THE LAPD: TURMOIL AT THE TOP : No Welcome Mat for Gates in Orange County : Politics: He hints he might run for office, but Republicans are still angry about incident in which L.A. officers used ‘pain compliance’ hold on anti-abortion protesters.

Although Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates indicated Monday that Orange County is the one place he might still have a political life, he might want to think twice before opening up his campaign headquarters there.

Gates was on the blacklist of Orange County’s Republican leadership long before the outrage over Rodney G. King’s beating or Gates’ handling of the Los Angeles riots. The police chief, a Republican, fell from favor in California’s conservative bastion three years ago when his officers used a controversial “pain compliance” hold to arrest a crowd of anti-abortion protesters.

At a news conference Monday, the chief suggested that controversy may have spoiled his political ambitions in Los Angeles, but he might still find friendly terrain in Orange County.

“Probably the only place I could be elected is in Orange County,” Gates said in response to a question about his previous interest in the Los Angeles mayor’s office. “Probably . . . anything that I wanted to be elected to, I could be elected to in Orange County. So watch out, Orange County.”

Gates, who owns a condominium in San Clemente, apparently referred to Orange County because of its reputation for conservative politics, a place where a tough, law-and-order crusader might be popular in the suburban communities that include thousands of white, urban refugees.

But Orange County Republicans did not have to think long before giving their opinions of the embattled chief as a political figure.

“Don’t bet on it,” was the quick response from Thomas Fuentes, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party. “After his treatment of pro-lifers during those arrests, I think he’d have a hard time in Orange County.”

Democrats also said Gates would probably have little chance in Orange County because of the political baggage he has accumulated in Los Angeles.

“I think if you took a poll of people, you’d find he couldn’t get elected here either,” said Howard Adler, chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party. “But I hope I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Gates angered Orange County conservatives on March 25, 1989, when Los Angeles police arrested more than 700 protesters during a massive demonstration outside a Wilshire-area women’s clinic. Many protesters were from Orange County and they later complained that police unnecessarily used painful holds to subdue them during their arrests.

At the time, Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) issued an angry attack on Gates for his department’s performance.

Referring to Gates’ consideration at the time of a Republican campaign for governor, Ferguson wrote in a letter: “I really wish you would run for some political office so that the people would have the opportunity to repudiate you at the ballot box.”

Orange County already has one prominent lawman named Gates--Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates. The two are often confused because Orange County voters get much of their news from Los Angeles television stations.

Despite the feelings of the leadership of the two mainstream political parties, Eileen Padberg, who ran the sheriff’s last campaign in 1990, said the Los Angeles chief could run and even win in Orange County.

“It’s a right-wing bastion of hate and protectionism,” said Padberg, who managed the losing campaign of a high-stakes primary challenge against Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) in the recent primary. “Daryl Gates probably meets this community’s needs to a T.”