Democrats Go on Offensive in GOP Territory : Politics: Statewide candidates rally to raise money to increase share of county vote. Republicans say they’ve heard that before.

Democratic candidates for statewide office rallied in conservative Orange County Saturday, flaunting the diversity of their slate, pouncing on incumbent Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and boldly threatening to loosen the Republican stranglehold in the county.

Gubernatorial challenger Kathleen Brown claimed Wilson was wrong when he said recently that the campaign for the November general election would not be about personalities, even though he had campaigned against Brown’s father, Gov. Edmund G. Brown, and her brother, Gov. Jerry Brown.

“Guess what, Pete Wilson: This is going to be a personal campaign. This will be personal because Kathleen Brown will avenge the father and even avenge the brother,” Brown told a crowd of almost 300 Democrats and a few crossover Republicans who gathered at the 40,000-acre South County ranch of former state Democratic Party Chairman Richard O’Neill.

“And the question is, will you help me do that so we have no re-Pete?” Brown asked the crowd.

Party leaders said they purposely chose Orange County, the heart of Republican conservativism, to kick off their fund-raising campaign for the state ticket.

The GOP holds an 18-point voter registration lead over Democrats in Orange County, and Republican candidates for statewide office count on the county to give them the 2-to-1 vote ratios needed to offset Democratic strongholds in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area.

“We are right here in the belly of the beast because we want to make sure we send the message to everyone in California that we are not going to concede any territory at all,” said Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove), who gave up his 69th Assembly District seat to become the Democratic nominee for state attorney general.

“We are going to fight all over this state, and particularly here in Orange County,” Umberg said. “I know the few and the proud Democrats in Orange County are up to that challenge.”

The Democrats insisted that their foray into Orange County was more than symbolic. Half the proceeds from the event--which was expected to raise $100,000--was to remain in central Orange County for registration and get-out-the-vote drives.

It is that central area--in which the 46th Congressional District, the 34th state Senate District and the 68th and 69th Assembly Districts are clustered--where the number of registered Democrats surpasses Republican registration.

But local GOP Chairman Thomas Fuentes said the Democratic Party’s threat to build political strength here is trumpeted every two years, only to be silenced on Election Day.

“The brouhaha goes on year after year that they are going to get their act together and they never do it,” Fuentes said Friday. “They will come in and they will rah rah, and they will drink watered-down margaritas and feast on soggy tacos and listen to brassy mariachi music, but the reality is that . . . kind of liberal philosophical message has no receptivity in this community.”

Democrats have won only one legislative seat, Umberg’s 69th District, in recent elections. In the 46th Congressional District, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) was able to hold on to the seat in 1992 even though Democratic voters outnumbered Republicans.

During an interview following her speech, Brown said she would fight Wilson for the Orange County vote.

“How about the fact that Pete Wilson only got 54% of the (GOP) vote in Orange County (in the June primary) against an unknown Ron Unz?” Brown said. “I think there are great opportunities in Orange County, because the people who live here are just as concerned about their jobs, about their security and their kids’ schools.”

Wilson’s campaign spokesman, Dan Schnur, said later it was “probably smart strategy” for Brown to campaign in Orange County while voters are not focused on the November election.

“Once they found out that she’s against the death penalty, that she wants to raise taxes, that she’s soft on illegal immigration, they will run her out of town on a rail,” Schnur said.

Responding to Brown’s comment that the campaign would be “personal,” Schnur added, “How small, how spiteful. . . . (Voters) don’t have time for a person who has to settle her personal, petty little grudges.”

During the rally, others also took shots at Wilson.

Controller Gray Davis, the Democrats’ nominee for lieutenant governor, conceded that while unusual disasters such as fires, floods and rioting had dealt Wilson a bad hand, “you are supposed to play the hand the best you can. But this fellow has played it miserably.”

Blaming the governor for not doing enough to attract economic development, Davis added, “I am not going to work next to . . . Wilson, who has done so little for this state he should be picked up for vagrancy.”

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown added: “I think Pete Wilson is ultimately qualified to say ‘Paper or plastic?’ . . . in the various supermarkets around the state or any other place.”

State Senate Leader Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), also took aim at state Sen. Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove), whose Allied Business PAC has helped lead efforts to elect more Republicans to the Legislature.

“Rob is the wagon master of the religious extremists that are trying to take over California government,” Lockyer said. “I intend to get right in his face and to make sure the constituents in his district know that there’s a moderate alternative, which happens to be a Democrat, (Buena Park Council member) Donna L. Chessen.”

State Democratic Party Chairman Bill Press was among those who noted the diversity of the state slate, which includes four women and one gay candidate. “We even have a Democrat from Orange County (Umberg),” Press joked. “That’s a diversified ticket, if I ever heard one.”

A discordant note in the Democrats’ unity theme is being sounded by a small but vocal group of Latino activists, who are calling the local party leadership “racist” for not supporting Latino candidates for assembly and congressional seats from central Orange County in the recent primary. The activists are threatening to sit out the November general election.

In an interview, County Democratic Party Chairwoman Dorianne Garcia Saturday called for an end to the intraparty fighting.

“We cannot hold grudges,” Garcia said. “I intend to lead a united Democratic Party. If you don’t want to be a team player, just get out of the way.”