Three Fight in Last Democratic Assembly Outpost in County

Candidates in the 72nd Assembly District race feuded so politely before television cameras recently that voters might not recognize it as the county’s hottest state legislative race.

One reason may be that at this early stage, the contest is influenced as much by Sacramento power brokers operating behind the scenes as by the candidates themselves.

Also, the real political fireworks are expected in November, when Republicans and Democrats square off in what could be one of the most expensive Assembly campaigns in county history.

In the race for a district that encompasses Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Anaheim and parts of Westminster, Santa Ana Mayor Dan Griset is running unopposed in the June 3 Democratic primary.

He is expected to clash in the November general election with Republican Richard E. Longshore, a real estate broker who has run unsuccessfully for the seat three times before. Longshore is opposed in the Republican primary by insurance fund adjuster George V. Heaney.

The hotly contested seat became vacant when six-term Democratic Assemblyman Richard Robinson, who defeated Longshore in two previous elections, decided this year to run instead for Congress against incumbent Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove).

The stakes are high for both parties. Republicans are eager for a chance to regain the last state legislative seat in Orange County to have been held by a Democrat. Meanwhile, Democrats hope to hold on to their last remaining legislative bastion in a county known for its conservatism and heavy Republican registration edge.

Political strategists believe that voters who tune in for November’s final episode will see a cliffhanger similar to 1984’s, when Longshore lost by a scant 256 votes to Robinson. The $1.1-million battle set a spending record for an Assembly race in Orange County.

Still, voters might be forgiven for wondering what all the excitement is about, given the relatively calm state of affairs at this stage of the race.

Scene One at KOCE-TV (Channel 50): During a TV taping, Griset claims that voters deserve a hometown boy whose family roots in the district date back to 1898. Heaney says his family goes back four generations in the same house where he lives now. Meanwhile, Longshore proclaims that his forefathers were among the original Pennsylvania colonists. They have had a “pretty long time to learn what the United States of America stands for,” he adds.

Scene Two: Prompted by the television host, Griset alleges that the Democrat-controlled Legislature in Sacramento will consider Orange County a “throwaway county” when it comes to important budgetary matters if he loses the county’s only legislative seat held by a Democrat. Longshore counters that Gov. George Deukmejian needs more GOP votes in Sacramento, where the Democrats control both the Assembly and the Senate.

Scene Three: Longshore calls Griset a “clone” of Robinson, whom he characterizes as a liberal, free-spending, pro-abortion Democratic assemblyman. Griset says he won’t dignify Longshore’s comment with a response. Meanwhile, Heaney says his youth (he’s 31) gives him more energy to get things done.

Republicans have been building toward this year’s campaign ever since Longshore’s surprisingly close race against Robinson in 1982. They want the seat badly, in part because it represents the Democrats’ last stronghold, and an invitingly weak one at that. Democratic registration in the district has dropped to 50.2% from 54% just two years ago.

However, like a Hollywood-produced television show that is controlled by network bigwigs in New York, this contest is being partly directed by Democratic and Republican legislative leaders in Sacramento. The Assembly Republican and Democratic caucuses have targeted the race for extra funds and are supplying on-site campaign management teams from Sacramento.

Assembly Minority Leader Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) and Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown Jr. (D-San Francisco) hold some of the purse strings at this point and are deciding many of the week-to-week campaign priorities through members of their staffs who are on leaves of absence to work in the race.

Easy Victory Expected

Nolan, who was heavily involved in Longshore’s 1984 campaign, is strongly backing the realtor again, even though there is a contested GOP primary. Most observers expect Longshore to easily defeat Heaney in the June 3 contest. They explain that Longshore has built-in name recognition from two previous campaigns and that Heaney has little money, no political organization and does almost no campaigning.

At this point, both political parties are saving their big guns for the November election, each guessing how much the seat is worth to the other side in dollars and cents.

As a result, with major skirmishes unlikely until the fall, Longshore and Griset are spending much of their time contacting potential donors and talking up their respective virtues.

Griset, for example, is using volunteers and paid college students to canvass targeted precincts where a special emphasis will be placed on attracting Republican support. Instead of handing potential backers a political brochure, Griset and his workers show a “family album” or engage in one-on-one conversations aimed at establishing eye contact with voters.

“If you give them a brochure while you’re talking to them, they cast their eyes downward and they thumb through it, and they don’t really hear what you’re saying,” Griset said. “Eye contact is much better.”

Democratic leaders hope to benefit from the fact that the Assembly district is contained within Dornan’s 38th Congressional District--which is also targeted for special registration and election help.

However, a counter-registration effort by county GOP leaders has persuaded about 3,600 Democrats to reregister as Republicans, thus canceling out Democratic gains.

The 72nd Assembly District has the county’s highest concentration of minorities: 31% of the district population. Once fiercely loyal to the Democratic Party, this bloc is now considered up for grabs.

Meanwhile, Longshore occasionally walks precincts, handing out brochures that fail to mention his Republican Party affiliation or Griset. The tone is mostly positive, except for an attack on state Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird.

Surveys show that Bird’s retention election could strongly influence races throughout the state because of strong anti-Bird sentiment. All three candidates in the district--which includes a large number of hard-hat, blue-collar Democrats--say they oppose Bird’s reconfirmation.

