Political Foe Assails Wieder on Her Turf

One of Harriett Wieder’s opponents in the 42nd Congressional District showed up Wednesday on her turf--a meeting of the Orange County Board of Supervisors--to accuse her of overseeing “the Los Angeles-ization of Orange County.”

The attack by Andrew Littlefair, which came while the board was considering seven development agreements at a meeting in the Hall of Administration in Santa Ana, spurred three of Supervisor Wieder’s colleagues to close ranks around her.

No Apologies

Supervisor Roger R. Stanton asked Littlefair--Stanton kept misstating his name as Littlefield--where he was during the “Los Angeles-ization of Los Angeles.”

A Torrance resident, Littlefair had not lived in the 42nd District, which straddles Orange and Los Angeles counties, for seven years. Most of that time he spent as an advance man for President Ronald Reagan.

“I won’t apologize for that,” said Littlefair, who has portrayed himself in the campaign as the keeper of the Reagan flame.

Another board member, Gaddi Vasquez, accused Littlefair of sensationalizing the growth figures he cited.

And a third board member, Thomas F. Riley, angrily accused Littlefair of making a political speech and urged County Counsel Adrian Kuyper to rule Littlefair out of order. Kuyper asked Littlefair to stick to the subject.

Meanwhile, Wieder--who chairs the Orange County board--watched the scene with amusement. “Thanks for your time,” she said sweetly to Littlefair when it was over.

Agreement OKd

The board went on to approve a developer agreement for the Irvine Coast and the final Foothill Circulation Phasing Plan.

Less than an hour later, Wieder and Littlefair arrived late for a candidates forum before Republican women from Los Alamitos and Seal Beach. Wieder, who is from Huntington Beach, is the front-runner in the June 7 primary for the heavily Republican district.

The earlier incident was not mentioned until afterwards, however, when Wieder, obviously peeved at Littlefair, told him, “You made a fool of yourself” before the board.

When Littlefair, 27, started to respond, Wieder silenced him. “Grow up,” said Wieder, who is 40 years his senior.

Littlefair explained later that as he walked precincts in Orange County as part of his campaign, it became clear that traffic congestion and growth were the issues of most importance to voters in the district, which includes Torrance, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, parts of San Pedro, a narrow strip across Long Beach, Signal Hill, as well as Seal Beach, Cypress, La Palma and parts of Huntington Beach, Westminster and Garden Grove in Orange County.

“It’s a lot closer to the surface than I thought it was,” Littlefair said. “So we went down today to let our views be known.” He added, “Harriett represents special interests on this issue.”

“I’m not afraid of them,” Littlefair said of the supervisors. “What we went down there to say is, ‘You should be letting the people’s voice be heard on this.’ ”