O.C. Republicans Facing Unaccustomed Challenges : Politics: Entrenched incumbents suddenly don’t feel all that secure. Most draw opposition in GOP primary.

When Republican Assemblyman Gil Ferguson spoke recently to an audience in Newport Beach, he was surprised when a questioner asked how many bad checks he had written on his government bank account.

That’s in Washington, he answered. I work in Sacramento.

No matter. The check-bouncing scandal, rising unemployment and troubling urban woes have combined to fuel an anti-incumbent mood that could reach a high pitch in Orange County’s upcoming state and congressional races.

“Every day something outrageous comes out and we get blamed for it,” said Ferguson (R-Newport Beach). “When the Congress screws up, like it has been, it puts everybody in a bad light.”

In Orange County--with some of the safest Republican seats in California--almost all of the incumbent Assembly members have drawn GOP challengers in the June 2 primary. Even entrenched incumbent congressmen such as Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) are facing spirited opponents.

“I think the overriding issue is going to be incumbency,” said David Ellis, a Republican consultant who is working on Costa Mesa Councilman Peter F. Buffa’s campaign against Rohrabacher for the 45th District seat.

“You used to be able to throw a letter out with 50 conservative congressmen (named) on it and say these guys endorse this guy--and that was enough,” Ellis said. “Now those 50 congressmen are viewed as pariahs.”

Democrats in Orange County often struggle to find any candidates for some of the county’s overwhelmingly Republican districts. But this year, there are so many Democratic candidates that the party will have four contested primaries of its own among the state and congressional races.

“The fact that there are so many people running says to me that people are sick of business as usual,” said Howard Adler, chairman of the county Democratic Party. “Voters are dissatisfied with the people in power, and in Orange County, it’s Republicans who are in power.”

One Republican consultant said a recent poll in Orange County to prepare for the June campaign found that 70% of the respondents identified with the anti-incumbency mood. The consultant said a similar number agreed with the statement, “It’s time for a change.”

“The ethics issue has been one that has always simmered near the surface, and every so often it spews out--like in Watergate--and the checks (scandal) could do that,” said GOP political consultant Harvey Englander. “It affects every one who holds public office. The average voter does not differentiate.”

The House banking scandal erupted earlier this month when Congress voted 426-0 to identify the 355 members and former members responsible for writing checks on their government bank accounts that exceeded their balance. Dozens of lawmakers have come forth in recent days to reveal their own banking irregularities, including four of the five congressmen representing Orange County.

The scandal is expected to increase turnover in congressional elections throughout the country this year. A recent national survey found voters’ attitude toward lawmakers was at an all-time low, with a public approval rating for Congress of just 22%.

Nationwide, through March 1, 582 non-incumbents had filed to run for the House and Senate. That’s nearly double the 306 who had filed at this point in 1990 and well ahead of the 382 who had filed by March 1, 1982, the previous high for the last decade.

Here’s one of those non-incumbents from Orange County: “People are just fed up with a business-as-usual Congress,” said Buffa, Rep. Rohrabacher’s challenger. “They’ve heard as much about ideology as they want to hear. Now they want results.”

Gene Ferguson, campaign manager for Rohrabacher, said: “I think there is an anti-incumbency out there. Dana is an incumbent, and the only thing he can do is explain his positions. . . . It’s real tough when you’re a city councilman to challenge an incumbent congressman.”

In south Orange County, Assemblyman Ferguson said people are most concerned about “protecting their lifestyle.” Instead of anti-incumbency, the conservative legislator, who is also facing a primary challenger, said a recent campaign poll found the economy and taxes ranked as the most important issues for voters, followed by gangs and drugs.

Buck Johns, a Newport Beach developer and major Republican contributor, agreed. Johns said the electorate is clearly angry with its lawmakers, but he thinks voters are most interested in the candidates with solutions for the bad economy.

“There will probably be a stronger anti-incumbency (mood) this time, but I think the economy will overshadow everything else,” Johns said. “That’s not cocktail talk, that’s conversation for the dinner table.”

At the same time, some consultants said challengers could use the bad economy as an issue to highlight anger with incumbents. “They (incumbents) are going to have to defend what they did,” Ellis, Buffa’s consultant, said.

Republican strategists will also be watching the primaries closely for signs about where their party is headed in the post-Cold War era. Like the national and state Republican battles, many of the Orange County primaries feature candidates from both conservative and moderate sides of the party’s political spectrum.

Rep. Dornan, one of the county’s most outspoken and conservative lawmakers, is being challenged by a moderate Republican woman--former Orange County Superior Court Judge Judith M. Ryan--for the 46th District seat.

The same is true in Assemblyman Ferguson’s Newport Beach district, where moderate Republican Mary Hornbuckle, Costa Mesa’s mayor, is trying to unseat one of Sacramento’s most conservative lawmakers.

Eileen Padberg, an Orange County political consultant helping Ryan’s campaign, said she believes the highly publicized scandals and demand for change will increase the ballot-box power of women candidates.

Currently, there are two women representing Orange County in Sacramento and none in Washington. This year, women from both parties have filed to run in eight of the nine races for seats in Orange County’s state delegation.

Democrat Patricia McCabe, running for the seat in the 45th Congressional District, which includes Huntington Beach, humorously pointed to the prominence of women candidates this year in a recent fund-raiser invitation.

The letter pictured two seated women talking over coffee. “Have you been following the campaigns?” one asks. “I used to before I started my own,” the second woman responds.

Voters “believe (women) are more ethical and more moral and more able to deal with the issues of human rights,” Padberg said. “I’ve been saying that women are going to wake up and be empowered . . . and a lot of things this year have hit them right in the face.”