Atwater: O.C. Vital to GOP

Republican National Chairman Lee Atwater told a crowd of GOP faithful Tuesday that, nationwide, Orange County “is the most important county in the most important state” in the 1990 election cycle.

Atwater and White House Chief of Staff John Sununu called on local Republicans to back Sen. Pete Wilson’s gubernatorial campaign because the next governor will oversee the addition of five to seven California congressional seats when district boundaries are redrawn after the 1990 census.

“Very clearly, the California governor’s race is the most important in the country,” Atwater said. And because of Orange County’s solid Republican turnout, he added, “you are absolutely critical to everything that John and I and the President are trying to do.”

Orange County has almost 600,000 registered Republican voters--more than any other county in California--and they have a reputation for being affluent and loyal.

Every county, state and federal officeholder with a district wholly in Orange County is Republican. And six members of President Bush’s elite Team 100--those who gave more than $100,000 to the Republican Party--are from Orange County.

Atwater and Sununu were in California with President Bush, who attended a fund-raiser for the state Republican Party in Los Angeles Tuesday night.

The visit of such high profile Republican leaders to Republican-rich Orange County appeared to be aimed at heading off a potential problem for Wilson--the disappointment in his candidacy among the party’s conservative leaders.

Howard Klein, president of the county’s chapter of the conservative California Republican Assembly, said conservative voters “are not enthusiastic about Pete Wilson.”

“I think Sununu’s message was that, regardless of how uncomfortable you feel with Pete Wilson ideologically, we need more Republican legislators and Pete Wilson is the vehicle by which that can be accomplished,” Klein said. “He was appealing to us as party loyalists because . . . this is something you do for the national interest.”

Sununu, a champion of conservatives in the White House, has reportedly been upset with Wilson because of his votes against President Bush, most recently a vote to override Bush’s veto of legislation affecting Chinese students in the United States.

Sununu gave just a brief mention of Wilson in his comments Tuesday, saying only: “Pete Wilson, running for governor, understands that tough decisions make good government.”

On the other hand, Sununu praised conservative freshman Rep. C. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), saying: “I look at his voting record with the President and that is not a bad litmus test.

“Congressman Cox is one of the great supporters of the President back there and really deserves not only your help and support in getting back to Washington but also your encouragement to continue to be the significant leader that he is in the House.”

In addressing the concerns of conservatives, Atwater said in an interview that Wilson is strong on the two most important conservative issues: national defense and the economy.

“I would say that Pete Wilson is conservative aplenty on national defense and conservative aplenty on the economy,” Atwater said. He added, “On some things, you’ve got to agree to disagree.”

Orange County Republican Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes underscored the attention that the county has received from national leaders in the last two days. Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole (R-Kansas) was in the county Saturday and Wilson was in Newport Beach Monday night.

“This has been a fabulous two days for the Republican Party in Orange County,” Fuentes said. “This speaks to the prestige of this county party.”