County’s Key Role in the Presidential Campaigns--the Money : Democrats Ready to Rally--Once They Find a Candidate

Among Orange County Democrats, an enticing 1988 presidential primary scenario is being discussed:

With Gary Hart out of the race, the choice of a candidate is narrowed through the Iowa caucuses and the early primaries until, by the time of the California primary on June 7, 1988, there are only two serious contenders. The nation’s attention is focused on the state, and local party leaders are positioned to be at the center of the action.

It may not happen, but if it does Orange County Democrats plan to be ready.

“It looks like post-Gary Hart California is going to be an important primary state,” said developer Mike Ray, who is heading Orange County’s campaign effort for Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri. “That means having an active campaign is going to count.”

Outnumbered in County

In Orange County, Democrats are outnumbered about 2 to 1 in voter registration totals, and the party is struggling to recover from a period of decline. But when it comes to campaign fund-raising, Democrats elsewhere in the nation take Orange County very seriously.

In the 1984 presidential race, Orange County money was one of the factors that helped Hart pull to the front of the Democratic pack in the Iowa caucuses, Chris Townsend, an aide to developer David Stein, said recently.

“Orange County is the type of place you can build a money network to do that,” Townsend said. “We can have an impact on who wins in these early states . . . because of the money we can provide.”

Stein and Townsend helped Hart raise $250,000 in 1984 and already had helped him raise $30,000 for the 1988 race when Hart pulled out in May.

Now, Townsend said, “this county is up for grabs.”

Like many other Orange County Democrats, Townsend and Stein still are recovering from the Hart withdrawal, which came after newspaper reports that Hart had spent a weekend with a Miami model while his wife was in Colorado.

Stein, a personal friend of Hart and one of a handful of supporters who traveled with the candidate during his 1984 campaign, said he is not sure if he will support another Democratic candidate in the primary.

“I’d like to be impassioned again, like I was with Hart,” Stein said. “If I don’t get that feeling, I don’t want to fake it. I don’t want to be involved in presidential politics just because I was involved before.”

Approached by Contenders

Because of Stein’s fund-raising efforts for Hart, nearly all the Democratic contenders have approached him this year hoping that he will turn his energies to helping them.

“In each case, they say: ‘We know you’ve gone through a difficult experience. We won’t pressure you now,’ ” Stein said. “ ‘But when it is appropriate, we’d like to talk to you.’ ”

Stein has been asking them first to appear before the Democratic Foundation, a group of activists who pay $1,000 a year each to support the party in Orange County, and the Democratic Associates, a support group in which membership costs $50 a year.

“They’re all going to say, ‘I’m too busy to do free meetings,’ ” Stein said. “You know, they sound like Oral Roberts sometimes--they need $1 million by next month. You have to be firm and tell them they have got 600 people they need to see first.”

Santa Ana Mayor Dan Young, who has endorsed Gephardt, said he will make an effort to bring Orange County mayors and city council members to the Missourian’s cause.

“We’re not pushing people,” Young said. “We’re going to start late this summer and early fall to really try to bring people into the Gephardt campaign.”

Aside from Hart, Gephardt is the only Democrat who has actively raised money in Orange County.

Leading Role

A recent event at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach, at which Ray was the host, netted Gephardt $23,000; a dinner last year brought in another $15,000. Ray said he and other supporters also want to take a leading role in Gephardt’s statewide campaign on the assumption that the final decision on the Democratic presidential candidate could be delayed until California’s primary.

But Ray, who is chairman of the Democratic Foundation, said it’s “horrible” trying to get people to commit to Gephardt with the election so far away.

“People are hanging back. It’s too early,” Ray said.

Among those who have taken a wait-and-see attitude is Richard J. O’Neill, a wealthy San Juan Capistrano rancher and former Orange County Democratic Party chairman. O’Neill said he is impressed with Gephardt, but, in view of history, does not believe a member of the House of Representatives has a good chance to capture the presidency.

“If I were going to pick now, I’d pick him,” O’Neill said. “But it’s a little hard to visualize this. That’s why I haven’t taken it seriously.”

The remaining candidates, Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr., Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt and Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, have only a smattering of support here. So far, only Gore has ventured into the county this year, for recent lunches with the Democratic Foundation and the Democratic Associates. He also met with several prominent Democrats.

Dukakis is scheduled to meet with county Democratic leaders at a breakfast July 20. Biden and Babbitt talked with local Democrats last year. A reception for Babbitt is planned for July 22.

No Support for Jackson

No organized support is apparent in Orange County for the Rev. Jesse Jackson or Illinois Sen. Paul Simon, although Simon is scheduled to appear before the Democratic Associates and the Democratic Foundation on Aug. 21.

John Whitehurst, executive director of both the Democratic Foundation and the Democratic Associates until leaving recently to join a San Francisco consulting firm, said presidential candidates come to the county looking for an “angel”--a major donor who also has the ability to raise money from others. He predicted that the major activists in the county will have found their candidates by October.