Wilson Foe Conroy Wins Right to Runoff

Republican activist Mickey R. Conroy, backed by some of the Legislature’s most stubborn opponents of Gov. Pete Wilson’s recent tax hikes, was the top vote-getter Tuesday in a special election for the state Assembly.

Conroy, who once gained statewide prominence for decrying Democratic Assemblyman Tom Hayden as a traitor for protesting the Vietnam War, will now face Democrat Gregory Robert Ramsay, a 33-year-old health care manager from Santa Ana, in a Sept. 17 runoff election. The runoff is required because Conroy received less than 50% of the vote.

Conroy’s victory over five other Republican candidates was a loss for Wilson, whose allies had backed the candidacy of Orange City Councilman William G. Steiner.

Steiner’s campaign war chest held more than twice the funds raised by Conroy, but conservatives countered with an army of volunteers mobilized from gun clubs and anti-abortion groups in an effort to retain the seat formerly held by one of their most loyal soldiers, John R. Lewis, who was elected to the state Senate in May.

At Conroy’s headquarters in Orange Tuesday night, the jubilant candidate swept the floor with a broom as supporters chanted, “Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!” In claiming victory, Conroy said Steiner relied too heavily on absentee ballots, but he also said the results were largely due to voter unhappiness with Wilson’s tax hikes.

“The people were extremely upset with the taxation that occurred and with the governor’s actions to date,” said Conroy. “They want someone to go up there and say no, and that’s what I promised them and that’s what I will have to do.”

Conroy, 63, a former Marine Corps major and executive director of Veterans Charities of Orange County, was joined by his biggest supporter, Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach), in suggesting that the election results will have a profound effect on the future course of the state Republican Party.

“They’re waiting for the results of this in Washington, D.C.,” said Ferguson. “This (election) represents the continued attack on conservatives by the moderates in our own party. They are trying to stop the Reagan Revolution.”

In conceding, Steiner credited Conroy with a highly effective campaign. “Boy, did they do an incredible job of grass-roots organization,” he said.

“I was told from the beginning that a moderate Republican could not win in a special election in the 67th Assembly District,” Steiner said. “In the final analysis, it could be the ideology may prevail over my long record of community service.”

In a second special election Tuesday that was also watched as a test of Wilson’s brand of Republican pragmatism, another moderate candidate supported by the governor appeared to be the top vote-getter.

In the sprawling 5th Assembly District, which reaches north from the suburbs of Sacramento, the governor’s anointed candidate, B. T. Collins, will also face a runoff election against a Libertarian and possibly a Democratic write-in candidate. Collins faced a strong challenge from fellow Republican Barbara Alby, whose grass-roots campaign also tried to tap into voter anger at Wilson’s willingness to increase state taxes.

Unlike the Northern California race, however, Wilson did not formally endorse a candidate in the race for Orange County’s 67th District--the second-most Republican legislative seat in California. But several key Wilson supporters fell behind Steiner’s candidacy.

A top Wilson adviser said the governor supported Steiner, but chose a “quiet involvement” in the campaign. The adviser said the election of Collins and Steiner “would incrementally improve” the makeup of the Assembly and would send a message to the governor’s Republican critics that “unlike his predecessor, Wilson was going to be active in primaries.”

Steiner, a former Democrat, billed himself during the campaign as a conservative, largely based on his opposition to the recent state tax increases. But he refused to say whether his no-new-tax pledge applied only to the recent budget controversy or to future state budgets as well.

Steiner has been an advocate for abused and neglected children for more than 30 years, most recently serving as director of the Orangewood Children’s Foundation since 1986. He said his decision to seek public office was largely inspired by his hopes to improve government-funded care for children.

Conroy had the support of several key conservative leaders, including Reps. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton).

Four other Republicans also jumped into the special election--Villa Park City Councilman Harold H. Salardini; former Tustin Councilman John Kelly; Tustin businessman Bill Earl and college professor Tracy Gaffey, also from Tustin.

Tuesday’s election was one in a series of special elections sparked by Wilson’s decision last January to appoint former Anaheim state Sen. John Seymour to the U.S. Senate. Lewis won a special election in May to fill Seymour’s legislative seat, leading to Tuesday’s election to replace Lewis.

The district includes the cities of Orange and Tustin as well as parts of Santa Ana, El Toro and Silverado Canyon.

Times correspondent John Penner contributed to this report.

ELECTION RETURNS FINAL

67th Assembly District

100% Precincts Reporting Votes % *Mickey R. Conroy (R) 12,426 43.5 William G. Steiner (R) 10,555 36.9 *Gregory Robert Ramsay (D) 3,091 10.8 John Kelly (R) 891 3.1 Tracy Gaffey (R) 698 2.4 Bill Earl (R) 454 1.6 Harold H. Saldarini (R) 454 1.6

Candidates in * type advance to runoff, Sept. 17.