local elected officials’ group to bolster party unity and cohesion.

“We work very hard to build Republican identity among our elected officials,” he said.

State Republican Party officials say San Diego and Orange counties are the only two county parties that link consideration for early endorsement to membership in the group. Democrats, both statewide and in Orange County, say they have no comparable system.

Allan Hoffenblum, a longtime Republican strategist who publishes the nonpartisan California Target Book, an insider’s guide for handicapping state and federal races, said the plan sends the wrong message.

“It cheapens the endorsement,” Hoffenblum said. “They should know better.”

Jon Fleishman, a Republican political strategist and member of the county party’s executive committee, defended the early endorsement process, saying it is designed to give incumbents the edge.

Incumbent politicians received letters or calls from party officials soliciting membership in the newly formed association this year. The organization is open to nonincumbent office seekers, though they are not considered for early endorsements.

“Once we receive your LEO Assn. application along with current dues and the written request for endorsement, we the Republican Party Central Committee will process your request for an early endorsement,” party officials stated in a May 19 letter to local incumbents.

“My problem is, it looks like extortion,” said Alexandria Coronado, president of the county Board of Education. “You have to pay, and you’re not even guaranteed the endorsement. I find it reprehensible.”

Shelia J. Henness, an incumbent trustee in the Capistrano Unified School District, learned of the organization after she asked for the county party’s endorsement this summer.

A party intern called her several times, urging her to join.

The arrangement appeared to be that “if you didn’t join the committee, you wouldn’t be able to get an endorsement,” she said. “I was very surprised. I did join. I felt like I was pushed to join.”

Henness and all other Capistrano Unified incumbents didn’t receive endorsements, probably because of a string of controversies now being investigated by a county grand jury. Henness then asked Baugh for her money back.

“I told him how I felt about the $200 and having to pay that. He said he would have that money refunded to me,” she said, noting that she has yet to receive a check.

Baugh confirmed that he approved refunding money to Henness and one other candidate.

“People that joined under a misconception, I’ve had no problem returning their money,” he said.

Elizabeth Garrett, a campaign and election law expert at USC, said voters should be informed when candidates have paid for endorsements.

“An endorsement by a political party is an enormously valuable voting cue for a voter,” she said.

“So, at a minimum it should be disclosed. Candidates ought to say, ‘I paid for this endorsement.’ ”

seema.mehta@latimes.com

christian.berthelsen@latimes.com