ELECTIONS ’88 : ORANGE COUNTY : Happy Days Here Again for County Democrats

Orange County Democratic activists say presidential politics have not been this much fun in years.

Going into the June 7 primary, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and the Rev. Jesse Jackson have active campaigns in the county, where the 2-1 Republican majority usually lends a certain glumness to Democratic politics.

“There is something going on in this campaign I haven’t seen in a long, long time,” said Howard Adler of Lake Forest, a longtime Democratic activist who is backing Dukakis. “There is a feeling in the offing that we have a Democratic nominee who can carry California.” That is a feat accomplished by only one Democrat--Lyndon B. Johnson--since the days of Harry S. Truman.

Though Dukakis is virtually assured of the Democratic nomination in July, Jackson has an enthusiastic group of volunteers in Orange County who have not lost hope.

“The momentum I see right now for Rev. Jackson I have not felt since Bobby Kennedy,” said Sadie Reid-Benham of Santa Ana, co-coordinator of Jackson’s campaign in the 38th Congressional District. “I think the people working with Rev. Jackson are looking for a miracle.”

Looking to November

While Democrats are aiming their efforts toward the primary, Orange County Republicans are organizing now for the general election in November in an attempt to ensure a strong victory here for the GOP’s standard bearer, Vice President George Bush. Traditionally, Republicans do better in Orange and San Diego counties than in Los Angeles County or other areas of the state.

“We need to win Orange County and win San Diego County, which are two Republican strongholds, to balance off the northern part of the state in particular,” said Eileen Padberg, western regional coordinator for Bush’s campaign.

The Democratic primary campaigns are vying for three or four delegates in each of the five congressional districts that are wholly or partly in Orange County. In order to get any delegates at all in a given district, a candidate must win at least 15% of the vote.

Many Democratic activists believe that Jackson will have no trouble meeting the 15% threshold in each of the districts but will have difficulty reaching the 40% threshold to get more than one delegate.

“That’s impossible,” said Richard J. O’Neill, a veteran Democratic activist who is supporting Dukakis. “He’ll get a delegate in every district, and that’s it.”

Recent polls indicate Dukakis is strong and getting stronger in California in his bid for the nomination, although Jackson led the field of candidates last fall in polling for the Orange County Annual Survey. At that point, Jackson was the choice of 16% of those surveyed. Dukakis was next with 9%, and more than 40% were undecided.

Hope for Candidate Visits

Both campaigns are hoping their candidates will personally visit Orange County before the primary to generate excitement among volunteers and voters.

“We are what is known as the waiting list,” said Patrick Barnhart, a Jackson campaign staffer. “There is no confirmed date that he will be here.”

Adler said he expects Dukakis to appear in Orange County once before the primary. He said Dukakis campaigners are lobbying for him to attend the Strawberry Festival in Garden Grove on Memorial Day weekend.

One problem Orange County has in attracting Jackson and Dukakis is that they can get better media exposure and more political mileage with an appearance in Los Angeles.

“The feeling is they’re covering those Orange County people through their L.A. appearances,” said Orange County Democratic Party Chairman John Hanna.

However, the Orange County campaigns now are gearing up with volunteers and phone banks. Dukakis this week established an office at 631 S. Brookhurst St., Suite 108, Anaheim. Jackson’s is at 1225 W. 17th St., Suite 6, Santa Ana.

Though his father later contradicted him, Dukakis’ son, John, who has visited Orange County twice in recent weeks, was probably accurate when he conceded that a Republican will carry Orange County in the fall. (“We’re not going to concede a thing,” his father said a few days later. “I’m going to do everything I can to win Orange County.”)

But in order to win the state in November, Dukakis will have to lose Orange County by a reasonable, rather than a gigantic, margin. That means that the county’s 367,000 Democrats will need to be motivated to get to the polls.

“The goal is to keep Orange County from having more than a 100,000-vote Republican plurality,” said political consultant Harvey Englander.

George Urch, an aide to state Sen. Cecil Green (D-Norwalk) who is active in Dukakis’ campaign, said the candidate is taking Orange County “very seriously” because “he can appeal to independent and moderate Republicans in the county--he’s not a way-out liberal like Walter Mondale or George McGovern.”

Urch added that the Dukakis campaign does not take Jackson lightly on a statewide level.

“California is a state that is known for not going with a front-runner in the primary,” Urch said.

Points for Jackson

No matter what candidate they support, Orange County Democrats give Jackson’s campaign points for enthusiasm and organization. Jackson supporters showed up in force at a county Democratic Party convention in January to win a straw poll, hoping to give Jackson’s campaign in Iowa a boost. Though operating on a shoestring, they also have sent out mailings and posted campaign signs.

Two Jackson fund-raisers are planned, one May 30 to unveil a patchwork quilt put together with $100-per-patch donations--hopefully to be delivered to Jackson himself--and another Tuesday honoring a former New Mexico governor, Tony Anaya, a Jackson supporter of long standing.

Reid-Benham, a longtime county resident who is black, said the response to Jackson in the county “is really kind of overwhelming for me.”

“It really says we have come a long ways, even though we encounter some racism still as we call and try to solicit people,” Reid-Benham said. “The caliber of people committed to Rev. Jackson, from students to seniors, is very meaningful to me.”

Developer Mike Ray, who helped Gary Hart raise $250,000 from Orange County in 1984, said he believes that Jackson inspires the same kind of commitment that Hart did among his Orange County supporters in his first presidential campaign. “It was give it your all, give it everything,” Ray said. Hart won 23 of 24 Orange County delegates in the 1984 primary.

Though Dukakis does not have the kind of financial support Hart had in Orange County and does not seem to inspire the same level of passion, Democratic activists say that Dukakis’ campaign runs deeper and is more of a grass-roots effort.

‘Spread Out All Over’

“It’s more spread out all over the place,” said O’Neill, a Mondale supporter in 1984. “It’s more than just a few people getting excited for Hart.”

Democratic activist Chris Townsend said Dukakis’ appearance last July in Tustin, where 250 people showed up on a few days’ notice for an early-morning breakfast, indicated that people get excited about Dukakis’ candidacy, if not his personality.

“The guy has proven that there’s something about his candidacy--his perseverance, calmness. He seems to be in control,” Townsend said

Hanna put it a little plainer. He thinks Orange County Democrats are beginning to sense a winner.

“The Democrats are hungry,” he said. “It’s been a long time since they have been seated at the White House.”