Party Chairmen’s Smoldering Rivalry Creates a Severe Case of Cold Shoulders

They’ve never pretended to be friends.

But the smoldering rivalry between Tom Fuentes, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, and Bruce Sumner, chairman of the county Democrats, flared this week over a small matter: a proposal that they appear together on a local television show. About a month ago, Jim Cooper, KOCE television station vice president and newsman, invited both men to his Huntington Beach studios today along with leaders from the Libertarian Party, Peace and Freedom Party and American Independent Party for a videotaped discussion of the ’86 election.

Cooper has produced a similar pre-election show for the public television station for past 14 years. And, except when someone was ill or had a schedule conflict, Cooper said, no one in memory has refused to appear.

He Was ‘Uncomfortable’

But this year Fuentes immediately declined, telling Cooper that he was “uncomfortable appearing with Sumner.” Instead, he said, he would send Alberta Christy, president of Orange County’s Black Republican Council and secretary of the county Republican Party.

Meanwhile, Democratic Party Chairman Sumner had agreed to appear on the show. Then, on Tuesday, after Cooper told him that Fuentes refused, Sumner said he would not appear either.

Instead, Sumner said, a black Democrat named Sadie Reid, a member of the Democratic Central Committee and the Santa Ana school board, would appear for him opposite Fuente’s black, female Republican leader.

In addition to bowing out of the television show, Sumner on Wednesday issued a statement blasting Fuentes for refusing to attend.

Noting that it was “in the American tradition to have an exchange, to have a debate,” Sumner suggested that the Republicans “are apparently afraid of me but are willing to sacrifice one of their less-known members.”

Truman, Reagan Quoted

“As for Fuentes and his Republican strategists, I can only remind them of the words of a great American president, Harry Truman: ‘If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.’ And also in the words of their leader Ronald Reagan: ‘You can run but you can’t hide,’ ” Sumner said Wednesday.

Referring to comments last August by Fuentes, which Fuentes later claimed were a misquote, Sumner added: “. . . I’m kind of fascinated with this guy (Fuentes) who’s talking all the time about Democrats, making all these analogies where he’s equated us with Nazis. But when it comes to an exchange, he’s unwilling to appear.”

Fuentes on Wednesday called Sumner’s comments “insultuous.” ’

Fuentes’ proxy, Alberta Christy, was “a ranking officer of the Republican Party” and was speaking for him in part because she was an articulate party spokesman, Fuentes said. The Republican leader said he often asks other Republicans to speak in his place because “I would really like to reduce the level of my media exposure.”

Still, Fuentes added, in his yearlong tenure as Republican Party chairman, “I have never appeared with Bruce Sumner and I have no intention of appearing in any function with Bruce Sumner.”

For one thing, Fuentes said, Sumner is now running as a write-in candidate against an extremist LaRouche Democrat in the 40th Congressional District, and it would be inappropriate for a Republican chairman to debate a Democratic candidate.

Loser Is the Public

He added that he had better things to do than to appear on the show. “Why don’t you say that Fuentes suggested that he might be out walking precincts, re-registering Democrats to the ranks of the Republican Party while Bruce is being interviewed,” Fuentes said.

Sumner said he has tried for months to get Fuentes to debate him. If he agreed to debate a stand-in for Fuentes, Sumner said, he feared Fuentes would never face him directly.

Whatever Sumner and Fuentes’ reasons, television host Cooper suggested that the loser in their dispute would be the public.

“I would like to have the television viewers see the leaders go head-to-head,” Cooper said. “That’s what public television should be all about.”

Still, both stand-ins are articulate party spokeswomen, Cooper said. “So I’m going to go ahead with the programs. But I would like to have had both leaders. One of the hallmarks of leadership is that you accept leadership,” he said.

Those pre-election interviews will air April 11 at 8:30 p.m. on Cooper’s weekly public affairs show, “Jim Cooper’s Orange County.”