O.C.’s Vasquez Praises Unity, Pitches Bush

Stepping again into his party’s national spotlight, Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez took the microphone Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention to call on people of all races to celebrate their unity, and to offer a pitch for President Bush.

Four years after he burst on the national stage with a rousing speech at the 1988 GOP convention, Vasquez talked alternately in English and Spanish during his 10-minute address from the three-story podium in the Astrodome.

Conjuring images of a “Main Street U.S.A.” where the ethnic face of America is changing but “dreams come true,” Vasquez was interrupted by applause more than a dozen times. On two occasions the crowd broke into chants of “We Want Bush.”

“The dark clouds of the Cold War have faded away and the potential for recovery and prosperity on Main Street U.S.A. never looked better,” Vasquez roared, jabbing his fingers in the air for emphasis. “But the time requires a special kind of leader. A tested leader, a proven leader, a determined leader. That leader is George Bush.”

Vasquez also took a swipe at Democratic challenger Bill Clinton’s efforts to avoid the draft. Bush, he said, “did not wait to be called” to war, but rather “volunteered to serve his country with courage and vigor.”

After the speech, Vasquez was greeted warmly by members of the Orange County delegation.

“I thought he was absolutely booming, scintillating,” said Christine Diemer, an alternate delegate. “He has so much star quality.”

Louise Gardner, mayor of Jefferson City, Mo., introduced Vasquez by calling him “one of the most influential Hispanics in America” and a “rising star” in the party.

Such praise is hardly new. After the speech four years ago, Vasquez earned a reputation as one of Orange County’s most promising political stars. Many local pundits predicted he would win a Cabinet post or would run for higher office.

It didn’t work that way. Instead, Orange County’s top Latino elected official has filled the interim with the comparatively mundane mechanics of being a local politician. Friends say Vasquez was reluctant to uproot his family, including his teen-age son, Jason.

“Gaddi is a very cautious individual. He’s got to be pretty certain about something,” said Gus Owen, president of the Lincoln Club, a collection of Orange County’s well-heeled GOP elite. “We’ve tried to get him to run for statewide office. But he’s biding his time.”

Even some supporters say Vasquez may be making a mistake, suggesting the 37-year-old former police officer may be waiting too long for the perfect opportunity.

Told of such critiques during an interview earlier this week, Vasquez rejected the notion that he should be in a rush. “I haven’t even finished my first four-year term as a supervisor,” he noted. “Too often people in politics seem to get ahead of themselves. As soon as they win they go looking to jump to the next job. But I feel that I have got to show I can do the job.

“At my age,” he said, “I don’t have to be in a hurry. Time is on my side. It was little more than a decade ago that I was driving a patrol car on the Orange Police Department’s graveyard shift.”

Even as Vasquez has earned a role as a national spokesman in the Republican Latino community, some critics say he has failed to make a mark as a supervisor by advocating a cause or issue. “He’s never out front on an issue,” said one delegate in Houston who asked not to be named. “If you ask me what Gaddi is all about--nothing comes to mind.”

For his part, Vasquez says his careful nature is more a blessing than a curse. “I’m not one who shoots from the hip. I’m not one who fires off half-baked ideas,” he said during a car trip from his hotel to the Astrodome earlier in the week. “My attitude is I think things through. I evaluate the merits--the pros, the cons. I’m entrusted with a very important responsibility. I think the people who elected me expect me to be cautious.”

Victoria Jaffe, a former Mission Viejo mayor serving as a convention delegate, said Vasquez appears to be cautious only because “he is very thorough and does his homework. He listens and realizes there is more than one side to an issue, then works with both sides to come up with a compromise.” She speculated that, should Bush be reelected in November, the Orange County supervisor could be tapped for a Cabinet-level post.

At this week’s GOP gathering in Houston, Vasquez has been even more visible than in 1988. He has chaired a committee that helped draw up the party platform, conducted dozens of interviews with the press, acted as one of the Bush Administration’s chief liaisons with Spanish-language media, and delivered a rousing, four-minute address Monday at the Astrodome on the party’s economic program.

Tuesday night’s speech, however, was the supervisor’s big moment. Before the address, Vasquez was “pumped up” and “ready to just come out of the blocks” and address the more than 4,400 delegates and a nationwide prime-time television audience.

After the speech, Vasquez said, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp joshed him for using Spanish: “I really enjoyed the Polish.”

He got the idea for his theme of “Main Street U.S.A.” after an unfortunate incident a few months ago. A stranger made a discriminatory remark to Vasquez. Angry, the supervisor said, he responded, “You know, I live on Main Street U.S.A. too.”

“It really just shut the person down in no time,” Vasquez said. Although the United States is “different than how it started . . . we’re all in this together and Main Street is going to flourish because we’re all there.”