Griset will hold on to his council seat even if he loses in November, because his four-year term does not expire until 1988. His father was also Santa Ana’s mayor, so the Griset name is well known among longtime residents. About 36% of the district’s 99,230 voters live in Santa Ana, where Griset has been a councilman since 1979.

Fund-Raising Doubts

Still, Griset’s campaign could be experiencing money problems. Griset held his first fund-raising event last month, and his ability to match Robinson’s financial prowess is much in doubt, even among his strongest supporters.

Potential donors with issues pending before state lawmakers may have less incentive to help Griset because he is not an incumbent, observers say. Second, a big chunk of Griset’s campaign war chest as a nonpartisan councilman came from Republican businessmen in Santa Ana who are likely to rally around Longshore in a partisan contest.

Irvine-based Fluor Corp., which contributed to Robinson’s campaign in 1984, is supporting Longshore this time. On the other hand, builder William Lyon, a Republican, is supporting Griset. Some donors are expected to hedge their bets by contributing to both men.

Longshore is betting that Assembly Speaker Brown will make a last-ditch effort to save the seat for the Democrats by funneling several hundred thousand dollars to Griset from various Democrat-controlled political action committees. Meanwhile, Longshore said he expects contributions from the Assembly Republicans’ PAC to keep pace.

Mandatory campaign finance disclosure documents filed by the candidates at the end of March showed that Longshore raised $9,520 during the first quarter of 1986, spent $12,707 and had $35,147 in cash on hand. Longshore started the year with $38,284 in cash, thanks mostly to 1985 contributions of $15,000 each from the Assembly Republicans’ PAC and the Lincoln Club, a wealthy GOP volunteer group.

$1,500 Given by UAW

The documents show that Griset raised $8,495.61 during the first three months of this year, $2,195.61 of it in free staff work and travel supplied by Assembly Democrats. Griset’s figures also include a $2,800 cash contribution from the Assembly Democrats’ PAC, $2,000 transferred from Griset’s City Council campaign committee and a $1,500 donation from the United Auto Workers.

Meanwhile, Heaney’s campaign finance documents show that he loaned his campaign $372 for the candidate filing fee and $56 to buy voter registration lists from the county registrar of voters’ office.

Heaney took an unexpected 43% of the vote in the 1982 GOP primary against Longshore. He campaigned for only two weeks from a bicycle he rode through 62 precincts. He spent only $500. He lost a 1984 school board race in Santa Ana, also after mounting almost no campaign.

Acknowledging his lack of interest in Republican Party activities, Heaney said:

“I don’t think that someone needs to go through the party to show an interest in the community. Party activism does not include the exclusive right to hold public office.”

Heaney said his lack of money “doesn’t mean anything. . . . I think I took 43% of the vote in 1982 because people know that I’m more ready to listen to what the voters think. The real issues are what concern them, as opposed to any politicians’ preconceived notion of what the public wants.”

Longshore, a retired Navy officer, is far ahead of his 1984 organizing and fund-raising pace. But, he said, “I’m not taking anything for granted.”

‘Known Loser’

As a result, Longshore said he is prepared to use so-called “attack” mail against Griset if that proves necessary. For example, Longshore said he will probably remind voters that Griset was a strong supporter of a proposed 1-cent sales tax for county transportation projects. The proposal was rejected overwhelmingly by voters in a 1984 countywide election.

Griset, on the other hand, argues that Longshore is a “known loser” who has failed in three political efforts and is grasping at the only negatives he can find. “I’m the guy with a track record to attack, and he has never been involved in community service, so it’s easy for him to do that,” he said.

The Santa Ana mayor contended that he has helped transform the city from a “town that was on the ropes” to one that is booming. He said that millions of dollars had been earmarked for mass transit until, under his leadership of the Orange County Transit District, he helped free interest collected on the money for road and highway projects, a move popular in the business community.

Griset also mentioned his earlier work on behalf of the county’s development fee program to finance new highways with private funds instead of taxes--another action supported widely in business circles. Finally, he spoke of his role in launching a joint program with local schools in which city money is used in part to acquire new school sites.

“Longshore can talk about what he’d like to do, but the fact is, I’ve already done it,” Griset said.

Nevertheless, Longshore said he sees the race as a contest between Democratic and Republican philosophies, not who has done the most for the community.

View Called Incorrect

“I believe in doing things differently,” said Longshore. For example, Longshore said he would use all of the state sales tax money collected on gasoline purchases for transportation, contending that the tax collected at the pump was never supposed to help finance welfare and other programs through the state’s general fund. Currently, the money is split between transportation projects and the general fund.

But state officials have said that Longshore is incorrect, because the legislation levying the sales tax on gasoline specifically earmarked some revenues for the general fund, thus subsidizing a wide range of programs. “Sometimes Mr. Longshore doesn’t get all his facts straight,” Griset said.

Yet unlike Longshore, Griset cannot focus all his energies on the November election. While he deals with the upcoming fall campaign, he is also fighting several political battles in Santa Ana.

For example, Griset was recently required to reimburse the city for private calls he made from his tax-financed car phone. And he is opposing a June ballot measure that would allow for election of a full-time mayor at large instead of the current council selection of mayor.