POLITICS ’94 / GEBE MARTINEZ : <i> A behind-the-scenes look at Orange County’s political life.</i> : Dornan Does His Homework Everywhere--Even in His District

Where’s Bob?: Local Democratic Party leaders have often claimed that Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) seems to make more appearances on the Rush Limbaugh national radio talk show than in his district. He didn’t even come home to announce his reelection campaign, they point out.

But the conservative Republican, who has entertained thoughts of running for President in 1996, says he takes his assignments for the House Armed Services Committee and House Select Committee on Intelligence seriously and has been doing homework in places ranging from the South Pole to Somalia.

Dornan says that does not mean he doesn’t know what’s going on in his central Orange County district. Nor has he forgotten that he is the “gang-center congressman,” a reference to the large amount of violent gang activity in the cities he represents.

To that end, he plans to ride the streets of Santa Ana in a police cruiser to get a closer look at the crime problem. He will also be scheduling ride-alongs with police in Detroit, New York City and Washington.

“It gives me a feeling of the differences in the police work in different cities,” Dornan explains.

* On the home front: Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) may be the Democratic nominee for state attorney general, but he’s hardly the general in his own home.

Umberg, a major in the Army Reserve, is now outranked by his wife, Robin, who became a lieutenant colonel during ceremonies Saturday at the Army Reserve Center in Irvine.

A nurse in the reserve, she was among the weekend warriors called up during Operation Desert Storm in 1990. Tom had to balance his duties in Sacramento with raising the couple’s three children back home in Orange County, earning headlines as the Legislature’s “Mr. Mom.”

How is life at home now that Lt. Col. Umberg outranks Maj. Umberg? The assemblyman makes no bones about it. “It’s getting embarrassing,” he laments only half in jest, “having to salute her in front of the kids.”

* Let’s have lunch: Supervisor Roger R. Stanton says Newport Beach businessman George L. Argyros showed a lot of nerve recently when he chewed out the Board of Supervisors for not backing a November ballot initiative calling for a commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

In arguing for the airport initiative, Argyros said there are already plenty of studies on whether commercial passenger and cargo planes can take off from El Toro’s runways, but that the supervisors “did not have the guts to make the decision now.”

Stanton replies: “I think it was pretty darn gutsy to tell three powerful friends (on the Board of Supervisors) that you don’t agree with them. I have no hard feelings. I feel I’ve done my duty.”

* Left out in the middle: In one of the hottest local races this year, the three GOP candidates in the 70th Assembly District race met at their first candidates’ forum last week. Conservatives Tom Reinecke, an attorney, and Irvine City Councilman Barry J. Hammond rarely disagreed with each other, but they distanced themselves from Marilyn Brewer, a businesswoman who calls herself the only “mainstream Republican” in the race.

Hammond and Reinecke, for example, said they support former Orange County Rep. William E. Dannemeyer, a Fullerton Republican, in his bid to unseat Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. But Brewer is backing Rep. Michael Huffington (R-Santa Barbara).

When asked to differentiate between a “mainstream” and a “moderate” Republican, Brewer said mainstreamers are fiscal conservatives who want “government out of our bedrooms, we want government out of our pocketbooks, and we want government out of our boardrooms.” Hammond said a mainstream Orange County Republican is on the “conservative side” of the party.

But the audience laughed when Reinecke responded: “I don’t know what (mainstream) means. I think it means it would be a moderate or even a liberal.”

UPCOMING EVENTS

Tonight: Several local GOP groups hold a candidates’ forum to be moderated by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), beginning at 6 p.m. at the Balboa Bay Club, 1221 Pacific Coast Highway.

Tuesday: Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Garamendi will be the Valley High School principal for a few hours as part of his campaign program to take on the everyday jobs of California workers. Beginning at 12:45 p.m., Garamendi speaks to the Democratic Club of Seal Beach Leisure World, at Clubhouse 4 located near the intersection of Seal Beach Boulevard and Golden Rain Road.

Thursday: Coro Orange County sponsors a panel discussion of the county’s top races at the Irvine Co. Exhibit, 550 Newport Center Drive, at 5:30 p.m.

Friday: United We Stand holds a forum for candidates in the 70th Assembly District race at the Irvine Ranch Water District, 15,600 Sand Canyon Ave., beginning at 7 p.m.

Times staff writers Eric Bailey and Kevin Johnson contributed to this report.