Sununu and Republicans Meet in O.C. : Politics: The session was aimed at firing up the GOP’s faithful.

White House Chief of Staff John Sununu met Friday morning with about 200 of Orange County’s Republican faithful, bringing greetings to the local GOP from the global power-brokering going on behind closed doors in their neighborhood.

President Bush’s two-day visit to Newport Beach for a summit meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu on Thursday was described as a nonpolitical trip that was underscored by the complete lack of involvement by the local Republican Party in preparing for the visit.

But Sununu’s brief stop at the Inland Group offices in Newport Beach was intended to fire the Republican hearth in preparation for major campaign battles looming next year.

“These people are the heart and soul of the Republican Party in Orange County,” Assemblyman John R. Lewis (R-Orange) said in welcoming Sununu. “These are the people who lick the envelopes, who walk the precincts, and get out the vote and make Orange County the powerhouse that it is today.”

Sununu, a former Republican governor in New Hampshire, said: “One of the reasons I like coming to Orange County is that you have . . . the same person-to-person politics that is the hallmark of New Hampshire politics.

“In 1992, it will be the quality of those values that is important; the recognition that you don’t win elections in an antiseptic way with all kinds of technology--people make the difference.”