ORANGE COUNTY VOICES : A Glorious Change for Democrat Party : Politics: After disappointing years, the party now has the opportunity to cultivate the thousands of local Democrats willing to make a difference.

Even after the Democrats’ disastrous loss in the recent special election in the 32nd state Senate District race, the Orange County Democratic Party’s future looks bright and glorious.

Glorious! That’s the word I kept repeating during George Bush’s concession speech last November. The magnitude of what had taken place and all that had been projected just after the polls closed did not hit me until I heard Bush concede.

For 10 years I had been involved politically in Orange County and the road to the turn of events had been a long one.

In November, 1982, I attended my first official Democratic event in Orange County. It was Election Night and the Democrats’ party was held at the Inn at the Park in Anaheim. The ballroom contained 150 or so very depressed people.

In November, 1984, the crowds thinned a little at the Inn at the Park. Jerry Patterson had just been defeated by Bob Dornan, and party newcomer Carol Ann Bradford, who mounted a very organized and well-funded grass-roots campaign against Bob Badham, failed to receive 40% of the vote in her race for Congress.

In 1986, the Election Night parties moved to Democratic Party patriarch Dick O’Neil’s Santa Ana restaurant, Tiny’s. About 75 people attended.

During subsequent years the faces became very familiar. When a new one appeared, everyone noticed.

In 1988 we thought the Democrats had a good chance at capturing the 72nd Assembly seat. Incumbent Assemblyman Richard Longshore died and the seat opened up to challengers Rick Tierbach for the Democrats and Curt Pringle for the Republicans. The party faithful put all their efforts into the races for both Tierbach and Michael Dukakis. We were thrilled with the 150 new volunteers that came out to help.

Election Night 1988, we all met at the Anaheim Marriott for another letdown. (Tierbach lost by a little more than 800 votes.) So much sarcasm and wisecracks about being Democrats were endured that our cause seemed to be futile.

The year 1990 brought great hope when Tom Umberg defeated Curt Pringle for Orange County’s only Democratic seat in the state or federal legislature.

1992 came upon us and Howard Adler became the local party chairman just as he had done 10 years before. Only this time there was something to celebrate. Thousands of volunteers started showing up to help Bill Clinton, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein and Tom Umberg win.

The victory party in the ballroom at the Anaheim Hilton was sold out. The fire marshal came to limit the crowd. There were hundreds of college-age men and women and hundreds of new faces representing so many walks of life.

All of a sudden a new challenge has risen--how to turn the enthusiasm into activism. It doesn’t help when it appears that the local Republicans who came out for Clinton seem to have a great deal more power than the local Democrats. In fact, there’s a joke going around local Democratic leadership circles. When asked how to obtain more members in the Democratic Foundation leadership group, the response is: “Let’s get Roger Johnson (a Republican) to be our luncheon speaker.”

When the economic summit was held in December, two Orange County Republicans were invited to attend, but not a single local Democrat. At the inauguration in Washington, none of the local Republicans had trouble obtaining tickets for any of the coveted events, but many of the local major donor Democrats did.

A recent newspaper article listed five local people who might receive an appointment in the Clinton Administration. Three out of the five names were Republicans.

The recent special election in the 32nd Senate District also gave county Democrats a dose of reality. None of the four Democratic candidates could force a runoff, and the sole Republican won with more than 75% of the vote. Yet it is important that Democrats not get discouraged.

There are now thousands of local Democrats who are willing to help make a difference. We must cultivate these men and women and encourage the best and the brightest to seek appointments to commissions and election to local offices and serve as their mentors and role models.

There really is a new hope in this county and throughout the country. There are many challenges ahead of us, but where there are challenges there are great opportunities. Glorious opportunities.