Orange County GOP Claiming Credit for Victory by Wilson

Orange County Republicans may have meant the difference in Governor-elect Pete Wilson’s narrow victory over Dianne Feinstein, and they might still prove decisive in the neck-and-neck race for attorney general.

But they didn’t support any of the other GOP’s statewide candidates in large enough numbers to put them over the top, and county Democrats scored a big victory in local legislative races.

Based on unofficial returns, and with 50,000 absentee ballots in the county still to be counted, Wilson won the county by about 193,000 votes--almost identical to his statewide margin of about 186,000 votes.

“That means Orange County delivered the state once again for a Republican governor,” county GOP chairman Tom Fuentes said.

State party chairman Frank Visco agreed. “Obviously, Orange County played a significant role in his (Wilson’s) election,” Visco said. “They say you can be guaranteed a win with a 200,000 margin in Orange County, and he may well end up with that after the absentees are counted.”

The only other Republican candidate who won overwhelming support among Orange County voters was attorney general candidate Dan Lungren, who tallied about 177,000 more votes here than Democrat Arlo Smith. Smith was leading statewide by about 30,000 votes but, with up to half a million absentee ballots as yet uncounted statewide, that race remained too close to call Wednesday.

Other statewide GOP candidates, including those from Orange County, did not fare so well here. State Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), easily defeated by incumbent Leo T. McCarthy in her bid for lieutenant governor, won the county by just 147,000 votes. Former Huntington Beach City Councilman Wes Bannister eked out a 40,000-vote lead in the county over Democrat John Garamendi in the race for insurance commissioner, but Garamendi swamped Bannister statewide.

Secretary of state candidate Joan Milke Flores, state controller hopeful Matt Fong and incumbent Treasurer Thomas W. Hayes also won Republican Orange County by insufficient margins to turn the tide against the rest of the state.

And in the only competitive state legislative race in the county, the Republican incumbent, Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove), was defeated by Democrat Tom Umberg--despite a heavy Republican voter registration drive and visits to Pringle’s 72nd Assembly District by President Bush, Vice President Dan Quayle, former President Ronald Reagan and many other Republican luminaries.

“I think they certainly came through for Pete Wilson,” Eileen Padberg, political consultant for the county GOP, said about Republican leaders.

But, she added: “I understand they spent a ton of money to get out the vote and didn’t get the results they claimed they could produce. . . . There probably will be some changes.”

In the heated battle for the 72nd Assembly District, Umberg beat Pringle by about 1,300 votes, reclaiming a seat firmly held by Democrats until 1986 and giving them their first foothold in the county since that time.

“It’s a wonderful victory for us,” said County Democratic Party chairman Mike Balmages. “It gives us a lot more credibility in the county and a lot more power. . . . It’s what we needed to invigorate the party.”

The county’s Sacramento delegation will have one other new face next year: Huntington Beach Mayor Thomas J. Mays, who beat Long Beach public relations executive Luanne W. Pryor in the 58th Assembly District race. Mays, a Republican, finished with about 54% of the vote, defeating Pryor both in the Los Angeles County and Orange County portions of the district.

With the exception of Pringle, Orange County’s incumbent legislators easily held on to their offices, although by somewhat smaller margins than they did in 1988--evidence of anti-incumbent sentiment that, in a county with two more closely matched parties, might have resulted in more turnover.

Assemblyman John R. Lewis (R-Orange), for example, was reelected with 66% of the vote, down from almost 75% two years ago. Similarly, winning total of Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) dropped from 69.5% in 1988 to 60% this year. Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Fountain Valley) finished with about 62.5%, down from 70.4% in 1988.

In county government races, Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder easily beat back a challenge from Westminster Councilwoman Joy L. Neugebauer, winning election to her fourth consecutive term, 55% to 44%.

Appointed Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi is now an elected district attorney, having defeated Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James Enright, 55% to 45%.

Longtime county Supt. of Schools Robert Peterson, however, lost in a landslide to Whittier College Prof. John F. Dean, who garnered more than 62% of the vote.

Perhaps the most startling turnaround from recent years was the vote for Measure M, a half-cent sales tax increase to pay for transportation improvements. The measure, almost identical to one that failed a year ago, passed easily, winning more than 54% of the vote.

“That presents absolutely a major milestone for transportation solutions in Orange County,” Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said. “To have turned that corner was a tremendous stride in progress.”

Vasquez attributed the measure’s success this year to voters’ better understanding of what the increase would pay for.

Of the 28 statewide ballot measures that made voting a true exercise in democracy this year, the county voted opposite from the rest of California in just three cases:

True to its anti-tax tradition, Orange County strongly approved Proposition 136, which would have made it more difficult to increase special and local taxes or impose new ones. The measure was defeated statewide, 52% to 48%.

County voters also favored Proposition 137, which would have required that changes in initiative or referendum procedures be submitted to the electorate. Voters statewide shot down the measure, 55% to 45%.

The county was consistent in its opposition to bond measures, voting against all but Proposition 142, the Veteran’s Bond Act. Voters statewide, however, also approved Proposition 146, a bond for school facilities, 52% to 48%. County voters opposed it, 56% to 44%.

Further distinguishing themselves from the statewide trend, county voters much more convincingly favored strict limits for state officeholders than did the rest of California. The measure, Proposition 140, was narrowly approved, 51% to 48%. But Orange County voters, perhaps recognizing an easy way to clear Democrats out of Sacramento, backed the initiative, 60% to 40%.

While voters countywide resoundingly rejected Proposition 128, the Big Green Initiative, 70% to 30%, Laguna Beach residents approved an environmental measure of their own by an even greater margin.

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