A Friendship Cools as Race Heats Up in the 4th District

In the summer of 1985, Orange Mayor James H. Beam and Anaheim Mayor Donald R. Roth took turns gushing about their friendship.

Roth speaking about Beam: “Jim Beam and I have been very good friends throughout the years. If a match-up ever came . . . for a change the voters would win from either candidate.”

Beam speaking about Roth: “We are longtime friends and mutual supporters.”

But now the two conservative Republicans are running head to head to succeed Orange County Supervisor Ralph B. Clark in the 4th District seat that includes Anaheim, Buena Park, La Palma and Orange. And the words are not quite as sweet.

“Recent events in this campaign clearly show that Jim Beam’s lack of candor and integrity have become a critical issue in this campaign,” Roth said a few weeks ago.

Days later, Beam commented on “the sleaze factor that has evidenced itself in Mr. Roth’s campaign to date.”

At press conferences and in campaign literature, both candidates have attacked. Though each promised early on to discuss the issues, detailed solutions to problems in the county have not been prominent in either campaign.

In the June 3 primary, former Rep. Jerry M. Patterson (D-Santa Ana), who moved into the district to run, and architect Manuel Mendez were eliminated. Beam got 20,257 votes, or 34.6% of those cast, to 19,543, or 33.4%, for Roth.

First-Place Finish

Beam’s first-place finish was a surprise to many since he began the campaign trailing Roth and Patterson, and since the portion of Orange in the 4th Supervisorial District has far fewer voters than Anaheim, Roth’s base.

The turnout was just over 31% of the registered voters in the district, a percentage Roth called “sickening” and which, he said, hurt him more than any other candidate.

Roth supporters thought “that I was so strong in Anaheim (that) nobody voted,” Beam said. “They stayed home. That’s the key. And when you can’t get people to vote, you can’t get the numbers.”

Now both men are walking precincts, announcing endorsements and trying to raise money.

The $55,000-a-year job the two men are fighting for in the Nov. 4 election is one of five seats on a board that runs a county with more than 11,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $1 billion.

Although most residents of the 4th District live in cities governed by city councils, the supervisors’ decisions about housing, transportation and medical care affect everyone in Orange County.

Joint Appearances

In joint appearances before the primary--there have been none since then--the candidates did express their views on the office they seek and some of the issues facing the county.

Roth, 65, said he wants to bring “stability and predictability” to the board, whose members now are “flying all over the place, and you never know where they’re going to light.”

Roth repeatedly mentions that the city he governs is the most populous in the county and 63rd largest in the nation, has a budget of a million dollars a day and 2,000 full-time and 2,000 part-time em ployees, and that it hosts 30 million visitors a year.

“It’s time for Don Roth to move up to bigger and better problems,” he told a group of Young Republicans.

Roth also has singled out toxic waste as “the issue of our times,” and listed transportation and housing as other problems.

Anaheim Leadership

He said Anaheim has sought the help of the private sector in handling transportation problems and will “show leadership” by building an elevated roadway to help ease congestion in the home of Disneyland and the California Angels.

Beam, 52, said he views transportation as the biggest problem in the county, and points to his experience on the Orange County Transportation Commission.

He said Orange was one of the first cities in the county to pass a law requiring businesses to disclose toxic chemicals they handle, and he has faulted Roth for Anaheim’s failure to pass a similar law before a disastrous 1985 toxic chemical fire.

Beam also says that “under my leadership, the City of Orange has reduced the per capita cost of city government by 16%.”

He continues to push for a constitutional amendment restricting use of the sales tax on gasoline to transportation, rather than the “social-type programs” favored by state Democrats and “special interests at the trough in Sacramento.”

Not as Active in Party

Although both men are Republicans, the seat on the Board of Supervisors is nonpartisan. Roth told the Young Republicans that he was “a conservative Republican in my policies,” but has not been as active in party affairs over the years as has Beam.

Roth has worked full-time as the mayor of Anaheim, while Beam has continued to work as a real estate investor.

It is a lawsuit stemming from Beam’s business that has led to the most recent and bitter exchange of charges and counter-charges.

The suit, not unusual in real estate ventures, was filed by a Roth supporter who previously was involved in a business deal with Beam. The mayor of Orange contends that the suit was politically motivated, and he asked a court to seal some of his records, saying he was afraid Roth supporters would take them, distort them and dole them out to the press to keep Beam on the defensive.

Roth charged that the record-sealing “makes us all wonder just what Jim Beam is trying to hide.” When someone runs for office, “he is implicitly agreeing to a public review of his full and complete record,” Roth said.

Working in Roth’s Favor

Beam, meanwhile, attacked Roth for presiding over a city embroiled in lawsuits with a major tenant, the California Angels. That issue, however, has now started working in Roth’s benefit, some say, with the settlement of peripheral lawsuits that resulted in pictures of Roth and Gene Autry, owner of the Angels, side-by-side, grinning.

Roth also has benefited from the supervisors’ vote in March to build a 1,500-inmate jail in Anaheim, a half-mile from Anaheim Stadium. Although Beam opposed the jail, Roth garnered the most publicity from his opposition to the supervisors’ action.

Asked about his relationship today with the Anaheim mayor, Beam said, “I haven’t had a private conversation with Don since he announced his candidacy, so I guess there is no relationship.”

Roth said he did not consider the campaign bitter. “I’m just doing my thing and doing what I think has to be done to win the election and get my message out to the people,” he said. “I’m sorry Jim thinks I’m running a sleazy campaign.”