MISSING FRIEND: Republicans in Orange County, led...

MISSING FRIEND: Republicans in Orange County, led by local party Chairman Tom Fuentes, have been aiding the democratic administration in Nicaragua, donating items such as paint, computers and musical instruments for schoolrooms. Nicaraguan Vice President Virgilio Gody Reyes was scheduled to speak to the Lincoln Club here next month. Now Reyes is among those taken hostage by the Sandinista forces this week.

GOING UP? Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, in an interview Tuesday, sounded like someone who would love to be a member of Congress. Two local seats may be open in 1994 with no incumbent running, or he may even challenge a fellow Republican. . . . Says Stanton: “1994 is a good year, and I don’t want to let it pass by without giving this some serious consideration.” If he won, he says, “I think I could get in and make an impact quickly.”

COMMON GROUND: Defense attorneys and prosecutors rarely find themselves on the same side. But they’ve joined forces in a new county Bar Assn. task force on gun control and violence. . . . Headed by Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Maury Evans, the group met with Santa Ana police Tuesday to view the wide array of guns they’ve confiscated. Evans says he’s especially concerned about the increase in attacks in which gunmen randomly shoot at a crowd, killing innocent people: “That could be any of us.”

STAYING WITH IT: Kay Brenneman of Anaheim stayed up until midnight Monday just to assure herself that David Mason was, indeed, executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin. She had no involvement in his case, but she’s been waiting anxiously for the execution of Death Row inmate Robert Jackson Thompson. . . . It was 12 years ago today that Thompson molested and killed her 12-year-old son, Benjamin. His sentence has been on appeal for more than 10 years. “Maybe Mason’s execution means Thompson will go too,” she says.