Mission Viejo’s Rival GOP Groups Merge : Politics: Two committees avoid a showdown over the use of the same name by agreeing to join forces instead.

Call it a political identity crisis.

Two Republican groups that battled each other during a recent recall campaign clashed again last week, this time for the uncontested right to be known as the “Mission Viejo Republican Club.”

The Orange County Republican Committee, the official county party, had not authorized the name’s use by either group.

The showdown came Wednesday night, when officials for the group that originally claimed the name, were expected to crash the organizing meeting of the other to issue a plea for prospective members.

But instead of another nasty Mission Viejo political battle, such as the one rising from the failed attempt to unseat Councilman Robert A. Curtis last month, Wednesday’s meeting produced something quite unexpected--compromise.

The two groups agreed to merge into a single Republican entity, and parties from both sides are smiling.

“This just shows that Mission Viejo can solve its problems without going outside the community,” said Ray Carolin, who ran the organizing meeting. “Republicans shouldn’t throw bricks at each other.”

Carolin said he was impressed with Ben Meharg, president of the other Republican group, which took a controversial role in the recall election.

“He showed up at the meeting and wanted to know if we could all band together for the good of the party,” Carolin said. “I respect the guy for that.”

Meharg said the agreement would benefit all Republicans in Mission Viejo.

“It was a good meeting,” he said. “I’m glad we were able to work something out.”

Meharg’s group first gained attention during the final weeks of the recall campaign when, billing itself as the “Mission Viejo Republican Club,” it criticized Curtis in a mailer sent by pro-recall forces to city voters.

Claiming that the group was organized at the last minute for the sole purpose of discrediting him, Curtis complained to the Orange County Republican Committee, which ruled that the organization wasn’t authorized to use the Republican affiliation.

At the start of last week, however, members of the two groups were tense.

Shortly after Carolin announced the formation of a second Mission Viejo Republican Club, both sides came out with stinging criticism of the other.

“They (the first group) are a fraud,” Carolin said Monday. “There’s no question in my mind that they were formed just for the recall. Who ever heard of them before the recall?”

Carolin is a candidate for a City Council seat in Mission Viejo’s November elections.

Meharg, a Mission Viejo planning commissioner, said Monday that the formation of a second group had caught him by surprise.

“I’m somewhat mystified by their accusations,” said Meharg, who had come out strongly against Curtis. “Our Republican club has been organized since last year. I don’t know where he’s been.”

Meharg had contended that his group of about 30 Republicans had the right to use the name because “we were the first to use it. I think that counts for something.”

But now, the unified group will seek the sanction of the Orange County Republican Committee in the near future, Carolin said.

“Let’s put the recall behind us,” he said. “It’s time to move on.”