Supervisor Race : Beam Declares Candidacy to Replace Clark

Orange Mayor Jim Beam moved his political timetable forward Monday, formally declaring that he is a candidate for the job being vacated by county Supervisor Ralph B. Clark.

Beam, 51, an Orange city councilman for 10 years, said Clark’s announcement on Friday that he would not run for reelection next year came “as a surprise,” because he had not expected Clark to announce his intentions until January.

The unusual opportunity of running for a seat on the Board of Supervisors without an incumbent is expected to draw a number of candidates. Anaheim Mayor Don Roth declared his candidacy on Friday, becoming the first candidate in the race.

Beam, the second to announce his candidacy, has lined up endorsements from several congressmen and said he has the support of nine Orange County mayors. Political consultants said Beam’s strategy had been to have numerous endorsements and plenty of money on hand when he announced to intimidate potential challengers.

Clark said Friday that others had told him they would run only if he didn’t. And those people would be at a disadvantage waiting for him to state his intentions while Beam put his organization together, he said.

Beam told a press conference on Monday that the county needed to find solutions to “the difficult questions of transportation, crime prevention” and environmental problems. He offered few specifics but said he would be issuing position papers in the weeks ahead.

A member of the five-person Orange County Transportation Commission, Beam said that “folks are getting tired of sitting on the longest parking lots, our freeways,” and that gasoline sales tax receipts now spent on other programs should be spent only on transportation.

He said the “number and strength of candidates” in the race would determine how much the campaign would cost and estimated that as many as 10 candidates may enter the battle. If no one gets a majority in the June balloting, there will be a runoff in November.

“We know a tough race could easily run $300,000 or more,” Beam said, declining to say how much money he has raised so far “for competitive reasons.” Last year, Beam raised more than $75,000 in a City Council race in which he outpolled his three opponents combined.

Beam, a land developer and former executive director of the Building Industry Assn.’s Orange County branch, ran for the Republican nomination in the 70th Assembly district in 1974. He lost to Bruce Nestande, who later left the Assembly to run successfully for county supervisor.

While Beam is a friend, Roth said, as mayor of Anaheim, he expects to have a “tremendous amount of support” because of his base in the county’s most populous city.

“I think the citizens, the voters in Anaheim, may be quite reluctant to relinquish a seat to another city on the Board of Supervisors,” Roth said. “I’m counting on the constituents in the city of Anaheim to really give me a boost as far as having a representative from Anaheim on the board.” Clark is a former Anaheim mayor.

Discounts Connection

Beam predictably discounted Roth’s Anaheim connection, saying Monday that “it’s not just knowing your name, but how favorably you’re known.”

Steve Malone, 39, Clark’s chief of staff and a potential candidate, also stressed the problem of name recognition.

Malone said Monday he is considering entering the race but must “weigh my ability to do the job and my understanding of the district and knowing what’s going on in the county with my lack of name identification with the average voter.”

Malone said he did not expect Clark to endorse anyone until all the candidates have declared their intentions, if then.

Clark, elected in 1970, is the senior member of the Board of Supervisors. He said his age (68), his health and questions about his involvement with W. Patrick Moriarty led him to decide not to run for reelection.

Moriarty, 53, is an Anaheim fireworks manufacturer and the central figure in a statewide political corruption scandal.

He pleaded guilty in March to a variety of public corruption charges and testified in a federal trial last month that he provided prostitutes for politicians in the state.

Moriarty said he could not recall the names of the politicians who received the services of the prostitutes, but two of his former aides told The Times last January that Clark was one of them. Clark has denied that he ever engaged in sex with a prostitute.