Candidates’ Survey Has Most Angry : Abortion: The Pro-Life Political Action Committee sent a questionnaire to all county government candidates seeking their positions on the issue. Most say they won’t answer it.

County political candidates on both sides of the abortion issue expressed outrage Monday at a questionnaire sent to them by a local anti-abortion group demanding formal statements of their positions.

The Pro-Life Political Action Committee of Orange County sent the short questionnaire to every county government candidate, including those who are unopposed, a spokesperson for the group said. Included are those seeking posts such as district attorney, county supervisor and county recorder, the official responsible for filing birth and death certificates.

The survey asks candidates’ positions on a constitutional amendment banning abortion and on banning use of public funds for abortion-related services. The survey warns that those who do not return the questionnaire by April 10 will be listed as “refused to respond” in results that will be circulated to “thousands of constituents” in the county.

Most of the candidates contacted by The Times on Monday said they do not plan to fill out the questionnaire.

“You are placing candidates who do not influence the abortion issue at a distinct disadvantage--regardless of their position,” county recorder candidate Stanley L. Roach wrote to the group. Roach is refusing to reveal his views. “I hope your constituents have the intelligence not to be influenced by such a ridiculous survey. . . . If you list me in your publication as a ‘refused to respond’ candidate, you will be lying. I will be hurt. You will be sued.”

County Recorder Lee A. Branch said he will not answer the abortion questions but that he was not offended by the questionnaire.

“I’m telling them I appreciate their interest (but) that that’s a personal issue--that each person has to have an opinion outside this office.”

Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Enright, one of four candidates hoping to succeed the recently retired Cecil Hicks, said it is inappropriate for a prosecutor to respond to such a survey.

“A district attorney has to respond to the laws that are on the books. . . . I don’t know what the other candidates did, but I discarded it,” Enright said of the questionnaire. “It’s sort of like a veiled threat--’You better fill it out or we’re going to view you as a negative.’ ”

Dist. Atty. Mike Capizzi also said he did not answer the survey. Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Avdeef said he had not yet received the survey but that he probably would not respond to it. Assistant Dist. Atty. Ed Freeman could not be reached for comment.

County Clerk Gary Granville, who is running unopposed, said he intends to respond with an indication that he favors abortion rights.

Granville said he thinks members of the anti-abortion group “have the right to ask that question, and as a public official it’s my duty to respond.”

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, who is seeking a fifth term and whom abortion opponents consider an ally, said he is leaning against answering the questionnaire. Riley also expressed frustration with being asked to take a position on issues he cannot vote on as a supervisor.

“There’s the airport--there’s a lot of other things going on in my life that are a hell of a lot more important to me right now,” Riley said.

Supervisors Harriett M. Wieder and Don R. Roth, who are also seeking reelection in June, could not be reached for comment. Christian L. Basquette, who is challenging Roth, said he would not answer the survey.

Marie A. Antos, who is challenging Wieder, said she returned the questionnaire with the response that she would not support a ban on abortion or a prohibition against tax money for abortion. Antos said, however, that she resented the warning about failing to respond. Antos said she wrote on the bottom of her questionnaire: “I have the constitutional right to speak or not to speak as I see fit.”

The questionnaire comes at a time of heightened public debate over the abortion issue. It has dominated elections at the state and federal levels since last summer, when the U.S. Supreme Court made a ruling giving states more leeway in restricting abortions made legal in the landmark ‘70s Roe vs. Wade decision.

The survey sponsors defended their seeking positions of candidates running for offices that in no way influence the issue, saying that those people may eventually seek other offices.