‘92 WESTSIDE ELECTIONS : The Party’s Over : Republicans: At their traditional headquarters in Century City, state’s GOP faithful blamed losses on the media and the economy, and they yearned for the glorious Reagan days.

It’s the same ballroom where California Republicans have come to count on a major bash every four years, but this time the faces were almost as long as the campaign itself.

Presumptive celebrants had the look of dazed accident victims as they staggered through the rubble of the 1992 campaign at the Century Plaza hotel in Century City, traditional Election Night headquarters for the state Republican Party.

“I’m just absolutely stunned; I can’t believe it,” said Lydia Raymond of Westwood.

Under a “Victory in ‘92” banner, the Republican faithful stared glumly at television monitors announcing the early returns. They blamed the media. They blamed the economy. They blamed the media again. They wistfully recalled the glories of their cowboy hero, Ronald Reagan, and struggled to resign themselves to the twin-headed monster of big government and higher taxes.

All this, while mulling the grim reality of the world’s only remaining superpower falling into the hands of a governor from Arkansas--a man suspected of cheating on his wife, no less.

Small wonder that when Bill Clinton finally made his acceptance speech--and went out of his way to embrace his wife--it was more than some of the loyal opposition could stomach.

“I gotta go before I vomit,” one man said.

The good news was there weren’t any lines at the bar. Knocking back a beer and a Jack Daniels shooter ordered to “kill the pain,” John Barone, a North Hollywood grocery-store clerk, mourned the late Lee Atwater, the former Bush campaign manager whose take-no-prisoners tactics helped smear Michael Dukakis into oblivion four years ago.

“When Lee Atwater died, George Bush lost this election,” Barone said. “Lee Atwater was in touch with the American people. He knew what made them click.”

After Sen. John Seymour’s concession speech, the sad, well-dressed crowd thinned quickly, leaving the cavernous function room to reporters, die-hards and those who held out hope that Bruce Hershensohn would pull out the other Senate race. He didn’t.

Even as Herschensohn was leading in the early returns, television projections were already giving the victory to Democratic opponent Barbara Boxer, leaving Herschensohn supporters frustrated, mystified and in varying stages of denial.

“She’s making a fool of herself,” an Orange County Republican said, still holding out hope of a Herschensohn win even as Boxer went before the cameras to give her acceptance speech.

Across the ballroom, a cluster of young men shouted, “Bruce! Bruce! Bruce!” as if at a Springsteen concert, but the chant failed to catch on and soon died a quiet death.

Several young men physically recoiled from the screen when a jubilant Boxer asserted that California voters had rejected “the politics of hate, the politics of fear and the politics of blame.”

As the full scope of the disaster settled in, many in the gathering spoke gamely of wanting to start work immediately on 1996. They consoled themselves with the thought that a Clinton White House and a Democratic majority in Congress means that the Democrats will be accountable for all that happens during the next four years.

Still, uncertainty about the party’s future hung in the air as heavily as the band music. Suddenly, the crown jewels of the GOP’s platform--anti-communism, unfettered markets and conservative social values--didn’t matter. “I feel 12 years of a strong conservative era has just ended, and a return to the misery-index days of Jimmy Carter is with us again,” lamented writer and free-lance political consultant Brian Goldenfeld. “It is going to be very difficult for me to wake up in the morning and trust that the security of our nation is in this man’s hands. It’s doomsday for America.”

Looking pale and depressed, Sue Sarphie of West Hollywood confessed to having a “sinking feeling.” Close by, a portly veterans activist from Burbank, referring to allegations that Clinton schemed to avoid serving in Vietnam, told a reporter that the election of a “draft dodger” to the presidency was a national disgrace. He predicted veterans across the country would prevent their children from serving in the armed forces.

A number of Republicans criticized Bush for mounting a belated campaign and for not capitalizing on his popularity after Operation Desert Storm to ram through a domestic agenda.

Others, though, stubbornly clung to the same arguments that may have led to the president’s undoing, insisting it was foolish to blame Bush for a global recession--and that the recession was not that bad anyway. Clinton’s “inheriting a really strong economy, the strongest economy in the Western world,” said Tom Rogers of Riverside, a party activist and builder of small, family theme parks.

Jeff Rialto, a Seymour campaign worker, will now have a chance to put that theory to the test.

Sitting virtually by himself in front of a big screen, he was asked what he plans to do next.

“I’ve got to try to find a job,” he said sadly.