Houston Hoedown Grand Old Party for Delegates

Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez knew what to wear to get down at Saturday night’s Texas barbecue and rodeo held for California delegates to the Republican National Convention in Houston: French calf dust-kickers created by Rocky Carroll, boot-maker to President Bush.

“Rocky also designs for Waylon Jennings and Dolly Parton, and recently gave a pair of boots to Boris Yeltsin,” said Vasquez, a delegate who topped his Lone Star look with Levi’s and a gray and white Western shirt. “They’re Texas boots.”

Held at the Houston Farm & Ranch Club, a 120-acre spread on the west side of town, the hoedown featured a groaning board of Texas hospitality that included barbecued beef, chicken and hot sausage and a performance by the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders (and, during the rodeo, Sonny Bono sailing by on a Brahma bull).

Vasquez, who will address the convention before a prime time national television audience on Tuesday--”I have one line that is very specifically about Orange County,” he said--spent most of the party schmoozing with former California Gov. George Deukmejian.

The men agreed there was “solid optimism and enthusiasm in the air for Bush,” Vasquez said, “but we know there’s a lot of work to be done.”

Orange County delegate Emily Sanford fastened a pink and white Barbara Bush rose to her cowgirl hat before she left the Adams Mark Hotel for the bus ride that would whisk her to the barbecue.

“Some desperadoes almost didn’t let me in the party because the rose wasn’t yellow ,” Sanford sniffed with a giggle. “But when I explained it was a Barbara Bush rose, they changed their tune.”

Sanford raises Barbara Bush roses in the back yard of her Huntington Harbour home. “So, of course I had to bring one to Texas,” said Sanford, a retired Navy captain who volunteers at Republican party headquarters in Orange County.

Delegate Meredith Khachigian of San Clemente, president of the University of California’s Board of Regents, skipped the barbecue, choosing instead to cruise Galveston Bay aboard the yacht Misty J. with her husband, Kenneth, a former speech writer for President Reagan and a senior adviser to Bush. Also on board was California GOP Senate candidate Bruce Herschensohn whose campaign is being spearheaded by Kenneth Khachigian. Hosts for the cocktail cruise were Judy and James Paul (he’s president and CEO of Coastal Corp.). Afterward, the group supped at Landry’s, a famous Galveston eatery.

“It was wonderful,” said Meredith Khachigian. “And Houston is so friendly. But I’m ready to get to work.” For Khachigian, “work” at the Republican National Convention will be about her opportunity to bring a Republican woman’s viewpoint to the table. “We also care about the economy and how it affects families and women in particular,” she said.

Also on the party roster for delegates such as Lincoln Club President Gus Owen is a Red White & Boots celebration in the Astroarena honoring Texas Sen. Phil Gramm with celebrity guests Charlton Heston, Chuck Norris and Louise Mandrell.

And, along with Vasquez, Owen will attend a private reception at the J.W. Marriott Hotel on Tuesday night (before Vasquez gives us his speech).

Owen--whose Texas-born wife, developer Kathryn Thompson, is snubbing the convention (she was a 1988 convention delegate but is on the fence about how how she’ll vote in November)--also plans to attend the gala luncheon saluting Bush and Quayle on Wednesday at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Another important bash is a tribute to the late Lee Atwater in the Astroarena. Blues master B.B. King will entertain.

From dinner in the Houston mansion of Bush campaign chairman Robert A. Mosbacher to breakfast with the current Cabinet, Orange County billionaire Donald Bren will be breaking bread with the power-set during the convention.

As a national co-chairman of the finance committee for the Bush reelection campaign--and a longstanding mega-donor to the GOP--Bren will rub elbows with Bush, Quayle, former President Ronald Reagan and governors and senators during his Houston stay.

On Sunday night, Bren, who is holed up at the Ritz-Carlton, planned to attend a cocktail bash in the home of Republican heavyweights Harry and Carol Masterson and a supper at the Museum of Fine Arts for a gathering of the Eagles, an exclusive group of GOP faithfuls. There was also a reception for members of the California and Texas delegations at Enron Corp.

Tonight, before Reagan addresses the convention, Bren will join the former President and his wife, Nancy, for a reception at the home of Republican leader Corbin J. Robertson Jr.

On Tuesday, Bren will attend a breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton with Reagan and the current Cabinet. That night a get-together with the country’s Republican governors will take place at the Modern Art Museum.

And on Wednesday, Bren will join social cyclones Mosbacher and wife Georgette for dinner in their home.

As one GOP insider puts it: “ Nobody parties like Texas.”

Guess they know it’s the social scene that makes the world go ‘round.