Just Folks : Supporters of Sen. Green Not Afraid to Show Their True Colors

Forget the white zinfandel, the gray pinstripes and the posh Orange County hotel suites. Election night for state Sen. Cecil N. Green was more like Budweiser in a can, green garb of any sort and the Norwalk Knights of Columbus hall.

It was a scene from another time and place, a backslapping, blue-collar Democratic crowd of 200 supporters in love with their folksy candidate. It was too early to tell who would be victorious, but they cheered and clapped regardless.

Electric-guitar player Ernie Hernandez, who boasted that no candidate he had ever serenaded had lost, started off the night with a raucous rendition of Kermit the Frog’s theme song, “It Ain’t Easy Being Green.”

But he changed his tune when Green, greeted by a standing ovation, entered the hall. “I tell ya,” he said to the cheering crowd, “Cecil Green is the one.”

Segue to a number from the musical “A Chorus Line.” You guessed it: “He’s the One.”

Hernandez’s election night sartorial splendor--political style--was a green vest and fuzzy mint green socks. Although the Whittier man is a registered Republican, he said, he supports Green, “because he supports me. He hires me every time.”

If Green’s election-night party was any indication, there seems to be little distinction between his personal and political lives. A cadre of union carpenters boasted that Green was once one of them. And then there was Bernardino (The Clipper) Garcia Jr., who ran into Green for the first time 25 years ago, when the candidate was working at a local garage.

“I’m his personal barber and he pays me for it too,” Garcia, 62, said as he knocked back a Miller High Life. “He’s one of our friends. And that’s why we love Cecil. He’s all right.”

Green was running against Don Knabe, a former Cerritos councilman, for the state Senate seat in the 33rd District. On Tuesday night, Knabe’s party was as quiet as Green’s was buoyant.

Knabe, chief aide to Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana, arrived about 9 p.m. at the Lakewood Country Club, site of his post-election party.

As he walked into the club’s main ballroom, he was cheered by about 150 supporters. But as luck would have it, Vice President George Bush delivered his victory speech moments after Knabe arrived, prompting many in the crowd to turn from the Cerritos candidate to watch one of six TV sets around the room.

Knabe, smiling but appearing nervous, compared the election to a wedding, saying both take “a lot of preparation and then are over in a matter of hours.”

The race in 72nd Assembly District, in the heart of Orange County, was a face-off between Democrat Christian F. (Rick) Thierbach, who ran unopposed in the primary, and Curt Pringle. Pringle was a vice chairman of the County Republican Central Committee, which selected him to replace the late Assemblyman Richard E. Longshore.

Pringle, whose race was too tight to call, spent much of his election evening pacing his double suite at the Doubletree Hotel in Orange. He carped at the television set as 30 supporters milled around. When KNBC anchorwoman Kelly Lange stumbled over his name, Pringle scolded the tube. “Learn to say that,” he groused.

But he finally lost patience when former Gov. Jerry Brown appeared on screen. Pringle booed and quickly changed the channel.

Times staff writers Laura Kurtzman, Bettina Boxall, Steven R. Churm and Dana Parsons contributed to this story.