California Elections : Secure GOP Assemblymen Ignore Own Contests to Help Others

Like most politicians facing reelection challenges, Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) plans to spend the Saturday before next Tuesday’s election campaigning.

But Ferguson, who is expecting an easy victory for a second term in the state’s most solidly Republican legislative district, will be away from his home territory. The freshman assemblyman is taking a busload of volunteers to help Pacific Palisades businesswoman Gloria J. Stout in her race against Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica).

Last weekend, Ferguson campaigned against another Democratic assemblyman--in Riverside County.

Facing Little-Known Challengers

Ferguson and four other Republican assemblymen from Orange County, facing under-financed and little-known Democratic challengers, have been all but ignoring their own reelection campaigns in 1986. Ferguson and Assemblymen John R. Lewis of Orange, Ross Johnson of La Habra, Dennis Brown of Long Beach and Nolan Frizzelle of Huntington Beach have been spending most of the their time, energy and money helping other conservative Republicans in areas where the outcome of next Tuesday’s races are regarded as being more in doubt.

“I think that is the best way you can protect our people in Orange County,” said Ferguson, who says creating a Republican majority in the Legislature is his “sole aim” and “primary purpose. . . other than representing the district.”

Working for other like-minded conservatives “is a logical extension of my own campaign,” Johnson said. “. . .It is not enough to simply give speeches about the future direction of the state of California. . . . I can’t accomplish much of anything with my one vote.”

While some legislative candidates have been scrounging to borrow a few more dollars to get their messages out in the final weeks before the election, the five Orange County assemblymen have been literally giving money away. During the first three weeks of this month alone, the five diverted more than $120,000 of their campaign funds into contributions, loans and in-kind services to other candidates, campaign finance documents show.

During early October, according to the records, Republican Richard E. Longshore, in a tight race against Democratic Santa Ana Mayor Dan Griset for the open seat in the 72nd Assembly District, got $26,500 from his fellow Orange County Republicans. Businessman Roger E. Fiola, launching a surprisingly aggressive challenge against Assembly Labor Committee Chairman Richard E. Floyd (D-Hawthorne), was given $24,234. Matt Webb, running against Assembly Veterans Committee Chairman Steve Clute (D-Riverside), has received $30,000. And Anaheim Mayor Donald R. Roth, who is running against Orange Mayor Jim Beam for the 4th District seat on the Board of Supervisors being vacated by Ralph B. Clark, got $7,000 from Johnson.

Even before the latest campaign finance reports were filed last week, the five Orange County assemblymen had pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into campaigns outside their districts.

The expenditures have brought criticism from some local elected officials and from advocates of campaign finance reforms that would disallow such transfers of donated funds. But county GOP Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes, who likened the legislators to “missionaries” of the conservative cause, said they have his blessing. And the legislators were unfazed by the criticism.

“I honestly believe the rules of the game ought to be changed,” said Johnson, a longtime advocate of campaign finance reform. “But as long as the rules are as they are today . . . I’ll continue to play by those rules.”

Meanwhile, the Democratic challengers, who have had little success raising money or attracting attention in their campaigns, concede that lopsided registration totals in the heavily Republican districts will most likely allow the incumbents to breeze back into office.

“Unfortunately, people tend to vote the party line in Orange County,” said Geoffrey S. Gray, 38, the Newport Beach attorney challenging Ferguson in the 70th Assembly District. “I’ve done some limited campaigning. But I understand that what funds there are available to the Democratic Party in Orange County are being funneled into areas where there is a chance of positive results.”

In Ferguson’s district, which stretches from Newport Beach to Dana Point and also includes inland canyon areas, Republicans have better than a 2-1 advantage over Democrats. In the final tabulations for next Tuesday’s election, 62.2% of the registered voters call themselves Republicans; only 27.5% say they are Democrats.

Ferguson says his is “the most Republican district in the country.” According to Secretary of State March Fong Eu, the 70th Assembly District does indeed have the highest Republican registration of any legislative district in the state. The 67th Assembly district, where Lewis is being challenged by businessman Ray Anderson, has the state’s second highest Republican registration. Lewis’ district--which includes Orange, Yorba Linda and Villa Park, as well as parts of Anaheim, Garden Grove, Irvine and Santa Ana--is 58.8% Republican and 31.4% Democrat.

The numbers are slightly less disheartening--though far from encouraging--for the other Democratic challengers.

For businessman Jack H. Baldwin of Irvine, facing Frizzelle in the 69th Assembly District, the numbers read 55.2% Republican, 33.4% Democrat. In the 64th Assembly District in north Orange County, where aerospace executive Jo Marie Lisa faces Johnson, the registration is 54.4% Republican, 36.1% Democrat.

And in the 58th Assembly District, which includes adjoining coastal areas of Orange and Los Angeles counties, community college instructor Peggy Staggs is up against Brown and registration that is 49.4% Republican and 39.8% Democratic.

In view of those registration figures, Democratic strategists never even considered mounting a major challenge against any of the incumbents in the five races, except for Frizzelle. And that idea was quickly dismissed.

Lucky to Receive 30% of Vote

Baldwin, who once thought he could score points against Frizzelle by attacking him as an apologist for the South African system of racial separation, concedes now that he would feel lucky to get 30% of the vote. “Forty would be outstanding,” he said.

Baldwin said he believes that he gained ground against the three-term incumbent in both of his face-to-face meetings during the campaign--a televised debate on Channel 50 and last Thursday at a forum sponsored by the Fountain Valley Chamber of Commerce.

“Unfortunately, we have not had enough of those public forums to reach out to more than a small percentage of voters,” Baldwin said.

But Frizzelle said Baldwin, who announced during both face-to-face meetings that he opposes the death penalty and plans to vote for California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, might find himself in worse shape if he had more forums to get his message to voters.

“If he thinks that won points for him, that’s his prerogative,” Frizzelle said. And while conceding that his 39,000-vote edge in voter registration makes him feel comfortable, Frizzelle suggested that there may be another reason he and his four colleagues are expecting landslide victories.

“It could very well be,” he said, “that we are representing these districts exactly the way they want to be.”