Notebook / Politics : County’s Key Role and Fine Weather Earn Some Respect

As the political season kicks into high gear, Orange County has become a hot story for out-of-town reporters. County Democratic and Republican activists can’t recall an election year in which reporters from so many different area codes have called or traveled to Orange County.

With strategists from both parties prophesying about the county’s importance to the outcome of the presidential race in California, local Republican and Democratic officials have been interviewed almost daily. For example, Thomas A. Fuentes, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, was interviewed or taped in the space of a week by reporters from the Boston Globe, CBS-TV, the British political publication the Spectator and a Canadian current affairs program called “the fifth estate.”

County Democrats, while in the minority, have been besieged by interview requests, much to the delight of Paul Garza, executive director of the local party chapter.

“Most Orange Countians are sensitive to all the media attention that is focused on Los Angeles,” Garza said. “It’s nice to see that somebody is finally taking Orange County seriously.”

The four-member crew from the Canadian show, which is similar in format and thrust to CBS’s “60 Minutes,” spent five days in Orange County, filming, among other things, a pair of GOP fund-raisers: a sunset cocktail cruise on Newport Harbor and a dinner speech by former Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North. The show is scheduled to air on nationwide Canadian TV on Oct. 18.

“We wanted to do something on the U.S. elections, and all we’ve been hearing is that Orange County is pivotal,” said Jane Mingay, a reporter with Canadian Broadcasting Corp., who researched the Orange County story for the Toronto-based program. “Besides, Canadians are fascinated by the Southern California climate. . . . “

It is also a place, Mingay said, where people love to talk. “Canadians by nature, are reluctant to say much; it’s like pulling teeth,” she said. “But Americans love to talk, on camera and off camera.”

The campaign manager for GOP state Senate candidate Don Knabe called it an “oversight.” An aide to Knabe’s Democratic opponent in the 33rd State Senate District labeled it “improper.”

And Cypress Mayor Margaret Arnold was plain “embarrassed.”

It seems Knabe’s campaign took an endorsement letter from Mayor Arnold, reproduced it on official city stationery and sent it to city residents. The endorsement letter, printed under the city’s letterhead and carrying the names and phone numbers of city departments, did contain a disclaimer that the mailer was paid for by the Knabe campaign.

Nonetheless, Arnold was upset and wrote a letter of apology in a local newspaper. She said “liberties” were taken by the Knabe campaign staff “to place this letter on official stationery of the city” and “I am embarrassed by this unfortunate incident and apologize to the citizens of Cypress.”

A second letter was then sent by Knabe’s campaign to Cypress voters carrying Arnold’s apology.

“It was an oversight, and I take full responsibility,” Knabe’s campaign manager, Jackie Campbell, said. “These kind of letters are sent all the time, but we should have checked first with Arnold.”

Green’s press aide, Larry Morse, said the incident shows that Knabe is “not in charge of his campaign. This type of thing should not happen. They were trying to hoodwink voters into believing the city of Cypress as an institution supported Mr. Knabe.”

As long as public resources are not used, a spokesman for the state attorney general’s office said, there is no prohibition against using the city letterhead on a legitimate endorsement.

Lida Lenney and C. Christopher Cox, already miles apart on the political spectrum, now are debating about debating. At issue is a proposed Oct. 30 debate for the 40th Congressional District candidates to be sponsored by the League of Women Voters.

Lenney, a Democrat, and league official Denese Wecker said the Cox campaign has thrown up so many roadblocks that the proposed debate now is in jeopardy. Wecker said she has been trying to set up the debate since late August and has changed the proposed date at least three times, all to accommodate Cox’s schedule. The snag, Wecker said, is that the league won’t accept co-sponsorship of the debate with two groups that Cox has proposed--the Eagle Forum and Concerned Women of America. She said she told the Cox campaign from the start that the league would not agree to co-sponsorship with the groups because she didn’t know enough about them to know if they are nonpartisan.

Those two groups, while describing themselves as nonpartisan, generally are considered to be conservative activist groups.

Lenney said she is convinced that Cox doesn’t want to debate her. Cox, a conservative Republican, said he is merely trying to accommodate the many groups who want to sponsor debates by consolidating them into one event. He noted that he and Lenney already have other joint appearances scheduled and questions the league’s insistence on not accepting co-sponsorship with the other two groups. “I just have the feeling there’s some partisanship going on,” Cox said.

Cox campaign officials said they don’t object to debating Lenney and still expect a compromise to be reached.

In the meantime, Cox and Lenney are expected to join candidates from other races at a forum on Nov. 2 at an Irvine Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the Irvine Marriott.

Lenney, Cox and two other 40th District candidates--Libertarian Party candidate Roger Bloxham and Peace and Freedom candidate Gretchen Farsai--have been invited to a joint appearance Oct. 28 at KOCE-TV (Channel 50) in Huntington Beach. The four candidates will be questioned by a KOCE official, and the 30-minute program will be aired Nov. 3 at 7:30 p.m.