Zschau Jokes About Secret Weapon in Talk to Republican Women

Joking about his funny name and the fact that he is behind in the polls, Republican Senate candidate Rep. Ed Zschau told a group of Orange County Republican women Friday that he has a secret weapon to help him defeat Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston in November--psychic forces.

To be sure, Zschau said, there are other good reasons for electing him. He would try to limit federal spending, while Cranston would not, Zschau told 300 members of the Orange County Federation of Republican Women at a luncheon in Costa Mesa on Friday. And he shares President Ronald Reagan’s conservative philosophy, which Cranston does not, Zschau said. And, finally, he contended that he has voted for stiff sanctions against drug traffickers, while Cranston has not.

Backing of Spirits

But aside from all that, the Northern California congressman said with a boyish grin: “the spirits” were on his side.

“In December at the Commonwealth Club a psychic was invited to make predictions about 1986,” Zschau recounted. “She predicted the Chicago Bears would win the Super Bowl. And they did. And she predicted a series of earthquakes in Southern California--and there’s been a little shaking going on.”

The psychic also commented on the ’86 elections, Zschau said, predicting that Gov. George Deukmejian would be reelected “in a landslide” and Chief Justice Rose Bird should “forget it; she’s gone.”

“And then she made a prediction to which everybody said ‘Who?’ She said ‘Ed Zschau will defeat Alan Cranston in November of ’86 for the U.S. Senate seat.’ ”

At the time Zschau was just “an asterisk in the polls,” he said, but now, “I can tell you we not only have the volunteers and the voters on our side, we’ve got the spirits on our side.”

It was a small joke in a luncheon speech that mixed jabs at Cranston and serious comments on Zschau’s entrepreneurial, conservative philosophy with self-deprecating humor.

Serious Purpose to Visit

Still, there was a serious purpose to Zschau’s visit: encouraging these Republicans, many of whom had voted for a more conservative Republican in the primary--television newscaster Bruce Herschensohn--to work for Zschau. In the crowded June 3 primary race, Zschau received 37% of the statewide vote but only 22% of the Orange County vote. Meanwhile, Herschensohn had received 30% of the statewide vote but 55% of the Orange County vote.

Many political strategists, not only in Orange county but around the state, believe that if a Republican Senate candidate cannot win in Orange County by a wide margin of votes, he cannot win in November.

Some Orange County Republican leaders who were strong Herschensohn backers have been lukewarm to Zschau. But Zschau in his speech reminded his listeners that all Republican victories would take a team effort. He also mentioned Herschensohn, reminding his listeners that “in the wee hours of the morning” after the election, Herschensohn had visited his suite “and said ‘Ed, you won.’ ”

“Sure there are disappointments and sure, there has been a hard fought contest,” Zschau said, adding that not only Herschensohn, but Rep. Bobbi Fielder, Supervisor Mike Antonovich and the other candidates united behind him after the primary.

Zschau’s message left its mark, many of the Republican women said after he left. “I know this--at my table, he turned a lot of them (pro-Herschensohn, anti-Zschau voters) around,” said Connie Bleich, president of the Valley View Republican Women of Cypress.

Cynnie Burnell, a former local campaign chairman for Herschensohn who is president of the Newport Harbor Republican Women, said, “He got them today.”

She noted that many of the women had known little about Zschau except that he was not as conservative as Herschensohn and in Friday’s speech, “he convinced them he didn’t have two heads.” Of course, not everyone was convinced. Chrystal Wadsworth, president of the Westminster Chamber of Commerce, said she was impressed but “I would like to see his voting record.”

Singularly unimpressed were Cranston officials. Told of Zschau’s remark about the psychic, Cranston’s Washington press spokesman, Murray Flander, said, “If that psychic is so hot, how come she didn’t tell him (Zschau) that if he weren’t out campaigning today he would not have missed a vote in the House” that related to drug trafficking. Flander said the vote was on a bill to use the Armed Forces to interdict planes and ships bringing narcotics into the United States.