Robinson Won’t Attend Fund-Raiser for SAMSON

Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove) has decided not to appear at a fund-raiser for the Santa Ana Merged Society of Neighbors (SAMSON), but the man he hopes to challenge in November for a congressional seat, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Newport Beach), will.

SAMSON, a coalition of groups dissatisfied with actions of the Santa Ana City Council, has placed a proposition--Measure C--on the June 3 ballot to alter the city’s system of local government. The coalition had printed and distributed $15 tickets for a speech by Robinson at a May 21 reception. But Hope Warschaw, Robinson’s campaign manager, said Thursday that no one had promised he would appear.

Robinson, who is running against Superior Court Judge David O. Carter for the Democratic nomination in the 38th Congressional District, has “a prior commitment” in Sacramento, she said. She add that an aide might attend SAMSON’s reception.

Measure C’s Provisions

SAMSON’s proposition would require ward elections for City Council members and direct election of a mayor. It also would force all eight seats to come up for election in November. It is opposed by Mayor Dan Griset, who is running for Robinson’s 72nd District Assembly seat and has endorsed Robinson in the latter’s campaign literature.

Griset declined to comment but some observers theorized that Robinson will not appear because of his ties to Griset. “No question about it,” said Councilman John Acosta. “They’re very close.”

Warschaw stressed that Robinson has not taken a position on Measure C and did not know that the May 21 invitation would involve fund raising. Robinson will not appear at any fund-raisers except his own, she said, until after the November elections.

Of the invitations, she said, “that’s what happens when people get enthusiastic. . . . I don’t want to say anything negative about Mr. Lowman (SAMSON co-founder Jim Lowman) and I don’t want to make a big deal out of this. I just think (that) in their ardor and zeal, they printed it up unbeknownst to me.”

Lowman said either man’s appearance at a fund-raiser could be perceived as “tacit support” for SAMSON and Measure C, adding that he was “very, very disappointed” when he heard Thursday that Robinson wouldn’t appear. He said SAMSON members probably would be told to stop selling the tickets.

But they will continue selling $50 tickets for a May 24 dinner at which Dornan will be the featured speaker. Lowman said he had received confirmation of the congressman’s appearance in a letter from Dornan’s Washington office, and Brian O’Leary Bennett, Dornan’s chief of staff, reconfirmed that Thursday.

“Holy smoke,” Acosta, a staunch Dornan supporter, said. He said he hopes that the congressman rethinks that decision.

‘That’s a Tough One’

“I would be very disappointed if Bob shows up there,” he said. “I wonder if he really knows the full impact of Measure C . . . If that’s true, I would have to give very serious consideration about future support of Bob Dornan. That’s a tough one.”

Acosta has argued that Measure C would make council members responsive only to their own wards. Bennett stressed that Dornan hasn’t taken a position on the measure. Bennett said he believed that the discussion that night would center on immigration issues. But he said the congressman isn’t afraid to step into the fray of local politics.

“We’ve taken the opposite side of the City Council before, notably on the Miguel Pulido case,” he said. The Pulido family, owners of Ace Muffler, fought and won the right to retain their shop instead of selling when the city proposed building a shopping center on the site.