Cox Cautious on Polish Vote : Visiting Congressman Applauds Solidarity’s Gains but Says Nation Is Not a Democracy

As millions of Poles cast ballots in their country’s first free election in more than 40 years, Orange County Rep. C. Christopher Cox was temporarily stranded at a roadside cafe east of Krakow, talking politics with a Solidarity candidate for Parliament.

Cox, a conservative Newport Beach Republican, suggested to his companion, Zbigniew Romaczewski, that new legislators backed by the trade union movement might, with the help of dissident Communist representatives, elect their own candidate to the new and powerful position of Polish president.

But Romaczewski, a physicist, shook his head. “He made it very clear to me that they believed that would be pushing things too far,” said Cox, one of three congressmen who flew to Poland last week as unofficial observers of Sunday’s landmark election.

“I just didn’t understand that if this newly elected legislature tried to have a peaceful coup, if you will . . . that this infant democracy would . . . suffer crib death,” Cox said.

At a press conference and later in an interview here on Tuesday, Cox, a lawyer who worked in Ronald Reagan’s White House before his election last fall, recalled the highlights of the three-day trip.

Among them was a visit to Solidarity headquarters in Krakow in southern Poland, where he was surprised by the sophistication of the group’s political operation. Solidarity workers monitored television screens and worked the notoriously cranky Polish telephone system as they struggled to get out the vote, Cox said.

In contrast, an elegant hotel suite that served as headquarters to a prominent Communist Party candidate was empty, save for cartons of undistributed leaflets, Cox said. The daily rental for the suite was about what the average Polish worker earns in a month, he added.

Seventy-five miles east of Krakow, in Stalowa Wola, two Toyotas flew large Solidarity flags as they drove through town on election day. One carried loudspeakers blaring the Solidarity anthem and speeches of the movement’s leaders.

As the cars passed near a convent, Cox recalled, a brigade of sisters, dressed in habits “right out of the ‘Sound of Music,’ ” scurried to watch and raised their hands in Solidarity’s victory sign.

In Krakow, Cox met with leaders of the trade union movement, underground book publishers and students, as well as candidates fielded by both Solidarity and the Communist Party. In trips through much of southern Poland, Cox, Los Angeles County Rep. David Dreier (R-La Verne) and Rep. Donald L. Ritter (R-Pa.) also met with voters and poll watchers.

The unofficial trip was organized and paid for in part by the National Forum Foundation, a conservative, nonprofit Washington group concerned with foreign affairs. The National Jewish Coalition helped underwrite the trip.

The Polish election, Cox said, “was a tentative and cautious first step into democracy for the Polish people.” He added, however, “It is not real democracy.”

Poles apparently elected most of Solidarity’s candidates to the 100-member Senate and all of its candidates for the 161 seats in the lower house, or Sejm, that were not reserved for members of the Communist Party. By contrast, most of the prominent Communist Party candidates named on a 35-member “national list” appear to have been rejected by voters.

Although official results have not yet been announced, Communist Party officials have acknowledged that the newly legalized trade union scored a stunning victory and have promised to honor the election results.

Cox said his enthusiasm over the election was strongly tempered by Solidarity’s account of a serious, three-day clash last month between demonstrators and Polish police in Krakow.