Allegiance to Bush Solid in Area GOP Delegation : Republicans: Thirty of 32 representatives to the national convention are committed to the President.

Doc Burch, who has been involved in Republican politics since the days of Dwight D. Eisenhower, knows what it means to stick by President Bush when the going gets rough.

The Antelope Valley activist was hissed and booed by some when he put Bush’s name in nomination during a straw poll at the conservative California Republican Assembly’s convention in April. The grass-roots volunteer organization, the state’s largest, voted overwhelmingly to support Patrick J. Buchanan--although it stopped short of a formal endorsement because it recognized the inevitability of Bush’s renomination.

“He will be the next President unless we do something silly and let the Democrats get in,” Burch said at the time.

Four months later, loyalist Burch is among 32 elected and party officials, activists and Christian fundamentalists from the area including the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys who make up the 16 delegates and 16 alternates to this month’s Republican National Convention in Houston. The delegation, which is made up of 18 women and 14 men, is dominated by bedrock conservatives and firmly united behind Bush.

Facing an uphill climb to retain the White House, 30 of the delegates and alternates are pledged to Bush; two alternates are uncommitted. Bush carried the four area congressional districts overwhelmingly in the June 2 primary. He won 70% of the vote in Los Angeles County. The more conservative Buchanan carried the remaining 30%.

Among the most prominent of the area delegates are Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead of Glendale; Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, also of Glendale; Frank Visco, a Lancaster insurance broker and former state party chairman, and Sara DiVito Hardman of Tarzana, state director of religious broadcaster’s Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition.

Despite a summer of discontent for the Grand Old Party amid plummeting poll results and speculation about an 11th-hour change in the ticket, in interviews Valley-area delegates expressed confidence in both Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle as well as the party’s fall prospects. The first major step, the activists said, must be an upbeat, unified convention, beginning a week from today.

“Bush has to create a feeling of confidence in the people in his leadership,” said Hardman, who is also state vice chairwoman of the Bush-Quayle campaign and vice president of the California Republican Assembly.

“He has to seem more firm, less wavering. He’s been good and strong on the abortion issue. He’s been strong and good on the education issue. He needs that kind of determination,” said Hardman.

Antonovich, who will be attending his fifth convention since he was an alternate for Richard M. Nixon in 1972, said the convention should seek to shift the spotlight from the Administration’s alleged shortcomings to the Democrat-led Congress’ refusal to adopt Bush’s proposals.

“The President represents change,” Antonovich said. “However, his programs have been annihilated by a reluctant Congress controlled by liberal Democrats. It’s imperative that Republicans gain control of Congress in order to enact the growth policies, job policies, to get America moving again. The President has to be more adroit in articulating the differences and hammering on the political gridlock that have caused his programs to fail.”

Delegates contacted this month scoffed at those conservatives who have called on Bush to step aside or others who have suggested that Quayle be dumped as the convention approaches.

“Mr. Bush has 80% of the delegates pledged to him for the first ballot,” said Moorhead, who is seeking his 11th congressional term. “So we’re talking about something that’s a fairy tale. It may be somebody’s idea of a way to get their name in the paper, but it can’t go beyond that.”

Although he indicated that the candidates are not necessarily his first choice, Moorhead called Bush and Quayle “a far better ticket” than the Democratic counterpart, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and Tennessee Sen. Al Gore.

Ellie Ashmore, who has overseen the volunteers at state Republican headquarters in Burbank for nearly 20 years, was even more emphatic.

“It makes me very disgusted,” said the Arleta resident, who was a delegate for Ronald Reagan in 1984 and 1988. “This is something that should be decided at the convention. I think there’s so much of this misinformation going on out there.”

The alternates, who vote only if delegates are unable to do so, include Assemblyman Pat Nolan of Glendale, former Rep. Bobbi Fiedler of Northridge, Glendale Municipal Judge James Rogan, and Celeste Grieg of Chatsworth, a former president of the county Commission on the Status of Women and a longtime party stalwart.

Another alternate is Hacob (Jake) Shirvanian of Glendale, a vice president and manager of Western Waste Industries, which is based in Gardena. In 1989, Shirvanian was fined $125,000 after pleading no contest to charges of illegally disposing of hazardous waste mixed with household garbage. The district attorney’s office called this the largest fine ever assessed against an individual for an environmental crime in Los Angeles County.

Shirvanian was convicted of three misdemeanor counts of illegal disposal of heavy metals and dry-cleaning wastes that were dumped at landfills in Glendale and the San Gabriel Valley. He insisted in an interview at the time that he was not admitting guilt by pleading no contest but rather was “saving the grief and the money” of a prolonged trial in “a made-up case.”

In addition to the delegation members, another 15 elected and party officials, financial contributors and Republican activists from the region will be in Houston as “honorary delegates,” though they will not participate in the convention deliberations.

