The GOP’s Tough Challenge in the San Gabriel Valley

The immensity of the task facing President Bush’s reelection campaign was evident Saturday as Republicans began mobilizing in the San Gabriel Valley, a suburban area that reflects many of California’s political currents.

The microcosm aspect of the valley drew me there, first with Gov. Bill Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, two weeks ago, and last weekend with Bush campaigners. I thought the valley’s political, economic and racial mix would provide a close-up view of the contest between Bush and Clinton.

I figured it also might get me in good with my bosses at the paper. Any cost-cutting corporation has got to be impressed with a reporter who can cover a presidential election without traveling beyond the 714 area code.

As a matter of fact, you could accumulate many thousands of frequent flier miles without finding a more interesting political battleground.

Although Republicans control the hills of the San Gabriel Valley and Democrats the valley floor, divisions are not neat. Politics can be as unstable as the earthquake-prone terrain. Party loyalty is often weak. The valley’s multiethnic population of African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latinos and whites is an explosive factor. Adding to the unpredictability are economic troubles caused by cutbacks in big defense plants and small manufacturing facilities that have long fueled the valley’s growth.

In other words, the San Gabriel Valley is California in miniature.

As is the case in the rest of the state, the Bush crew faces a difficult fight in the valley.

That was clear to me as I listened to Rep. David Dreier, whose heavily Republican 28th District extends from Pasadena and Arcadia east through Bradbury, La Verne, Claremont, Pomona and Walnut.

“We have some very serious challenges in . . . the San Gabriel Valley,” Dreier told a small group of Republican volunteers. But he added, “I am one who happens to believe that we in this area will be able to play a key role in determining who the next President of the United States will be, and who the two United States senators from California will be.”

Dreier was elected to the House 12 years ago at the age of 25. The boy wonder of 1980 now looks more like an up-and-coming assistant professor at Claremont, where he received his master’s degree. He wore a blue blazer, starched white shirt and sharp floral tie, suitable for a speech on the House floor, along with khaki pants straight from the campus.

That morning he spoke at a breakfast in Ontario for Diamond Bar Mayor Jay Kim, the Republican nominee for Congress in a district straddling the Los Angeles and San Bernardino county lines. As I talked to guests before the program, I could see the problems the Republicans were having.

A husband and wife said they were disappointed by the President’s Republican National Convention speech. “Too broad brush,” said the man, especially when the President outlined his proposed across-the-board tax cut. A young woman agreed. Later in the morning at a campaign headquarters in Arcadia, Eloise Ward told Dreier that people in the San Gabriel Valley tell her that they are not satisfied with what Bush has done to create jobs. “What do we say to that?” she asked Dreier. He blamed Democrats who control Congress.

The GOP, however, doesn’t call itself the Grand Old Party for nothing. The party has survived into old age despite events that would doom less sturdy institutions. Republican presidents were at the helm during the Civil War, the beginning of the Great Depression and Watergate. But the GOP is still around, stronger than ever, durable as Mt. Rushmore.

The Republicans are working hard to catch up, starting by securing their heartland, places like Arcadia. “Republican registration must be a priority to us,” Rep. Dreier told the volunteers. “New Republican voters are the highest propensity voters.” To accomplish that, GOP volunteers are manning tables in shopping malls and other places.

The next step is to capture swing areas such as Diamond Bar, on the eastern edge of the valley. Party loyalty in these suburbs is weak. Economic troubles are growing. Life, dependent on working husbands and wives and long commutes, is difficult.

Rather than lecture these voters on the virtues of stay-at-home moms, the Republicans are putting a modern face on their party by featuring pragmatic, popular congressional candidates, like Diamond Bar’s Mayor Kim.

Last weekend, the Republican Party dispatched Bush Administration official Wendy Lee Gramm, the working wife of Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, to speak at Kim’s breakfast. She is a Korean-American, as is Kim. If he is elected, he would be Congress’ first Korean-American.

With the President in trouble, the Grand Old Party is trying to harness the San Gabriel Valley’s new political currents.