County GOP Ousts Leader Over Pro-David Duke Stance : Politics: Committee voids election of Bill Jones, who called the ex-Klansman good for the party. But he deems the action illegal.

The Ventura County Republican Central Committee officially dumped its embattled chairman Wednesday night by voting that he was improperly elected two months ago and scheduling a new election in early January.

Sixteen on the 28-member committee unanimously agreed that Bill Jones’ election as chairman was null and void, a symbolic vote to distance themselves from Jones’ sympathetic comments about former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke.

“I think we can finally get down to business of registering Republicans and other campaign duties,” said Bob Larkin, a leading Jones opponent on the committee.

But Jones, who boycotted the meeting along with many of his followers, defiantly maintained that Wednesday night’s vote did not dislodge him from his position as leader of the county’s Republican Party.

“Their vote was illegal, and it doesn’t change anything,” Jones said. “I’m still chairman and they know it.”

The 42-year-old Simi Valley nutritional supplement salesman vowed never to bow to his colleagues who want him out because he said that former Klansman Duke “is good for the Republican Party.”

“You don’t negotiate with terrorists,” Jones said of his fellow Republican committee members. “You don’t reward that kind of behavior.”

Jones’ unyielding position may prolong infighting on the deeply divided committee and further distract the panel from its basic functions of helping Republican candidates and getting out the vote for the 1992 election.

For nearly a year, Jones and other evangelical Christians have assembled the 15 votes needed to control the committee. They have infuriated the county’s old guard Republican leaders by pushing resolutions that call for prayer in public schools, a constitutional ban on abortions and other political goals of the Christian right.

Most members of the committee’s new majority were recruited from the ranks of anti-abortion activists--including six who have been arrested during anti-abortion protests blocking medical clinics--and from the failed 1988 presidential campaign of Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson.

But several of the conservative Christians joined with the old guard Wednesday to oust Jones. They said Jones had brought too much controversy to the central committee and detracted from their crusade against abortion and other causes.

Still, a dozen members did not attend the meeting Wednesday night, and Jones said the committee might remain split until the state Republican convention in February. He said he was unsure whether he or his supporters would attend the Jan. 6 election of new committee officers.

“Theoretically, they could have another election in January, and they could carry a renegade committee right into the February convention,” Jones said. “At that point, the state party would recognize me,” he said.

“He’s wrong about that,” said Richard Ferrier, who has emerged as the peacemaker on the committee. Ferrier said the parliamentarian of the California Republican Party has agreed that Jones’ election violated the committee’s bylaws because there was insufficient notice before the vote. The parliamentarian also said the committee majority has the power to nullify the election, Ferrier said.

“I’m hoping that everyone will cool down from the heat of battle,” said Ferrier, who is expected to replace Jones as chairman. “I don’t think our differences are as far apart as some think.”