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.