Many Democrats Have Seen Benefit of Switching to GOP

Orange County Republican Party Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes talks about them as “conversions”--the switch of elected local Democratic officials to the GOP.

“People have often said I view it with maybe more fervor than I ought to,” Fuentes said, chuckling.

Fuentes has reason to be happy. In the last several years, a parade of Democrats who hold nonpartisan offices in the county have switched to the GOP, and more are likely to follow.

The most recent to change political colors is Santa Ana City Councilman Wilson B. Hart, who made the announcement at a much-publicized press conference. The biggest prize was Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, who switched nearly three years ago, saying he found himself increasingly more comfortable with the GOP’s fiscal conservatism.

Others include Garden Grove Mayor Jonathan H. Cannon, County Clerk Gary Granville, Fountain Valley City Councilwoman Barbara Brown, Buena Park Mayor pro tem Rhonda McCune, Costa Mesa City Councilman Peter Buffa, Huntington Beach City Councilman John Erskine, Superior Court Judge William F. McDonald, Orange County Unified School District board member Sandy Englander, and Rancho Santiago Community College District board members Rudolfo (Rudy) Montejano and Hector Godinez Sr. And another notch in the GOP’s gun is former Stanton City Councilman Jim Hayes, director of budget and management services for the Orange County Community Services Agency, and his wife, Joan Hayes, former president of Savanna School District in the Stanton area.

There has been no such crossing over of Republicans to the Democratic Party. The only prominent Republican who has registered as a Democrat in recent memory is Superior Court Judge Bruce Sumner, 62, now retired, who switched 15 years ago, several years after he ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in a bruising battle with conservative John Schmitz.

Some Democrats have made the move to the right with fanfare, while others have done so quietly. All are aware that they are in danger of appearing opportunistic in this heavily GOP county, where having an (R) after one’s name--even if it isn’t on the ballot, as would be the case in a nonpartisan race--is distinctly more advantageous than having a (D).

All say they switched over because they felt their political philosophies were more in tune with the GOP. Some say it was the Democratic Party that deserted them, not the other way around. A couple proudly say they followed in the footsteps of the party standard bearer, President Reagan, who once was a Democrat.

A few added that, frankly, it cannot do any harm in Orange County, either in election politics or in a business climate that is influenced by partisanship, to be a moderate Republican rather than a moderate Democrat.

“If you’re going anywhere in partisan politics in this county, you’re going to go there on the Republican ticket,” said Supervisor Stanton, who says he does not have to worry about such things because he plans to run for reelection to his nonpartisan post in 1988.

Hart, the Santa Ana councilman who recently changed over, said that as he grew up “and realized how tough it is to make a living and how important the business sector is, I found myself moving father and farther away from the mainstream Democratic principles.”

Not surprisingly, many of the shifts to the GOP are viewed with some cynicism by Democratic activists in the county, who assign reasons other than philosophy to their former party mates’ re-evaluation of their political thinking.

“They all claim it’s ideological, and I think occasionally it’s true,” said John Hanna, chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party. “But generally they’re looking for a higher office or they’re looking for an (government) appointment or they’re looking for a business opportunity.”

“I was concerned with changing parties and not knowing how I would be received, whether I would be received with suspicion ro welcomed with open arms,” said Garden Grove Mayor Cannon. “I’m a political person and I need to be involved.”

Activists on all sides agree that in Orange County, being a Republican is de rigueur , as seen clearly by voter registration figures.

As of May 1, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by 559,975 to 364,813. Even beyond the raw figures, Republicans traditionally are more loyal to their party at the polls, so Orange County is considered all the more overwhelmingly GOP. Only once since 1938, the earliest figures on hand at the county Registrar of Voters, has the county had more registered Democrats than Republicans--in the post-Watergate anti-Nixon climate of the late 1970s.

Since Richard Robinson’s Assembly seat was won by Republican Richard Longshore after Robinson tried unsuccessfully to unseat Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), no Democrat holds either a legislative or congressional seat in the county. And, as Republicans report with glee, and Democrats with resignation, this is unlikely to change in the near future, in spite of the problems President Reagan, and therefore his party, are facing in the Iran- contras affair.

The dominance of Republicanism also permeates the business climate in Orange County, according to political activists on both sides.

“Business revolves around politics in this county in a way it doesn’t in other counties,” said one elected official who ask not to be identified. “In L.A., you just can’t pull on your Republican blazer every morning and go off to the office and be sure you’re not going to rankle somebody. Here, you can wear your Republican message. It’s sort of the ticket to ride. It’s part of the culture.”

Quickly Figure Out

Along that same line, former county Democratic Party chairman Frank Barbaro said, “I can imagine in certain business contexts, depending on whom you lift cocktails with at lunch, that the inner Republican circles might be able to bestow favors on fellow riders.”

Given this, it is fair to say that many people who begin in politics in Orange County at, say, the city council level, quickly figure out that there is little to no advantage being a nominal Democrat or, for that matter, any of the variations up to rabidly Democrat. And even then, there is something to think about.

Hayes, for example, was extremely active as a Democrat while with the Stanton City Council, and now is extremely active as a Republican.

“I fully confess, I was very active in the organization,” said Hayes, 34, who first registered to vote in the tumultuous 1970s when the Democratic Party “seemed to have the initiative on the issues.”

