Governor Helps to Put Burgener at GOP Helm

Former Republican Rep. Clair Burgener will become acting chairman of the California Republican Party on Saturday, a move engineered by Gov. George Deukmejian because a company run by the person who had been in line for the top job is facing charges stemming from a federal Environmental Protection Agency investigation.

Burgener will fill out the term of Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who is leaving the chairmanship to seek the Republican U.S. Senate nomination. Antonovich, whose term as party chairman runs through 1986, entered the Senate race Wednesday.

Party Vice Chairman Bill Park of Bakersfield had been expected to become acting chairman when Antonovich left the job. But the state’s ranking Republican officials, Deukmejian and Sen. Pete Wilson, suggested to Park that they would rather he not seek the job, according to sources close to the governor and Wilson. They were concerned about the problems involving Park’s waste management company, Environmental Protection Corp.

A Deukmejian spokesman said Wednesday, “The governor is pleased with the party’s leadership team, because Clair Burgener served as the governor’s campaign chairman in 1982. He is certainly not a novice to these types of tasks. Bill Park has made a decision that is in the best interests of the party.”

Park’s office released a statement late Wednesday in which Park said that he welcomed Burgener to the job of acting chairman and that he, Park, would remain as vice chairman. The statement also said Park would seek the state party chairmanship in 1987.

Park’s company has been charged by the EPA with improprieties, including incorrect paper work at the company’s two dump sites. Spokesman Will Fox said Wednesday that Park’s company is waiting for hearing dates to be set by an administrative law judge.

According to several Republican sources, Park has met at least twice with Deukmejian, who indicated that he did not want Park to take the party’s top job because the EPA matter has not been cleared up. The Deukmejian Administration is especially sensitive about the issue of toxic wastes because of difficulties it has encountered in improving the state cleanup program and also because of an FBI investigation of a death at one site in the state.

Burgener acknowledged Wednesday that he is considering the job of acting chairman but declined to go further, saying, “This will all be resolved on Saturday,” when the state party’s executive committee will meet in Los Angeles.

But two other party sources said Burgener has told Deukmejian and Wilson that he will accept the job of acting chairman.

Burgener, who represented northern San Diego County in Congress from 1973 to 1983, is popular with Republican activists around the state and his choice pleased both the Deukmejian and Wilson camps, which had disagreed earlier this year on the naming of Park as vice chairman. Park was Wilson’s candidate for that job, while Deukmejian backed party activist Ingrid Azevedo.

The state Republican Party has recently suffered a cash flow problem that some party activists blame on Antonovich’s preoccupation with the U.S. Senate race. Antonovich’s first executive director, Jim Lindberg, quit in September and said in an interview that he could not get Antonovich to act quickly enough on fund-raising letters that the party had to send out.

“We missed sending out two letters,” Lindberg said, “and since there is a timing for those letters you can never make them up. So there is $300,000 or so you don’t have coming in.”

Karl M. Samuelian, Deukmejian’s chief fund-raiser, recently confirmed reports that the state party’s new executive director, Jack Harriman, has asked him if the governor’s campaign could temporarily pay for some party programs.

“I told him (Harriman) I would have to think about it and talk to the governor and get back to him,” Samuelian said.

State Republican Party spokesman Joe Irvin said Wednesday that Deukmejian had mailed out a fund-raising letter for the party that is bringing in money. Irvin also said the governor’s campaign has sold some advance tickets to a big fund-raiser that Deukmejian is holding for the party in January.