CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : ‘Extraordinary’ Event in Orange County

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 Republican bastion of Orange County.

But by the time Clinton’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.

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

Boxer was forced to move the event from Newport Beach City Hall to another location because of the ruckus by supporters of her Republican opponent, Bruce Herschensohn, who 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.

In her speech, Clinton reached out to would-be GOP crossover voters by referring to her support in 1964 of the Republican presidential bid of former 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.

Orange County Republican Party Executive Director Greg Haskin downplayed the show of support Clinton received Thursday and 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.”