After running as a Walter Mondale delegate for the 1984 Democratic convention, Hayes decided Mondale was not an “acceptable candidate.” Shortly thereafter, he switched.

‘Be Smart’

County Clerk Granville, 58, says that after he was appointed to his post and as he was facing his first election within the next year, then-Supervisor Ralph Clark, a Democrat, took him aside and told him he would “be smart” to “go down right now and change your registration.”

Granville, a Kennedy Democrat, after much soul-searching, did switch, saying he found a “political comfort zone” among his friends and supporters in the GOP. But he did not make the move until after he won the election. Granville says he felt he got very little support from Democrats during the election, and so felt he had “no obligation or no debt” to the Democratic Party.

“Those people were not interested in me either before or after or during the election,” he said. “My allegiance to the Democrats was in the past.”

Costa Mesa City Councilman Buffa, 38, who changed registration last November after he was elected, said that when he ran for office, “People said, ‘You seem like an excellent candidate, but I don’t vote for Democrats.’ So there certain is a temptation to run down to switch your party affiliation.” As for himself, he says it was “a lot deeper decision than that.”

Richard J. O’Neill, 64, a longtime activist Democrat who has served as county chairman of the party, stated flatly that any young politician who had an eye on higher office, or even on continuing in the office he or she initially was elected to, “would be crazy” to remain a Democrat in Orange County, “because no matter how good a candidate you are, your chances of winning are very, very small.”

‘Go Right After You’

Some Democrats may slip through the cracks the first time they win a seat on a city council or other governing body, O’Neill says. But, “once you’re elected, the Republicans check to see your registration and they go right after you, to blow you out in the next election or swing you over. They concentrate their efforts and pretty soon they scare you off.”

Besides garnering votes at the election polls, there is a clear advantage to being a Republican in terms of monetary and other support at election time. Even Democratic Party officials admit their efforts to help local nonpartisan candidates financially are paltry, at best.

“You have to understand it’s a little harder in this county to raise money as a Democrat than it is as a Republican,” Barbaro said.

When Democratic candidates ask party officials, “What can you do to help me?” the answer all too often is “nothing,” O’Neill said. “We’ll raise a few hundred dollars, but what’s that?” he asked.

Republicans, on the other hand, can offer more in the way of financial support. Money traditionally is easier to raise among Republicans, and there are more of them to raise it from. Also, donors like to go with a winner, and GOP candidates are much more likely to win. Even aside from the money, the Republican Party can offer a stronger organization with more paid staff and better campaign materials.

Raise More Money

Having access to all this is something to consider for Democratic candidates running for nonpartisan offices.

Santa Ana Councilman Miguel Pulido Jr., 31, a Democrat, says that a year or so ago, before he declared he was running for office, “a lot of friends--I have a lot of Republican friends--indicated to me they could raise more money for me if I were a Republican.” He says the figure mentioned was “in the $25,000 category.” He has not switched. However, he said, his friends continue to talk with him about it. His answer so far: “Not at this time.”

Perhaps among the more surprising switches are those of Godinez and Montejano, who joined the GOP at the same time. Both are active in the Latino community, which traditionally has voted with the Democrats. Both say they feel the GOP fosters self-reliance, which they say is better for Latinos in the long run.

“In the Republican philosophy, there are more expanding economic opportunities to join the mainstream,” Montejano said.

Now that he is ensconced on the other side, Montejano says, he “talks to Democrats all the time, saying, ‘You really should change parties.’ Because I believe many Hispanics who are now Democrats are Republicans. They’re conservative. They’re business-oriented. They believe in performance. They’re very sensitive to Hispanic needs and desires, and active in the community, and I would say that would make a very good Republican.”

Seize an Opportunity

The GOP is quick to seize an opportunity to woo a Democrat who has been having thoughts of changing parties.

Former Orange County GOP chairman Lois Lundberg says that during her tenure, “We were constantly inviting Roger Stanton to join us. I said, ‘Please, Roger, I’ll send a brass band if that’s what it takes to get you in our group.’ We had a lot of fun with it, but I was serious; I would have sent a brass band.” As it turned out, she didn’t have to, although there was much fanfare when Stanton announced the switch.

Fuentes, Lundberg’s successor, is even more charmingly aggressive. He makes it known to Democrats who hold local nonpartisan offices that they would be welcome in the GOP fold, according to several people in political circles.

Fuentes says potential converts “come to be identified sort of by raising their hands.”

“We’re always watching and looking and moving forward when we see there’s a possibility,” he said. He says that, typically, he or other GOP officials meet with such prospects over lunch to talk. “But it’s not always been us buying (lunch),” he said, meaning sometimes it’s the Democrats who are doing the pursuing.

He says he does not try to sell anyone on joining the party “because I don’t think a phony Republican would pass the smell test among the Orange County Republican leadership.”

‘Genuinely Motivated’

He added, “In all of the cases where we have had these conversions, they have been genuinely motivated.”

“He does a hell of a job for them,” O’Neill conceded. “He makes it very exclusive and very desirable to be a member of the party.”

Hayes says that Fuentes has organized GOP events continuously and keeps a steady stream of GOP officials coming to the county, which “has a lot to do with why you see these local government officials switching parties.”

“It comes down to where the action is,” Hayes said. “I’ve got to admit I’ve had a great time since I changed. I don’t want to put down my old friends who are Democrats, but the Democratic Party in Orange County is moribund.”