Vasquez to Skip Quayle Breakfast in Feud With Fuentes

Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez on Friday withdrew as host of a breakfast this morning for Republican vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle in a dispute with Orange County GOP Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes over sponsorship of the event.

“I am not involved in the event any longer,” Vasquez said. “I made a decision to withdraw or terminate my association with the event. The party chairman wanted to take over the event and essentially I yielded to that desire.”

While saying he is a “strong supporter” of Quayle, who is making his first campaign swing through the county today, Vasquez said he will eat breakfast at home today rather than attend the invitation-only breakfast at the Irvine Hilton. Vasquez said he will be with Quayle later at a rally in Mission Viejo and a meeting with senior citizens at Leisure World in Laguna Hills.

He said he did not want his withdrawal from the breakfast to be interpreted in “any way, form or fashion” as “indicative of where I stand on Sen. Quayle.” Quayle has been under siege for being a strong supporter of the Vietnam War while having used family influence to join the National Guard instead of face the draft.

Vasquez, a featured speaker at last week’s Republican National Convention in New Orleans, said it was his support of Quayle that led him to offer to sponsor the breakfast after talking to the campaign organization for Quayle and Vice President George Bush. The breakfast was to include about 25 of his supporters and 50 or so local GOP leaders, volunteers and elected officials.

But Vasquez said he dropped his sponsorship of the breakfast and $1,000 contribution to defray the cost of the event when “things took a different direction at the instigation of the party chairman.”

Vasquez refused to elaborate, but a Republican activist familiar with events this week said “Gaddi backed off” after Fuentes “commandeered” the breakfast and installed himself as master of ceremonies. The activist said Fuentes was unhappy because he had not been selected as master of ceremonies for a luncheon earlier this week in Orange County for President Reagan.

“I think this was a carry-over from that,” said the GOP activist, who asked not to be identified.

Fuentes said Friday that from the start he viewed Saturday’s breakfast, which was put together in just a few days, as a Republican Party function.

While he described his conversation with Vasquez about the breakfast as “very cordial,” Fuentes allowed that the supervisor “apparently . . . had a different understanding than I had on some of the initial planning effort.” He said that with Vasquez’s withdrawal, the county party will pay the entire cost of the breakfast, which he estimated at $2,000 to $3,000.

“I think that the nature of trying to coordinate three events in the course of 48

hours sometimes has these kinds of situations evolve,” Fuentes explained.

Fuentes said he hoped that Vasquez would attend the breakfast. But Vasquez said that while “I would not describe it as boycotting,” he “will not be in attendance.” Vasquez said he had canceled his reservation for the event at the Hilton.

Reached later, the Hilton indicated that the 8 a.m. breakfast was still on its schedule but was listed as a “Republican leadership breakfast.”

Fuentes said that Father George Stephanides of St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine will give the invocation and that Mickey Conroy of Anaheim, a leader of various veterans groups, will lead the Pledge of Allegiance. U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) will introduce Quayle to the breakfast-goers.

Happy Cluff, who is doing press advance for Quayle’s trip to Orange County, said it was his understanding that someone from the Quayle campaign contacted Vasquez first about having the breakfast, although it was not “an official contact.”

He said the details were left to Vasquez and other party officials to work out.

“Our position is that if Orange County Republicans want to put together an event, we’ll be glad to come by and visit them,” Cluff said.

Quayle is also scheduled to speak before senior citizens at Leisure World Club House 3, 23822 Avenida Sevilla, Laguna Hills, at 10:30 a.m. and lead a noon rally at Lake Mission Viejo Outdoor Amphitheater, at the corner of Marguerite Parkway and Olympiad Road in Mission Viejo. Both events are open to the public.

After the rally, Quayle will leave for Sacramento.