In a Campaign, Leave No Stone, Foe Unturned

John Hanna hasn’t yet decided who he is going to support in the 1988 presidential campaign. But Hanna, chairman of the Democratic Party of Orange County, is sure it won’t be Vice President George Bush, who--as everyone knows--is a Republican.

Now all Hanna has to do is convince the Bush campaign of that.

Hanna had a “good laugh” when he received a four-page letter from Bush soliciting campaign funds and offering Hanna an opportunity to “step forward today” and join Bush’s “campaign team as a member from California.”

Hanna said he left blank the boxes he could have checked to donate $1,000, $500, $250 or $100 and also declined an invitation to keep him informed of Bush’s campaign progress.

Hanna’s law partner, Frank Barbaro, former county Democratic Party chairman and twice a Democratic candidate for the state Senate, received an identical solicitation.

Barbara Pardue, Bush’s campaign press secretary, was also amused by the slip-up.

‘Happy to Have His Money’

“We’d be happy to have his money,” Pardue said, referring to Hanna. “Any time you’re doing direct mail, strange things are going to happen.”

She said she herself received a letter four years ago asking her to contribute to Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic nominees for president and vice president.

“It happens all the time,” Pardue said of cross-party solicitations. Regarding Hanna, she said, “Obviously, his name is on some list we would have mailed to.”

Hanna said the only thing he could figure is that the Bush campaign is “shotgunning out to anybody who ever contributed to a federal campaign,” which both he and Barbaro have done.

“I thought the vice president was better organized than that,” Hanna said.