Democrats Would Ban Parties’ Backing in Nonpartisan Races

‘I really feel that one of the reasons we have good government at the local level is that it is nonpartisan.’

Orange Mayor Jim Beam

Orange County Democratic leaders challenged the county GOP Tuesday to sign a mutual pact barring both political parties from endorsing candidates in nonpartisan elections, but the Republicans appeared poised to reject the proposal.

State Republican and Democratic officials said the challenge issued by the Orange County Democratic Central Committee, approved by voice vote at a county Democratic Central Committee meeting Monday night, is the first action on the issue since a controversial Dec. 27 decision by the California Supreme Court. The justices ruled that the state Constitution blocks political parties from nominating candidates for nonpartisan office, but not from endorsing them.

The court decision reversed a tradition followed since the early 1900s in which certain elective offices, such as judgeships and seats on city councils and county boards of supervisors, were supposedly protected from the influence of partisan power grabs and allegiance to party bosses.

County Democratic Chairman Bruce Sumner, a former state assemblyman and retired Superior Court judge, said county Democrats “believe local and judicial offices should be nonpartisan, and though local officeholders and judges have the right to register in the party of their choice, they should not have to look to either party for an endorsement in order to obtain or hold office.”

Sumner acknowledged that partisan and nonpartisan political activity overlap. He cited examples of party officials or partisan officeholders who get involved in supporting candidates for city council races. But he said he sees a “great difference” between that kind of involvement and making it almost mandatory for a candidate to obtain a party’s endorsement and its resources in order to win a nonpartisan office.

Republicans, however, disagreed with Sumner and, with few exceptions, said they would oppose the Democrats’ proposed ban on partisan endorsements.

“I think it’s a foolish challenge,” said Supervisor Bruce Nestande, a Republican who co-chaired President Reagan’s reelection campaign in Orange County and who is tentatively seeking the 1986 GOP nomination for lieutenant governor.

“Political parties exist to get involved in politics . . . . The Supreme Court has simply sanctioned the obvious. It has taken the cloak off and put this out in the open . . . . I grew up in Minneapolis where they put party affiliation by each council member’s name on the ballot, and that didn’t stop Minneapolis from having a good city government. In fact, it had a very enlightened city government.”

Former county GOP Chairman Lois Lundberg said, “There is no such thing as a nonpartisan race . . .. You can’t put your party affiliation and beliefs in a ‘hold’ position . . . .”

Lundberg also said the parties traditionally have viewed nonpartisan candidates as potential partisan officeholders who are figured into each party’s candidate recruitment efforts, even at the level of city council races.

She said the Supreme Court ruling merely allows the parties to do overtly what they had been doing “covertly.”

However, Orange Mayor Jim Beam, a Republican who is often mentioned as a possible candidate for a 1986 run against Supervisor Ralph Clark, a Democrat, said he prefers the nonpartisan status of city and county elections and is not anxious to see party endorsements.

“I really feel that one of the reasons we have good government at the local level is that it is nonpartisan,” Beam said.

Santa Ana Mayor Dan Griset, a Democrat, said attempts by a Republican faction to inject partisan politics into city council races last November “failed miserably.”

“This demonstrated the irrelevance of attempting to make nonpartisan races partisan,” Griset said. “The unfortunate result of partisanship in local government is that candidates will be supported by parties based on their positions on state and federal issues, such as ‘Star Wars’ and aid to Central America, instead of local community issues.”

But county Republican Chairman Tom Fuentes said party affiliation has been a significant factor already in some recent contests. He cited two November Superior Court races in which Republicans defeated Democrats. The Republican candidates were Municipal Court judges appointed by Ronald Reagan when Reagan served as governor.

“In a county that is overwhelmingly Republican, the fact that these two candidates’ brochures mentioned the Reagan appointments and implied that they are Republicans certainly played an important role in their victories over two candidates who were Democrats,” Fuentes said.

Challenge to Be Presented

Fuentes said he intends to present the county Democratic Party’s challenge on nonpartisan races to the GOP Central Committee for study and an eventual committee vote, but that “I should expect a healthy interest in the party in pursuing an active role of leadership in nonpartisan races. The party is playing a de facto leadership role already.”

Republican Don Roth, mayor of Anaheim, the county’s largest city, said he has “no problem” with partisan endorsements even though he has received some election support in the past from Democratic mayors of surrounding cities--support that might not exist in the future if strict partisan loyalty is demanded by.