Garden Grove Mayor Switches Party Loyalty

Saying his philosophy dramatically differed with that of “leftists” in the Democratic Party, Garden Grove Mayor Jonathan H. Cannon, a Democrat for 10 years, re-registered Tuesday as a Republican.

Cannon, 38, said that after four years of debating whether to remain “a conservative Democrat” or become a “moderate Republican,” he recently became convinced that he had to switch parties because “the people who seem to be in control of the Democratic Party” are “far to the left of me.”

“There are a number of those elements in the Democratic Party which I consider to be dangerous: (Assemblyman) Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) and (actress) Jane Fonda. Those people are subversive,” Cannon said.

He said he had been hoping that he could persuade Democratic “leftists” that “they’re in the wrong party. They are the ones who ought to be changing, joining the Communist Party or the socialists or the libertarians. They’re far to the left of me.”

Cannon said his timing had nothing to do with Election Day, but that he came to the decision two weeks ago at a League of California Cities meeting in San Francisco, where league representatives debated the issue of divestiture of financial interests in South Africa and whether to publish a registry of U.S. companies doing business with that nation.

“I didn’t believe disinvestment was the proper reaction to apartheid,” Cannon said. “All the Democrats were on the other side. And I found myself on the other side, sitting with the Republicans in the voting. . . . That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Orange County Republican leaders were jubilant over Cannon’s defection. Not only is Cannon an activist young mayor of one of the county’s largest cities, but his switch marked at least the ninth time in the past two years that a key county official has defected from the Democratic Party to join the GOP.

“We’re delighted to have him aboard,” said Tom Fuentes, chairman of the Republican Central Committee of Orange County, who had introduced “the county’s newest Republican” to Gov. George Deukmejian at a major fund-raiser for the Republican governor Monday night. Fuentes also accompanied Cannon on Tuesday morning to a Vons market in Garden Grove, where Cannon re-registered as a Republican.

‘I’m Not Happy’

Meanwhile, Bruce Sumner, chairman of the Orange County Democratic Central Committee, took the news in stride. “I’m not happy about losing anybody, but that’s of course the individual’s choice. And it sounds to me like he’s getting ready to run for something--or for an appointment” as a municipal judge, Sumner said, adding that Cannon could expect to receive significantly more financial support from the wealthy county Republicans than from Democrats.

Cannon, who came in third in the June, 1984, primary for a municipal judgeship, denied that he had switched parties to improve his financial backing in some future race.

Though he might run for judge again someday, “I don’t expect any new rush of Republicans to come to my financial aid,” he said. “My reason for changing parties was based on a philosophical belief that I’m better in the Republican Party than I am in the Democratic (Party).”

Fuentes on Tuesday promised that Cannon soon will have “a key role” in the county Republican Central Committee “because the man is a leadership-quality person. He’s a successful, professional attorney” and has been “a sparkler” as mayor, leading redevelopment efforts in Garden Grove.

‘Woo These Democrats’

And Fuentes noted that Cannon was the Republican Party’s latest coup in an ongoing “effort by the party to woo these Democrats.”

Other public officials converting from Democratic to Republican registration in the past two years were Supervisor Roger Stanton, former Westminster Mayor Kathy Buchoz, Orange County Postmaster Hector Godinez, Santiago Community College board member Rudy Montejano, former Santa Ana City Councilman Harry Yamamoto, Fountain Valley Councilwoman Barbara Brown, former Stanton Vice Mayor Jim Hayes and his wife, Joan Hayes, former president of Stanton’s elementary school board.