Hillary Savors a Rich Meal : Politics: Republicans for Clinton pass the plate at luncheon for would-be First Lady and collect $125,000 for Democratic ticket. She pitches for cross-over vote.

Looking across a hotel banquet room filled with 730 Clinton-Gore supporters Thursday, Hillary Clinton called it “an extraordinary experience” to be there.

Extraordinary, organizers said later, because of the unlikelihood several months ago that Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton could be cutting into President Bush’s support in the renowned Republican bastion of Orange County.

But by the time the candidate’s wife stood before the microphone, the host committee--largely made up of Republicans for Clinton--had raised $125,000 from the luncheon, the single-largest fund-raising event to date in Orange County for the Democratic ticket.

And in her speech, Clinton reached out to would-be GOP crossover voters by referring to her support in 1964 for the Republican presidential bid of then-Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater; and to her 81-year-old father, who she said also is a Republican supporting the Clinton-Gore campaign. She also congratulated Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder and other locally prominent Republicans who broke ranks from their party to support the Democratic ticket.

“I think that what we are finding today, not just in Orange County but throughout the country, is that there are many, many, many Republicans and independents and former (Ross) Perot supporters who are joining the Clinton-Gore campaign because they view it as a return to common sense and conservative principles about what we need to get this country moving,” Clinton said.

Absent from the event was any confrontation between Republican and Democratic partisans like the disruption that occurred Tuesday at a news conference in Newport Beach called by Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Barbara Boxer in Newport Beach.

Boxer was forced to move the event from Newport Beach City Hall to Santa Ana because of the ruckus. Her Republican opponent, Bruce Herschensohn, later apologized.

Two hours before the Clinton luncheon Thursday, Democratic Party officials returned to Newport Beach City Hall for a news conference to denounce the disruptive tactics used earlier in the week and to call on both sides to cool down.

Howard Adler, Orange County Democratic chairman, said he feared that an unsettling pattern of inappropriate campaign tactics seemed to be emerging, and he urged Republicans and Democrats alike to stop “before people get hurt.” Adler said he dispatched a letter to various Democrat activists asking them to refrain from heckling and other confrontational activities at Republican events.

“I see a pattern emerging here,” he said of the anti-Boxer demonstration. “We can’t fall victim to the same type of tactics.”

As Clinton arrived at the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel Thursday, half a dozen Bush-Quayle backers shouted, “Four more years!” but were drowned out by Clinton supporters who yelled, “Four more months!”

Developer Kathryn G. Thompson, an early Clinton supporter, said pro-Bush demonstrators “would have been very foolish to show up today.”

Downplaying the show of support Clinton received Thursday, Orange County Republican Party Executive Director Greg Haskin said: “It shows you that the limousine liberals are alive and well.”

Haskin also called Adler’s news conference a political ploy.

“I still have not heard anything intimidating was going on,” Haskin said. “Certainly we don’t condone people becoming too boisterous. But it sounds like the Democratic Party is playing a little demagoguery here and they’ve just found out a cheap way to get more ink in the newspaper.”

But Nancy Skinner, one of the Republicans for Boxer confronted by the GOP demonstrators Tuesday, said the episode proved that “it’s a difficult time in Orange County if you’re a Republican with an independent thought.”

After the Hillary Clinton luncheon, organizers spoke of what they consider to be a growing momentum for the Democratic presidential ticket in Orange County.

Thompson conceded that while Bush can still raise more money than Bill Clinton in Orange County and may win a majority of the local votes on Nov. 3, he will not win by the comfortable margin that helped him carry the state in 1988.

“I don’t think there’s very much that he can do to turn the tide right now,” Thompson said, suggesting that Bush give up campaigning in Orange County.

In introductory speeches before Hillary Clinton’s address, host committee members touched on the intra-party squabbling within the Republican Party caused by those who defected to Bill Clinton.

Janice Johnson, wife of Western Digital Corp. Chairman Roger W. Johnson, another prominent local Republican for Clinton, said: “Issues are what we need to hear about, not partisan bickering.”