Longshore’s Widow Blasts GOP ‘Deals’ for Successor

The widow of the late Assemblyman Richard E. Longshore (R-Santa Ana) chastized Orange County Republicans on Monday night for cutting “backroom deals even before my husband was buried” over a possible successor.

Taking the Orange County Republican Central Committee by surprise, Linda Longshore accused party members of lobbying for a Republican nominee for her husband’s seat immediately after his death on June 8. She said she was so disgusted with that behavior that she was seriously considering running in November for the 72nd Assembly seat herself.

“I cannot go and let his name stand for naught,” Linda Longshore said in a brief but emotional speech to 100 county Republicans gathered at The Westin South Coast Plaza hotel in Costa Mesa.

“I am sorry to come here tonight to be angry in my grief,” she said. “I want to say something to those who have worked to tarnish my husband even in death. You have cut backroom deals before my husband was buried.”

Longshore, 62, died of pneumonia one day after he won the GOP nomination for reelection. His funeral was held last week. Orange County Republican Party Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes had vowed that no plans for Longshore’s successor would be made until after his funeral.

Fuentes set Monday night’s meeting of the Central Committee as the date for planning a procedure for choosing a successor. Fuentes said that he did not believe any “backroom deals” had been cut.

Dennis Catron, first vice chairman of the Central Committee, said: “It’s hard to cut deals when 64 (committee) members gotta make a decision on Longshore’s successor.” (Under state law, the Republican Central Committee must vote to choose the Republican nominee for the 72nd Assembly District if the party’s initial nominee dies.)

Still, Catron added, “Obviously some people jumped the gun.”

According to Fuentes, some Central Committee members received a letter sent June 10, two days after Longshore’s death, from a group called Citizens for a Moral Government. The letter was promoting Virgel L. Nickell of Westminster as a candidate to succeed Longshore.

Linda Longshore was offended by the Nickell letter, according to Mike Williams, Longshore’s campaign manager. Linda Longshore rushed out of Monday night’s meeting without stopping to explain her remarks.

Nickell was asked not to attend the Longshore funeral last week, but “showed up and was networking” during the service, Longshore chief of staff Scott Taylor said. In a brief interview, Nickell, a real estate developer, said he did not mean to offend Linda Longshore and added that he was not lobbying at the funeral. “We did not make any contacts,” at the funeral, said Nickell, who attended the Monday night’s Central Committee meeting.

Also at the Longshore funeral, several politicians mentioned other candidates as successors, including Taylor, Scott Hart, an aide to Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), and veterans activist Mickey Conroy.

The committee Monday night agreed on an open procedure for selecting a successor to Longshore. Applications for the seat opened Monday night and are due by June 28 at Republican Central Committee headquarters in Garden Grove.

A seven-member committee headed by state Sen. Edward Royce (R-Anaheim) will consider the nominations at public meetings June 30 and July 2. That committee will report back to the Central Committee, which will meet in special session July 21 to select the nominee for the general election in November. Fuentes vowed that the entire selection procedure would be “open, prompt, careful and considered.”

Both Republicans and Democrats expect a fierce contest over the 72nd Assembly District seat that Longshore had held for just two years. Before Longshore’s election, the seat had been held by Democrats for 20 years. Deputy Dist. Atty. Christian (Rick) Thierbach of Anaheim is the Democratic nominee.