GOP Senate Foes Talk to Businessmen

Four of the leading Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate came to Irvine on Thursday to tell Orange County business executives why each candidate was best able to defeat Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston, who is seeking reelection in November.

The forum, sponsored by the Industrial League of Orange County, was Rep. Bobbi Fiedler’s first public appearance in the county since the Los Angeles County Grand Jury on Jan. 23 indicted her and an aide, Paul Clarke, on charges that they attempted to lure state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia) out of the race with a $100,000 campaign contribution.

In her speech, a confident Fiedler alluded to her legal troubles only once--with a joke. Describing herself as a candidate who has long held “one of the top name identifications statewide,” she added, to the laughter of her audience, “I would be absolutely certain today I have the highest name identification statewide.”

Fiedler joined television commentator Bruce Herschensohn, Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich and Rep. Ed Zschau (R-Los Altos) in discussing such issues as military spending, tax reform and the proper U.S. policy toward the Philippines. Four other candidates for the Republican Senate nomination--Davis, Assemblyman Robert W. Naylor (R-Menlo Park), economist Arthur Laffer and Claremont College professor William Allen--had said they could not attend.

The audience of 150, which included stockbrokers, attorneys and chief executive officers of local high-tech firms, warmly applauded all four candidates. Some executives said afterward that they were angry with Fiedler for failing to discuss her legal problems, while others complimented her on the “professional” way she avoided discussing allegations that they said appeared to be part of a political “dirty trick” operation.