Gil Ferguson Doesn’t Deserve Reelection : Primary Challenger Phyllis Badham Preferable to 70th Assembly District Incumbent

Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) has been representing the 70th District for nearly six years. That’s long enough. He has an acceptable opponent in the Republican primary this year: Phyllis Badham, a 30-year-old public relations manager.

Badham, the daughter of former U.S. Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach), is politically inexperienced, but has energy and ambition. She is preferable to Ferguson, whose tenure in the Capitol has been marred by petty partisan politics that have done nothing to aid his district. GOP voters should give Badham the nomination which, given the solidly Republican makeup of the district, would virtually assure her victory in November.

Ferguson, 67, simply has not represented his district well. While problems with traffic and air pollution have grown more serious, he has made himself best known for an obsession with Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), a former anti-Vietnam War demonstrator whom Ferguson declared “a traitor.” Ferguson, a former Marine, has made numerous attempts to have Hayden ousted from the Assembly, prompting one critic to suggest that Ferguson move to Santa Monica to run against him. For his efforts, Ferguson got a lot of publicity and the nickname “Rambo” but nothing for his constituents.

Ferguson recently showed his mean-spiritedness by casting tasteless aspersions on gay activists--whom he called “faggots”--a label he later said he didn’t know was derogatory. “I could have called them sodomites,” Ferguson said later. On another earlier occasion, he angered Japanese-Americans when he objected to state funding for a memorial that would have recognized California’s unfair internment of thousands during World War II.

At a time when his constituents have been concerned about growth, Ferguson has led the fight against local restrictions on development. At a time when the majority of his district favors leaving a woman to make the choice over her reproductive system, Ferguson strongly opposes it. For the current campaign, he even enlisted Operation Rescue, the aggressive anti-abortion group. Ferguson’s record on environmental legislation has been poor.

The 70th District--which includes Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Mission Viejo, El Toro, Dana Point, Costa Mesa and several other Orange County cities--deserves better representation than Ferguson has provided.