For Local GOP, It Was a Time to See Old Pals, Rate New Stars

In the back of a room packed wall to wall with people, Larry L. White, a Republican contributor from Newport Beach, watched his candidate for U.S. Senate finish a speech and break into song.

“This is the year we’ll hear a cheer from Ed Zschau. There’ll be dancin’ when he’s beaten Alan Cranston,” sang Rep. Zschau (R-Los Altos), the Silicon Valley businessmen and two-term congressman who had written the campaign fight song and was leading several hundred supporters, most holding song sheets, in a sing-along in his hospitality suite at the California Republican Party’s spring convention.

White was among 1,000 delegates from around the state--90 from Orange County--who gathered at the Santa Clara Marriott Hotel this weekend for three days of prayer breakfasts, cocktail parties, speeches, campaign strategy seminars and lots of elbow rubbing with politicians.

It was a “fun” weekend, many delegates said, a time to see old political friends and meet some of the party’s rising stars.

A Serious Purpose

But amid the helium balloons and the hype, the convention also had a serious purpose. In a year when key state and congressional offices are up for grabs, one of its goals was to help party activists sort out which candidate they would be working for.

Like many in the Orange County delegation, White spent much of the weekend trying to figure that out.

By late Saturday, he said, he had heard all nine Senate candidates speak in a private session with Golden Circle members (Republicans who have contributed at least $1,000 to the state party). And at the end of that meeting, White, the chief financial officer for Bournes Inc., a Riverside electronics firm, had decided that Zschau was the ideal “businessman’s candidate.”

But that was several hours before he heard Zschau, at a campaign cocktail party dubbed “the Zschau Zschindig,” leading his supporters in song.

As Zschau began the last verse of his fight song a second time, White was no longer smiling as he gazed toward the candidate. Arms folded, White listened to a few more lines, then backpedaled through the crowd toward the door.

Forgiving Zschau’s Song

Still, as White lingered outside Zschau’s party, he indicated that that he could probably forgive Zschau his song.

“I came up here to make up my mind about which senatorial candidate I would support,” said White. “He’s got the experience. He’s an excellent fund raiser in the Silicon Valley. . . . The key is to have him start concentrating his efforts in Southern California.”

White said he had already met with Zschau’s campaign staff and given them his business card. And White said when he returned to Southern California he would be telling fellow executives about Zschau--helping a man, so far pegged as a Northern California candidate, build a following in Southern California money.

So it went at this three-day Republican convention. Still, not every Orange County delegate was able to resolve his questions about the candidates. The delegation appeared to be split between ardent supporters of television commentator Bruce Herschensohn, supporters of Zschau and a lot of members who said they were undecided.

Fullerton general contractor Bob Beaver, who has been attending these conventions for 25 years, said he had come partly for social reasons and also “because I wanted to see all the Senate candidates in action.”

Asked if he had selected one he liked, Beaver said no. “I eliminated some,” he said, “but I’m not going to tell you who.”

Beaver and several other longtime conventioneers termed this a relatively “tame” convention, without much controversy.

But remarks by Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), made at the party’s Sunday prayer breakfast, later drew fire from leaders of an Orange County gay Republicans group.

‘The Enemy Within’

As the main breakfast speaker, Dornan began discussing the biblical parable of the prodigal son, but later expressed concern about “the enemy within.”

He claimed the Democratic Party in 1984 “actually wrote into their platform protection of sodomy. I hope we never allow into the party groups which should be pitied, if not scorned, groups which should be prayed for.”

Asked afterward whether he was referring to the Log Cabin Club, an organization for gay Republicans, Dornan said, “Absolutely . . . I chose not to mention them by name.” Dornan said he welcomed reformed alcoholics and “reformed homosexuals” into the party.

“But if that person is living a life style that is an offense to God and the natural order, there’s no need to recognize them as a party chapter,” Dornan said.

Alex Wentzel, president of the four-month-old Log Cabin Club of Orange County, said Dornan appears to be ignorant of the National Republican Party’s 1984 platform, which said the party “reaffirms its support of the pluralism and freedom that have been part and parcel of this great country.”

Dornan “only indicts himself with his comments,” Wentzel said, “because one day he talks about ‘little Jew’ and the next tries to put homosexuals in the context with drunks.” Ten days ago Dornan upset Jewish leaders when he referred to a Soviet television commentator as a “disloyal, betraying little Jew.” Dornan subsequently admitted the remark was “an ethnic slur” and publicly apologized.

Robert Helms, treasurer of the county Log Cabin club, said that the club would fight for “that basic (Republican) platform . . . that people should be respected and allowed their own freedom.”

He added, “As honest, working people, we work for the party. We work as individuals and we contribute to the Republican party and to the Republican candidates . . . and we hope some day we’ll be recognized.” But Dornan’s remarks will make it more difficult for the Log Cabin Club to gain acceptance within the party, Helms said.

Minorities Programs

Orange County Republicans reported Sunday that several of the county’s programs aimed at bringing minorities into the party had been approved by the state party’s executive committee during the convention.

The state party adopted an Orange County program aimed at recruiting Latinos into the county central committee this year and at recruiting Latinos as Republican candidates in 1988, said Raoul Silva, an aide to Dornan.

In addition, the party chartered a new Orange County and statewide Lithuanian-American Republican Club and a new Korean-American Republican Club, county officials said.

Also state party Vice Chairman William Park praised Orange County’s continuing voter registration drive. The drive has become a model for other counties, several local and state officials said.

Orange County is second only to San Diego county in registering the most new Republican voters in the state.