Right-Wing Bent Hurts County GOP : Republican Moderates No Longer Feel Welcome

Orange County’s legendary Republican Party certainly did well enough in the recent election, capturing every congressional and legislative seat but one and giving President Bush a 100,000-vote plurality. But a closer look at the results reveals that all is not well in the GOP’s most famous bastion.

The problem is that Republican leaders in Orange County have positioned the party so far to the right that it no longer is welcoming to enough party moderates. One indication of this was that eight well-known Republicans, unhappy with the turn to the right typified by the disastrous Republican National Convention, announced that they would vote for Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton. One of them, Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, said the local GOP leadership “has not served the Republican Party well.” Amen to that.

Orange County’s Grand Old Party, starting at the top, needs to be restructured to be more inclusive of Republicans of all stripes, not just those who take a hard party line on issues such as abortion.

Of course, during a year when Democrats had a winning presidential candidate at the top of the ticket, the GOP’s continued dominance in Orange County should be given its due. The party’s strength was most apparent in the vote totals in legislative and congressional districts where, with the single exception of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), all GOP candidates ran ahead of their party’s registration, some by wide margins.

But there were also indications that non-affiliated voters or minor-party voters who in the past were attracted to the Republican ticket on Election Day turned away. Take, for example, Rohrabacher’s congressional district and the Assembly districts of Gil Ferguson of Newport Beach and Mickey Conroy of Orange. In all three, more non-affiliated or minor-party voters went with Democratic opponents than with the conservative GOP incumbents.

If there is any doubt that Orange County Republicans are discontented, GOP leaders need look no further than the top of the ticket. While it is true that Clinton took only 31% of the county’s vote--the same as Michael Dukakis in 1988--far fewer of the county’s voters supported George Bush than four years ago. Many--24%--opted for independent Ross Perot. But the end result was that Bush was deprived of the 200,000- to 300,000-vote margin he needed from Orange County in order to win California.

Under the leadership of chairman Tom Fuentes, Orange County’s Republican Party has been especially rigid. In its election post-mortems, it should digest the big lesson of the Republican National Convention this year. That is, that pitching the party’s message of appeal to the right wing turns off voters that the GOP can and should be embracing.

There was, as well, a message for Orange County’s Democratic Party in this election.

While the party retained its one outpost in the county--the seat held by one-term Assemblyman Tom Umberg of Garden Grove--it didn’t turn out a decisive vote for Clinton. It should also have made a stronger run against Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) in the 46th District, where Democrats hold a 47.5%-41.2% edge. Dornan, whose garrulous tenure in Congress long ago became tiresome, is a formidable campaigner. But he shouldn’t have been allowed to walk away with the contest.

Both parties now have an important opportunity to build on their strengths. But it will take work, and a willingness to listen carefully to what voters here said on Nov. 3.