Among the best known will be Herbert (Bert) Boeckmann II, a North Hills auto dealer who is a major campaign donor and former Los Angeles police commissioner; Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland of Northridge; former Lt. Gov. Mike Curb, who owns a Burbank music and movie company, and Mary Ann Plumley, a veteran Republican from Glendale.

Doc Burch, ho resides in Quartz Hill and runs a prison construction business and a prison ministry, said that California Republicans--including those who voted for Buchanan in the straw poll last April--are enthusiastically behind the Bush-Quayle ticket at this point.

“Those in the straw vote did it mostly as protest, mostly over the tax thing,” Burch said. He was referring to Bush’s approval of a 1990 tax increase as part of a budget agreement with Congress after unequivocally pledging during the 1988 campaign not to raise taxes.

“The American people’s values are the same as George Bush’s and, in the final analysis, no matter how puckered they are about the ‘read my lips’ thing, they’re going to look at family values,” Burch said. “And George Bush and Dan Quayle are the ones who represent the family values of the majority of the American people.”

Valley Delegates The Republican National Convention delegation from the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys: DELEGATE: Camillo Alfarero* RESIDENCE: Arleta OCCUPATION: Business consultant DELEGATE: Mike Antonovich RESIDENCE: Glendale OCCUPATION: Los Angeles County supervisor DELEGATE: Ellie Ashmore RESIDENCE: Arleta OCCUPATION: Republican Party volunteer DELEGATE: Isabel Boniface* RESIDENCE: Sherman Oaks OCCUPATION: Personnel director for Build Rehabilitation Industries DELEGATE: Ginny Braun RESIDENCE: Pasadena OCCUPATION: Homemaker DELEGATE: Doc Burch RESIDENCE: Quartz Hill OCCUPATION: Businessman, prison chaplin DELEGATE: Sherrie Collins RESIDENCE: Sylmar OCCUPATION: Unavailable DELEGATE: Jane Crosby RESIDENCE: South Pasadena OCCUPATION: Homemaker, county Republican Central Committee member DELEGATE: Robert de Almeida RESIDENCE: Palmdale OCCUPATION: Urban planner DELEGATE: Ann Edmondson RESIDENCE: Pasadena OCCUPATION: Homemaker DELEGATE: Bobbi Fiedler* RESIDENCE: Northridge OCCUPATION: Former congresswoman DELEGATE: Sarah Flores* RESIDENCE: Glendora OCCUPATION: Deputy to County Supervisor Mike Antonovich DELEGATE: Celeste Greig* RESIDENCE: Chatsworth OCCUPATION: Controller and CFO for retail store chain DELEGATE: Sara DeVito, Hardman RESIDENCE: Tarzana OCCUPATION: Furniture manufacturer; director, state Christian Coalition DELEGATE: Joan Castle Joseff* RESIDENCE: Toluca Lake OCCUPATION: CEO of aircraft components and missiles company DELEGATE: Dan Kolkey* RESIDENCE: Encino OCCUPATION: Attorney DELEGATE: Carol Matchette RESIDENCE: Tarzana OCCUPATION: President, L.A. County Federation of Republican Women DELEGATE: Carlos Moorhead RESIDENCE: Glendale OCCUPATION: Congressman DELEGATE: Pat Nolan* RESIDENCE: Glendale OCCUPATION: State assemblyman DELEGATE: Lucille Pershing RESIDENCE: Burbank OCCUPATION: Homemaker DELEGATE: James Rogan* RESIDENCE: Glendale OCCUPATION: Glendale Municipal Court judge DELEGATE: Stan Rothbart* RESIDENCE: Encino OCCUPATION: Commercial real estate developer DELEGATE: Jake Shirvanian* RESIDENCE: Glendale OCCUPATION: Executive for Western Waste Industries DELEGATE: Wilbert Smith* RESIDENCE: Pasadena OCCUPATION: Bank executive, member Pasadena Board of Education DELEGATE: Joanne Stabler* RESIDENCE: Newhall OCCUPATION: Finance director for U.S. Sen. John Seymour Committee DELEGATE: Tammy Steinsapir* RESIDENCE: Encino OCCUPATION: Businesswoman DELEGATE: Grace Trujillo-Daniels* RESIDENCE: South Pasadena OCCUPATION: Businesswoman DELEGATE: Ann Lopez Vera* RESIDENCE: Pasadena OCCUPATION: Unavailable DELEGATE: Al Villalobos RESIDENCE: Tarzana OCCUPATION: Investment banker DELEGATE: Frank Visco RESIDENCE: Lancaster OCCUPATION: Insurance broker DELEGATE: Bonny Waugh RESIDENCE: Palmdale OCCUPATION: Hospital nursing supervisor and consultant DELEGATE: Stan Weiss RESIDENCE: Calabasas OCCUPATION: Chairman, American Minerals Inc. * Alternate.