ELECTIONS GOP FORUM : Bush Gets Raked Over Coals at Party’s Picnic

The Sunday picnic was supposed to be a rally for Republican candidates. It turned out to be a forum to bad-mouth the nation’s top Republican for trying to raise taxes.

The 180 party faithful who gathered at the McGrath Ranch near Oxnard talked as much about President Bush’s breach of his no-new-taxes pledge--and the effect on upcoming elections--as on the GOP’s need to retain the California governorship.

Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), a self-described Reagan Republican, was the biggest Bush-basher of the day, knocking the President’s failed budget compromise for the burden it would place on taxpayers.

McClintock applauded the county’s two Republican representatives--Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) and Robert Lagomarsino (R-Ventura)--for opposing the package. Unlike Bush, he said, the congressmen had stuck to their campaign promises and voted against the tax-raising accord.

“They are bucking the party leadership and fighting our own President to stop a major tax increase that would take $400 from every family’s budget in the United States,” McClintock told the crowd.

Several party activists said the budget could have been balanced without a tax increase by slashing spending on social programs. They said Bush’s break from his no-tax promise came at the worst possible time for Republican candidates, only weeks from Election Day.

Beverly McGrath and her husband, Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath, were hosts for the picnic on the lawn of their Victorian home northwest of Oxnard. Beverly McGrath said Bush’s shift on taxes and U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson’s embrace of abortion rights could shake the confidence of many Republican voters.

“People may come away thinking that Republican candidates change their mind and won’t hold to a commitment,” Beverly McGrath said. “Ordinary people are suddenly more disillusioned with politics than they ever were, and a lot of people are just throwing up their hands.”

Carey Rogers, who is trying to unseat state Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), said her candidacy hasn’t noticed any repercussions from Bush’s about-face on taxes, which she said is more likely to haunt Republicans running for federal offices.

“I don’t think people associate what goes on in Washington with what goes on in the state Legislature,” Rogers said. “They’re mad at Bush, not the Republican congressmen who are rebelling against the budget.”

Aside from discontent with Bush, divisions are mounting within the party’s Ventura County central committee, members said. The committee, which sponsored the $25-per-person fund-raiser, is debating whether to endorse candidates in nonpartisan local elections.

At least one candidate seeking the party’s endorsement showed up at the picnic. Simi Valley Councilwoman Vicky Howard, who is running for the 4th District county supervisor seat, said she would welcome the party’s nod.

But Gwen Tillemans, committee chairwoman, said the committee’s bylaws might not be changed in time to allow party endorsements in the upcoming election, which were authorized by a recent California Supreme Court ruling.