O.C. Partisans Being Heard Loud and Clear

It may be that the Democratic National Convention holds no surprises. Democrats have known for months that Bill Clinton would be their party’s nominee.

But don’t tell the delegates that they don’t have a vital mission in New York. Some of the Orange County troops on the floor of the convention in Madison Square Garden this week look like they’re involved in an athletic event--hoarse, perspiring, screaming and waving arms or signs in the air.

“I’m having a great time being in a forum for my own kind of political activity,” said Bill Honigman, a delegate from Laguna Hills who is pledged to former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. “I’m proud of this party being the party of diversity.”

The California delegation was a hotbed on the floor of the convention in the screaming match between delegates for Brown and Clinton. And Orange County brought some of the loudest voices from both sides.

Tim Carpenter, a Santa Ana delegate for Brown, was already saving his voice at 10 p.m. Monday by making his political statement with a green and white plastic whistle. Dietrich Nielsen, a carpenters union delegate for Brown from Garden Grove, banged a cowbell.

But Carpenter hardly had a voice left when he spoke Tuesday night on the convention floor. “We won a number of victories here,” he said. “We’ve ensured that the 4.5 million people who voted for Jerry Brown will be heard.”

Several members of the Orange County delegation gathered for a lunch to talk about their thoughts on what they had seen and why they had come. For most, it was their first national political convention. And for all, it was a baptism in Americana they never will forget.

“For four years, we get beat up in Orange County for being Democrats, and we come here and get really inspired,” said Sara Catz, a visitor to the convention from Orange County. “It lasts about 3 1/2 years.”

Rueben Martinez, a Clinton delegate from Santa Ana, said: “I am going back from here and work as hard as I can for my candidate. I’m going to tell everybody about him.”

Francesjane Kapsch, an Orange County delegate, said: “I first voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and I always said I would be the little old lady wearing the tennis shoes and waving the (political) signs.”

Like the convention, the Orange County lunch of pasta, veal and chicken on the third floor of Giambelli’s Italian restaurant had an undercurrent of rivalry between the Brown and Clinton backers. The delegate breakdown, based largely on the results of the California primary, left Brown with 10 and Clinton with 14 Orange County delegates.

The two sides encouraged their neighbors to convert, but all in a friendly and deferential tone.

Carpenter introduced himself as a member of the “Brown Unity Campaign,” but later he was melancholy about the tough job all Democrats have in fighting for their cause in Republican-dominated Orange County.

“It’s kind of hard to explain to someone who is not a Democrat in Orange County,” Carpenter said. “We may disagree on some things, but the issues unite us. We will all go back to Orange County and make sure that Ross Perot and George Bush don’t do too well.”

David Stearns, a Clinton delegate from Orange County’s 41st Congressional District, reminded the room: “I hope we leave this convention united and with solidarity.”

And John Hanna, a former chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party and now a Clinton delegate from Santa Ana, even gave credit to his rivals. “I’ve got to say to the Bill Clinton people, we’ve got to respect their candidate (Brown). He’s still in the race. This is part of a process.”

* ONE IN A MILLION: O.C. delegate represents all survivors of breast cancer. A8