Back Road Bill, GOP Club Warns Legislators

The influential Lincoln Club of Orange County, a volunteer Republican organization, threatened Thursday to withdraw election support from GOP assemblymen who have opposed a key measure aimed at speeding highway construction.

The bill, SB 516 by Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), would allow the California Department of Transportation to contract with private firms for design and engineering work, averting project delays caused by staff shortages.

Telegrams sent by the Lincoln Club to lawmakers Thursday said, “If you don’t get this bill out, don’t come back here and ask for the gold,” according to Kathryn Thompson, a club board member.

“The message is, if you are going to oppose the bill, then don’t come to the business community for contributions to fund their campaigns in the next election,” added Gus Owen, another board member.

The club contributed $88,500 to candidates statewide in the 1985-86 election season, according to a political contribution reporting service.

Although the telegrams had not yet arrived, GOP lawmakers who had heard about them bristled, and said the Republican Caucus would not change its position against controversial affirmative-action quotas contained in Bergeson’s bill.

The quotas, which are actually stated as goals, ask Caltrans to award 15% of its contracts to minority-owned firms, and 5% to women-owned companies--the same formula accepted by the Deukmejian Administration in breaking the stalemate over legislation supporting the super-collider research project.

Assemblyman Ross Johnson (R-La Habra) said he had talked to Owen by telephone and, not having seen one of the telegrams sent Thursday, perceived no threat about future election support.

“He didn’t even remotely hint that to me, and if he had, I would have told him to go to hell,” said Johnson. “And Gus Owen is my friend, and a supporter.”

The 270-member organization’s executive committee voted Wednesday night to send the telegrams, Owen said, because of the bill’s importance to “the county’s future.”

“Without it, this county will die,” he said.

Owen said he was referring to the county’s inability to remain a strong economic force without quick action to speed highway construction.

Letters From Executives

The unprecedented action by the normally staid, conservative group was part of a major push by the business community to secure final passage of Bergeson’s bill.

Letters from Orange County business executives such as J. Robert Fluor II, chairman of Irvine-based Fluor Corp., and Henry T. Segerstrom, developer of South Coast Plaza, arrived in Sacramento on Thursday urging the lawmakers to support the bill even though it contains the controversial affirmative-action goals.

Meanwhile, Bergeson was holding the bill in the Senate, waiting for evidence that Assembly Republicans were willing to change their votes or reach a compromise acceptable to Democrats.

The bill has already passed the Assembly without GOP votes, but Bergeson has said she will not proceed because the governor would most likely veto the measure in the face of strong Assembly GOP opposition.

Johnson said he supports the bill’s intent but doesn’t believe in affirmative-action quotas. “I’m not going to abandon my principles,” he said.

Said Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Huntington Beach): “I don’t think the Republican Caucus is going to be intimidated. . . . After all, these people (letter writers) aren’t our consistent supporters anyway.”