Political Notes : Sumner Releases New List of GOP Supporters

Continuing his efforts to get Republicans to split their ticket, Democratic congressional candidate Bruce W. Sumner on Monday released a new list of Republicans who are supporting him.

In early October, the former Democratic Party chairman announced that 32 Republican community leaders were backing him over the Republican nominee, five-term Rep. Robert E. Badham of Newport Beach. On Monday he unveiled another list of 84 Republicans in his corner.

Sumner served as a Republican state assemblyman from 1956 to 1964. He became a Democrat in 1971 after a bitter primary battle against John Birch Society member John G. Schmitz for the state Senate.

Noting his priorities now, Sumner vowed: “First, I am a free man. Secondly, I’m an American, and thirdly I’m a Rep . . . “ He stumbled, then continued: “I’m a Democrat, in that order.”

Both Monday and in early October, Sumner said that the Republicans supporting him were community activists. Both times, Thomas A. Fuentes, chairman of the county Republican Party, said he had never heard of most of the names.

The latest list included former UC Riverside Chancellor Ivan Hinderaker of Corona del Mar, former Newport Beach Mayor Doreen D. Marshall, UC Irvine Medical School Associate Dean Daniel Hollander and former Fountain Valley Mayor Jim Kanno.

Badham aide Bill Schreiber said Monday that Sumner was suffering a “terrible identity crisis. . . . He’s either a Democrat trapped in a Republican’s body or a Republican trapped in a Democrat’s body.” Schreiber said the Badham camp was not concerned about Sumner’s list of “erstwhile Republicans.”