Applicant Seeking GOP Nomination Attacks Panel Chief

Questioning of 10 Republicans seeking nomination for the 72nd District Assembly seat opened with fireworks Saturday when the first applicant made a stinging attack on the chairman of the nominating committee, state Sen. Edward R. Royce, and called on him to resign.

Brian Bennett, who is seeking nomination to the seat left vacant by the recent death of Assemblyman Richard E. Longshore, said he was angered that Royce, who represents Anaheim, was chosen to chair the panel even though the senator did not endorse Longshore in 1984. He also criticized the appointment of one of Royce’s aides to the nominating committee, charging that it gives Royce the appearance of “excessive influence.”

Further, he charged, Royce had spent two hours on the telephone recently to persuade an individual to enter the race.

“The fix is in,” said Bennett, chief of staff for Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove). “As a result, Mr. Chairman, I believe you have violated your position of neutrality and impartiality. And I therefore call on you to resign as chairman of this nominations committee.”

Royce denied Bennett’s charges, saying he had contributed $5,000 to Longshore’s campaign and had helped the assemblyman, at Longshore’s request, by working to increase voter registration in the district. Royce’s aide, Marcia Gilchrist, a member of the nominating committee, declined to comment on Bennett’s charge, saying only that she “made political decisions 25 years before I met Sen. Royce.”

Royce also said he did not call any of the applicants to persuade them to run but did talk to candidates who called him. Asked later if he supported a particular candidate, Royce said, “absolutely not.” All nine other applicants for the nomination said they had not been solicited to file papers.

Longshore, who was elected to the Assembly in 1986 after two previous unsuccessful tries, died of pneumonia June 8, one day after he won the GOP nomination for reelection.

The 10 Republicans seeking to replace him are vying for a spot on the November ballot against Democratic challenger Christian F. Thierbach, a Riverside County senior deputy district attorney.

The nominee will be named by the county’s 64-member Republican Central Committee on July 21. The seven-member blue-ribbon committee appointed to interview the applicants is scheduled to vote its recommendation to the larger committee on July 18.

The race for Longshore’s seat is expected to be fierce. Republicans, trying to battle the Democrat majority in the Assembly, lost an incumbent on the ballot when Longshore died. Until 1986, the 72nd District had been represented by Democrat Richard Robinson. Democrats outnumber Republicans in the district.

After making his statement, Bennett was rebuked by Assemblyman John R. Lewis, a committee member, who said that such dissension is playing into the hands of Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), who is expected to work for Thierbach’s election.

“If we cannibalize each other, we are doing the Democrats a favor,” Lewis said. “I have to question the political agenda of someone” who promotes dissension within the party at such a critical time, he said.

Criticized Committee

Bennett also criticized the committee for asking the applicants, if they are elected, to pledge to not seek higher office until 1992.

The pledge “has nothing to do with picking the best qualified candidate for the 72nd. It is meant to prevent the nominee from charting his own future and it is meant to make sure that the nominee does not get in the way of other officeholders who themselves intend to seek higher office, one of whom sits on this committee.

“I am angered by the hypocrisy exhibited by this committee by requiring the election pledge,” he said.

Bennett could not be reached to elaborate after he left the committee session.

Lewis said the pledge is being requested to help “Project 1990,” a statewide effort by Assembly Republicans to take over the majority from the Democrats before reapportionment.

“That is why we asked candidates to take the pledge, to not give Democrats the edge,” he said.

Suggests Recommendations

Bennett, 32, also argued that the nominating committee should not send just one name to the Central Committee to vote on but should make its recommendation and allow the 64-member committee to vote on all 10.

“I did not want to come here and pick a fight,” Bennett said. “Quite frankly, I thought my fight would be with the Democrats, not with this committee. I did come here to speak on behalf of myself and a process that is, to date, fatally flawed.”

During the interview session Saturday at the Doubletree Hotel in Orange, most of the candidates said they believe crime and transportation are the chief issues in the campaign. Applicants were also routinely questioned about their efforts on behalf of the Latino and Asian minorities in the district.

Scott Hart, 31, Orange County director for U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson, said he was involved in the campaign to recall former California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and has worked with federal, state and local authorities to assist local law enforcement.

“These programs in which I have been directly involved have made a tremendous impact on the 72nd District and its law enforcement efforts. Should I be elected, I will continue with these types of innovative programs, focusing on gangs and gang violence,” he said.

Estimates Expenditures

He estimated he would have to spend $750,000 on the campaign and would be able to independently raise $200,000, he said.

Patricia A. McGuigan, 53, vice mayor of Santa Ana, said her longtime residence in the district and service to the community means she would not be dogged by charges of being a “carpetbagger.” (Three of the candidates moved into the district only last month to seek the nomination.) She is attuned to the needs of the district, has working relationships with many county leaders and has a broad base of political and financial support, she said.

But McGuigan was quizzed about her earlier reported support of Democrat Dan Griset, a City Council colleague, who ran against Longshore unsuccessfully in 1986. She said it was a personal decision to support him as a friend.

Daniel Barrett McNerney, an Orange County deputy district attorney, said that to effectively take on the law-and-order issue, the Republicans need their “own deputy district attorney” to go “toe-to-toe” with the Democrat’s deputy district attorney candidate.

“We all know what the record of the Democrats is when it comes to crime-fighting bills,” he said.

McNerney recently bought a home in Newport Beach and lived there until a few weeks ago. He said he probably would move back to Newport Beach if he does not win the nomination “after staying there to work my tail off to make sure a Republican keeps that (Assembly) seat,” he said.

Linda Longshore, 33, the late assemblyman’s widow, said she is well qualified to carry on her husband’s work because she was at his side and was his confidante through his long struggle to win the seat and during his brief career in Sacramento.

“I am committed to completing his agenda,” Longshore said. The chief issues, she said, are crime, the support of senior citizens and mobile home owners, and the Asian community.

Other applicants for the nomination are:

* Raoul Silva, a former Dornan aide who ran unsuccessfully for the Assembly seat in 1980. He said he has fought the spending of state funds on abortion and worked for the recall of Bird.

* Curt Pringle, chairman of the Garden Grove Planning Commission. Pringle, a businessman, said he believes the main issues are crime, transportation and minorities’ needs. He supports the death penalty and victims’ rights, he said.

* George V. Heaney, an insurance adjuster who ran unsuccessfully against Longshore in the 1986 primary. Quizzed about that, Heaney said, “I thought I could be just as good as a nominee.”

* Virgel L. Nickell, a real estate developer and longtime Westminster political activist. The chief issues, he said, are crime and gang problems, making sure school districts have more autonomy, and veterans’ rights. A former Longshore campaign worker, Nickell is also a candidate for the Westminster City Council.

* Dewey Wiles, 50, a sergeant in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and a member of the Midway City Sanitary District.

“The No. 1 problem is crime,” he said. “It’s time we sent a cop to Sacramento. . . .” He stands the best chance of “going up against a liberal deputy district attorney,” he said.

In addition to Bennett’s charges, another potential controversy in the nomination process is the residency of three applicants--Bennett, Scott and McNerney--who moved into the district in June, after the assemblyman’s death. The nomination committee has asked the secretary of state’s office for a legal opinion on how long a person must live in a district before running for office. One Republican Central Committee member, John Prescott, on Saturday issued copies of an opinion from the state legislative counsel’s office that says candidates must live in the district one year before the election or be subject to removal by the Senate or Assembly.

Under that interpretation, Lewis said, the Democrats’ candidate would also be ineligible. Royce said the committee was aware of the legislative counsel’s opinion and expects a more definitive opinion from the secretary of state.