Senators Cross Paths in County : Garamendi, Hart Seek Support for Gubernatorial Bids

Two Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls crossed paths in Orange County on Tuesday in their quest for political and financial support.

In an unusually strong, early blitz, state Sens. Gary Hart (D-Santa Barbara) and John Garamendi (D-Stockton) have visited the county four times each in the past two months, but Tuesday was the first time they appeared locally on the same day.

In 1982, Garamendi met with local business and political leaders during his unsuccessful campaign against Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

However, Democratic kingpins David Stein and Richard J. O’Neill have been encouraging Hart to make the rounds and they have been introducing the Santa Barbara senator to Orange County’s movers and shakers.

Hart, allied with influential Democratic Congressmen Henry Waxman and Howard Berman of Los Angeles, emphasized his support of state funding for education and child care, and of tax credits for first-time homeowners, in luncheon remarks to the County Club, a nonpartisan group of business and civic leaders chaired by O’Neill.

Garamendi started out at UC Irvine Tuesday, where he attended a famine-relief program. Later, he attended a reception at the home of Democratic activists Barbara Hammerman and Raymond Levine in Yorba Linda.

Meanwhile, Bradley, preoccupied partly by his own recently successful reelection campaign in Los Angeles, has not appeared in Orange County since he took 37% of the county’s gubernatorial vote against Republican George Deukmejian in November, 1982.