Zschau Appeals to Conservatives to Jump Aboard

Moving to shore up his standing with Southern California conservatives, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ed Zschau is mounting an effort in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties to win backing from supporters of conservative idol Bruce Herschensohn, who lost to Zschau in the June primary.

Herschensohn’s campaign manager, Angela (Bay) Buchanan Jackson, 37, said this week that she joined the Zschau campaign as an adviser Oct. 1 to “bring in some of the conservatives” in those counties who had supported Herschensohn in the primary.

With Mervin Field’s California Poll showing Zschau trailing Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston by only five percentage points statewide, Zschau acknowledged in a phone interview this week that he has had difficulty attracting conservative voters. But he said that with Jackson’s help and President Reagan actively promoting his campaign, the situation is on its way to being solved.

“All of a sudden people are saying, ‘Oh, my goodness--whoever was spreading this rumor that Ed Zschau is a liberal?’ ” Zschau said. “It’s just false. For the most part that’s behind us.”

Ever since Zschau won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in June, some Herschensohn supporters have complained that he is too liberal.

In September, the Times Poll showed that, statewide, only 51% of those who described themselves as conservatives planned to vote for Zschau. Twenty-nine percent said they were undecided, and 15% said they would vote for Cranston. By contrast, 84% of those who considered themselves conservatives were planning to vote for Republican Gov. George Deukmejian; 8% were undecided, and 6% said they would vote for the Democratic candidate, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.

According to Jackson, many conservatives in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties have been saying they would not bother to vote in the U.S. Senate race or would write in Herschensohn’s name or vote for Cranston.

“No question, there’s a problem,” she said. “Without a concerted effort to reach these Republicans and to appeal to those voters as conservative Republicans, I do not think that Ed Zschau will get the numbers” of votes he needs to win, Jackson said. “If this is a very close election, and if he doesn’t have the conservatives, he’ll lose it.”

Many Republican leaders, however, argue that on Election Day conservatives will vote for Zschau if they think the alternative is another six years of Cranston’s liberal politics.

The Zschau campaign recently has taken several steps to bring conservatives in Southern California--especially in Orange County--behind the party nominee:

- Jackson two weeks ago began activating her old Herschensohn network for Zschau, telephoning former Herschensohn activists in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and asking them to rally friends and hold events for Zschau. The reaction is mostly positive, Jackson said, explaining that most had not been asked before by the Zschau campaign for help.

- Arrangements have been made for President Ronald Reagan to visit Orange County for a rally and fund-raiser just before the Nov. 4 election. “With the powerful presence of President Reagan, and with some straight talk to a lot of people, I think we can pull this out,” Jackson said.

- Last weekend the Zschau campaign sent every Republican household in Orange County a glossy, two-page mailer featuring a photo of Zschau with Reagan. The brochure quotes Reagan as saying: “Not that Alan Cranston is too old--his ideas are too old. My choice for the future is Ed Zschau.” Zschau press secretary Sandra Conlan said the brochure also was mailed statewide to households with at least two registered Republicans.

- Herschensohn has made several appearances for Zschau, including one at a Sept. 24 fund-raiser in Irvine that featured him and Vice President George Bush with the candidate. Recently, Zschau has been spending at least two days a week in Orange County, Conlan said--at dinners, at a beach party over the Labor Day weekend and last weekend at a menudo cook-off in Santa Ana.

- Former U.S. Sen. George Murphy (R-Calif.), now retired and living in North Carolina, is stumping for Zschau this week and next at senior citizen complexes in Riverside and Orange counties. “The Herschensohn vote was enormously strong (among) people over 50; the older they got, the stronger for Herschensohn they got,” said Jackson, who organized Murphy’s campaign swing and believes older people have fond memories of the former Hollywood song-and-dance man.

Zschau is emphasizing that his support for the death penalty and the economic conservatism that won him a 100% rating from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce shows “the enormous difference” between himself and Cranston, “the biggest spender” in the Senate. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which advocates reduced government spending and easing of government regulations, bases its yearly rating of members of Congress on 16 key votes. Zschau received a 100% rating in l983.

In her new part-time job with the Zschau campaign, Jackson said, she will be stressing that Zschau is the Republican nominee and that, to retain control of the Senate, President Reagan wants him to be elected.

Asked if she discusses Zschau’s views or his voting record with conservatives, Jackson said firmly, “No.”

“The thrust of my argument is quite clearly that Ed’s attraction to conservatives is the fact that he’s Republican.” She said there was no point in discussing Zschau’s positions on the issues with conservatives because he and they have a philosophical disagreement.

“My job,” she said, “is to say, ‘Listen, let’s put all this behind us. We’re Republicans as well as conservatives, and so we need to help the Republican nominee.’ ”

In the interview this week, Zschau said the Orange County vote is particularly important to his campaign. “Orange County is critical to any Republican statewide,” Zschau said. The county, with more than 200,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats, “gives a base of support for a Republican candidate that is unique in the state,” he said.

Lincoln Club Dinner

Zschau’s efforts to reach conservatives in the county this week included a dinner Monday night with members of the Lincoln Club of Orange County, the elder statesmen of the Republican Party of Orange County who pay $1,000-a-year dues. Some of the club’s leaders were strong Herschensohn backers, and some, such as club vice president John Cronin, had already shifted their allegiance to help with fund raising for Zschau.

But some were still holdouts, Jackson believed. A Sept. 15 club newsletter announcing the meeting gave evidence that some conservatives were not on board the Zschau effort.

In that newsletter, Lincoln Club President Coalson Morris wrote that, to his dismay, “several longtime, dedicated Republican Party workers (have) told me that our U.S. Senate candidate, Ed Zschau, was too liberal for them and further that they were going to vote for his Democrat opponent.”

Monday night, Jackson said, she purposely sat at a table with about five of the Lincoln’s Club’s most ardent Herschensohn backers.

“Some were not enthusiastic about Ed prior to dinner and were very likely not going to vote for him,” she said Tuesday. But “after last night they committed--at least to me--that they would try to help for the next four weeks. . . . It probably wasn’t what Ed said.

“But we’ve got four weeks to go, and we’re starting to be concerned about our (Republican) vote. We’re party activists and the rules are: You help the winner.”