California Elections : Orange County Rally : President to Attend Benefit for Zschau

President Ronald Reagan will visit Orange County on or about Nov. 1 for a fund-raiser and rally to benefit Republican Senate candidate Ed Zschau, Zschau announced at a reception in Costa Mesa Monday night.

Orange County Republican Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes relayed the announcement, calling it great news for his party. “If the President asks for an overwhelming turnout on behalf of our nominee for the U.S. Senate, Orange County will deliver,” Fuentes predicted.

A 200,000-vote margin of Republican votes over Democratic votes in Orange County usually means victory for a statewide Republican candidate, Fuentes said, because a large margin of Republican votes in Orange County can offset votes in heavily Democratic areas in northern California.

Fuentes added that the prospects of such a victory look especially good this year because, also on Monday, the margin of registered Republicans over registered Democrats in the county hit a record high--200,068.

Monday was the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 4 election. And according to an early morning printout Monday from the registrar’s office, there were 1,079,787 registered voters, 585,052 of them Republicans and 384,984 Democrats. Those numbers are expected to change, however, because registration was open until midnight at several police stations and at the registrar’s office in Santa Ana.

Fuentes said the Zschau campaign has set Nov. 1 as a “target date” for the presidential visit and now is involved in “an effort to find some place in the Newport-Irvine-Costa Mesa area, in one of the hotels.”

He said Zschau made the announcement at a reception in his honor at the Copa de Ora restaurant in Costa Mesa that was conducted by Amigos de Ed Zschau, a Latino support group. After that event, Zschau traveled to the Hotel Meridien in Newport Beach where he met privately with members of the Lincoln Club of Orange County, the prestigious Republican fund-raising group, for dinner and a talk.