He Refused Earlier : County Clerk Quietly Moves to the GOP

Last December, when Orange County’s Republican Party chairman tried to persuade County Clerk Gary L. Granville to switch parties and join the GOP, Granville turned him down flat.

“I am what I am. I’m proud of being a Democrat,” Granville said then. Changing parties “is just not in me.”

But on June 6, just three days after the June election in which he won a new term for the nonpartisan clerk’s job, Granville, 57, quietly changed his registration to Republican.

‘Very Personal’ Decision

It was “a very personal and very private decision,” he said Wednesday. But, the former newspaper editor added, he was also disenchanted with the local and national Democratic parties.

Although some prominent Orange County Democrats helped Granville in his recent race against a Republican deputy clerk, “did I receive any help from (local party leaders) Bruce Sumner, Dick O’Neill, Frank Barbaro, David Stein? No. None whatsoever,” Granville said.

Since the days of the Carter-Mondale Administration, Granville added, he had felt “a growing disenchantment with the party and its ability to be effective” and had supported Ronald Reagan for President.

And in political activity this spring, the local Democratic Party had proved itself “a disaster not waiting to happen, but a disaster that has happened,” he declared.

Despite his unhappiness with the Democrats, Granville said, he had believed he should remain in the party until after the June election to make it clear that “there was no political motive, no political gain to be had” when he changed.

So all spring, while Republican Marshall Norris, his opponent for the $57,013-a-year clerk’s job, campaigned against him with Republican support, “I bore my load” of being a Democrat in a predominantly Republican county, Granville said.

‘I Kept the Faith’

“I carried it to the top of the hill. I kept the faith, and I did not become something I wasn’t six months before the election.”

County Democratic Party Chairman Bruce Sumner could not be reached for comment.

However, Orange County Republican Party Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes said Wednesday that he was “just delighted” that Granville had become the latest Republican “convert.”

(Other local officials who have switched recently to the GOP include Garden Grove Mayor Jonathan H. Cannon, Postmaster Hector G.Godinez of Santa Ana, Supervisor Roger R. Stanton and--after the June election--Superior Court Judge William F. McDonald.)

Fuentes particularly welcomed Granville’s switch because of the dismay he felt last December when Granville turned him down.

Over a friendly lunch at Antonello’s restaurant, Fuentes had suggested that Granville could win easily if he switched parties. Granville not only said no, but he also told reporters about it.

“I guess I feel like the captain of a high school football team who, through the course of the year, gets a date with every one of the cheerleaders and finally someone turns him down,” Fuentes said at the time.

But on Wednesday, Fuentes said the timing of Granville’s defection was “a sign of integrity . . . to be concerned about switching at the last moment near an election.” Although Granville is now a Republican, “I share with Gary a very genuine commitment to nonpartisanship in nonpartisan offices,” Fuentes added.

Granville, a former Orange County Register city editor and subsequently an aide to Supervisor Ralph B. Clark, was facing his first election this June after being appointed county clerk last September. County supervisors made the appointment after a harsh audit of what was then a jointly run clerk-recorders office.

The clerk’s division, the audit said, had “low morale” and “a rude behavior toward clients.” Under Granville’s management, both morale and service in the newly independent clerk’s office have improved, an audit this April found.

Although Granville has just changed parties, he said Wednesday that he would be keeping a low profile in politics. He did not notify Fuentes when he made the switch, and “I don’t plan on taking part in party politics,” Granville stressed.

He added that he still considers himself “a Truman-Kennedy Democrat” and believes that philosophy “is not mutually exclusive of being a Republican.”

Stresses Concerns

“My concerns are no less great for the inner cities, for the disenfranchised, for the ethnic problems that still corrupt the country, and my compassion is no less great, but I don’t see an effective solution for those continuing problems in the present makeup of the Democratic Party,” Granville said.

Granville said that he made the switch in part because he took an inventory of the candidates he supported and found almost all were Republicans--Ronald Reagan for President, George Deukmejian for governor, Jame H. Beam for supervisor--”even though I have a great deal of personal fondness for (former Orange County U.S. representative and liberal Democrat) Jerry Patterson.”

But another factor in his defection, Granville said, was “the condition of the Democratic Party in Orange County. . . . The folly of losing a great candidate like Dave Carter,” a judge who lost the 38th Congressional District’s Democratic primary to Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove).

‘Invitation Debacle’

He also cited “the invitation debacle,” referring to a recent, controversial Democratic fund-raiser and political roast in which Republican politicians who had not agreed to attend were listed on the invitation.

“Was it a joke? Or mud in the face?” Granville asked.

Also, he said that he was offended by former Democratic Party Chairman Richard J. O’Neill’s “very jaundiced and cruel remarks” suggesting that Patterson’s political career was over this June when Patterson came in third behind two Republicans in the supervisor’s race.

The Democratic Party in Orange County is “its own worst enemy . . ., “ Granville said.