Women Still Divided on Conference : Campbell Bows Out but 3-Day Gathering Can’t Dodge Scrutiny

State Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights) is no longer the sponsor, but the seventh annual Conference on Women in Orange County will open Tuesday with Campbell’s former aide as its organizer.

Campbell has dissociated himself from the nonprofit conference since he was criticized for paying about $200,000 in fees to his wife, Margene, and former aide Karen L. Smith from 1988 conference profits. Smith continues as the conference’s chief organizer since its inception seven years ago.

The fees paid last year to West Coast Seminars of Laguna Niguel, the consulting firm formed by Smith and Campbell’s wife in 1987, are still under investigation by the state Justice Department. Also, the federal Small Business Administration has asked Campbell to repay $49,300 that it spent to underwrite the 1988 gathering, contending that the senator violated an oral agreement on the amount of the fee paid to Smith as coordinator of the event.

Neither Campbell nor Smith returned calls for comment.

Keynote speaker at the three-day conference, which in previous years has featured talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey and former Transportation Secretary (now Labor Secretary) Elizabeth Hanford Dole, will be former First Lady Nancy Reagan, who will speak on opening day. Also scheduled to appear are “Dynasty” star Linda Evans, radio psychologist Toni Grant and comedian Phyllis Diller. Actress Marlo Thomas, who was scheduled to appear, has canceled.

There will also be about 75 seminars a day for participants to choose, ranging from career-oriented topics such as “Ladies Choice: Career? Husband? Kids?” and “Mentor & Monsters on the Corporate Ladder” to advice on child-raising, marriage and personal appearance.

$65-Per-Day Cost

Cost of the conference, which is at the Anaheim Marriott, is $65 per day, which includes all meals and any speeches or seminars participants wish to attend.

Although the conference enjoyed wide popularity for several years, once attracting up to 10,000 women, in recent years it has generated protests from women’s groups which objected to Campbell’s voting record on women’s issues. In 1980, for example, Campbell led a failed GOP effort to hold up passage of the state budget to stop cost-of-living increases to welfare recipients, most of whom are women and children. He is also strongly anti-abortion.

“It was quite an affront to women that he would get credit for sponsoring something for women when . . . his voting record has not been a reflection of interest or concern for women,” said Barbara Jackson, chapter coordinator of North Orange County National Organization for Women.

While NOW once participated in the conference, two years ago it joined in protests accusing Campbell of making a “token gesture” to women. The women’s groups also criticized the use of federal funds for what they called a “political” conference, sparking the review by the SBA.

Some feminists are taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the conference now that Campbell is not on the scene.

“I’m willing to give Karen (Smith) a chance. Let’s see what kind of a conference she puts on,” said Arlene Sontag, member of the National Women’s Political Caucus of Orange County, which helped stage protests of the conference in previous years. She added, “We’re delighted he (Campbell) is out of it.”

Not So Forgiving

Another feminist who had protested earlier conferences led by Campbell said she will not make objections to Smith. “It’s a democracy,” said feminist leader Molly Lyon. “People can do what they want--as long as they don’t use public funds.”

But others, like Vivian Hall, co-chairwoman of Women’s Network Alert, a loosely-knit coalition of women activists in Orange County, were not so forgiving.

“We don’t consider Karen Smith to be a woman who is sincerely supportive of women,” said Hall, who was the key person organizing the protests in previous years. Hall said Smith had not been active in women’s rights groups. “As far as I can see Karen Smith has been out for herself,” Hall said.

Hall and Jackson also complained about the presence of Jo Ellen Allen of Corona del Mar, president of the Eagle Forum, on Smith’s advisory board. The Forum is a conservative women’s group which lists 10,000 members on its statewide roster.

Allen said in an interview that she did not actively participate in the conference’s planning. She said she lent her name to it because the Eagle Forum “appreciates a lot of the stands he (Campbell) took on social issues in Sacramento,” particularly his anti-abortion votes.

Jackson also criticized Smith for one of the conference’s major sponsors, Domino’s Pizza. NOW is conducting a nationwide boycott of the pizza chain because owner Thomas Monaghan contributed $50,000 to the Michigan Committee to End Tax Funded Abortion.

Jackson said if there had been more time, the local NOW chapter might have protested the sponsorship by Domino’s because “it has such contrary politics as far as women are concerned.”

‘Disappointed’ in Program

Besides the political aspects, Jackson said she was “truly disappointed” in the program, which she described as relying on “big names and splashy entertainment.” Singling out one of the seminar titles--”Life’s Challenges: Stepping Stones or Stumbling Blocks”--Jackson asked, “What does that mean?”

She also wondered aloud why Marlo Thomas, an avid feminist, had agreed to be on the program. “It’s like the old SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) question, ‘Which one of these (speakers) doesn’t fit?’ ” she said.

Though it may be coincidental, the withdrawal of Thomas may be connected to a letter sent to Thomas by Hall informing the actress of the conference’s history. The morning the letter arrived at Thomas’ New York publicist’s office, Thomas canceled, citing “personal” reasons.

“She’s involved in so many projects and films and all that . . . plus (she has a) very large family,” Grada Fischer, Thomas’ publicist, said of the actress, who is married to talk show host Phil Donohue. “These things (cancellations) happen with people who have celebrity status and the people who book them realize that.”

Meanwhile, organizers of the Conference for Women at Coastline Community College, one of the oldest annual women’s conferences in the state, blamed negative publicity engendered by Campbell’s convention for decreased attendance at their recent two-day event.

“I think Sen. Campbell has given women’s conferences a bad name,” said Elizabeth Tierney, honorary chairman of Coastline conference.

Similarity in Names

Barbara Beckley, executive director of the Coastline conference, said the similarity in the two conferences’ names--one is for women, the other on women--is confusing.

“On the surface so much of it looks similar,” Beckley said. She said the Coastline conference was designed for, and seemed to attract, women who are serious about redirecting their careers. In all, about 600 women attended the conference.

“We’re a little short on glitz,” Beckley said, “but long on the quality, solid content that we do.”