Dissenters Aside, Unity Is Watchword at GOP Convention

With a stack of fake “million-dollar bills” in the pocket of his suit jacket, UC Irvine student Matt Zandi anxiously shuffled his feet as he waited at the back of a packed hotel meeting room at the state GOP convention.

Zandi, 21, and other members of the conservative Young Americans for Freedom were listening to--and often heckling--U.S. Senate candidate, Rep. Michael Huffington (R-Santa Barbara), who plans to tap his family’s wealth in his bid to unseat Democrat Dianne Feinstein.

And then on cue, as Huffington ended his portion of the candidates’ forum, Zandi rushed up to the stage and then across the room, throwing the bogus currency at the candidate and his supporters. Huffington, the conservatives yelled, cannot “buy” the Republican nomination.

The gimmick was pretty much the extent of the protest by conservatives as party leaders sought to emphasize unity and steered away from litmus test issues that previously divided the party’s moderates and conservatives.

As Orange County delegates leave the convention today, they face a major challenge: how to maintain unity and diminish the roar of discontent among conservative activists, but keep them excited enough to work for Republican victories in November.

Resolving that dilemma is crucial for statewide GOP candidates who count on Orange County to produce vote margins of more than 2 to 1--enough to push some candidates over the top.

Huffington’s well-financed campaign makes him the best bet to win the June 7 primary even though he is not yet well-known by voters statewide, the young Orange County activists acknowledged later. But they are nonetheless looking to former Rep. William E. Dannemeyer of Fullerton, the conservatives’ conservative, to carry their banner.

One Dannemeyer supporter from Orange County, who spoke on condition that his name not be used, predicted that unless the young party activists find a reason to get involved, the November election could be a repeat of 1992, when U.S. Sen. John Seymour, a moderate Republican from Anaheim, lost to Feinstein.

“I think the party definitely needs Bill Dannemeyer, in a sense, to rally the troops and get them out to the polls,” he said.

With Gov. Pete Wilson facing no major challenger in the GOP primary, the conservatives said they are muffling their usual criticism of the governor because he is the party’s standard-bearer.

Wilson angered many conservatives last year by opposing Proposition 174, the school voucher initiative that would have given parents $2,600 per child in government money toward school tuition.

Since then, Wilson’s standing in public opinion polls has risen, and animosity among the GOP once reserved for Wilson is “gone, gone, gone, gone,” state GOP Chairman Tirso del Junco said as the convention opened Friday.

“We are so focused and so united that it’s pathetic. You will see the conservatives come behind Pete Wilson. Orange County and Southern California . . . is very much united,” Del Junco said.

The governor has made amends in Orange County, said state Sen. Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove) whose Garden Grove-based Container Supply Co. has contributed to conservative causes, including the school voucher initiative.

“It’s pretty hard for (conservatives) to get behind (Wilson) when he keeps going against us,” Hurtt said. But when the alternative is a Democratic governor, “push comes to shove and we go with him.”

Wilson political consultant George Gorton said during an interview Saturday that the governor’s approval rating is higher among Orange County Republicans than it is statewide. The notion that Wilson strikes a chord of discontent among the party’s conservatives is “a myth,” he said.

“Pete Wilson is very well liked by the party,” Gorton said.

Newport Beach developer Buck Johns, a leading member of the influential Lincoln Club, agreed that Wilson has the support of local conservatives, particularly when he focuses on economic issues.

“I think there would be greater enthusiasm if (two-time Senate candidate) Bruce Herschensohn were the standard-bearer, but he’s not,” Johns said. “Pete became the standard-bearer because he won the governorship . . . and he’s done a hell of a good job.”

Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange) said the more conservative faction of the party also realized that contentious debates on social issues got in the way of the party’s broader and more important goal--to win elections--and caused the political defeats of 1992.

“We learned something from that,” Conroy said. “We have to make sure that we don’t go out of here fractured and swinging at each other.”

Convention floor fights on social issues such as abortion and gays that marked state Republican meetings in recent years are not expected to be replayed today when the delegates vote on resolutions.

Instead, crime control and health care have dominated the policy discussions at the convention.

Gorton told delegates Saturday that the November election will be driven by voters’ demands for action on the economy, crime, illegal immigration, education and welfare reform.

“Nothing has disappeared faster in my lifetime than the abortion issue,” Gorton said in a later interview. “It’s gone.”

Orange County GOP Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes, who did not attend the convention, said the statewide races are so “low key” that some Orange County delegates delayed their arrival at the convention Friday. They detoured through Los Angeles to be part of the “Tonight Show” audience for the scheduled appearance of conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, Fuentes said.

Limbaugh, it seemed, was a “bigger draw” than the convention, Fuentes said, “but then, Rush Limbaugh is pretty big stuff anywhere.”