<i> A behind-the-scenes look at Orange County’s political life</i> : Assemblyman’s Faith in Voters’ Incorruptibility Spoken With Conviction

Standing by His Man: Assemblyman Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) freely admits to being filled with sorrow over the recent conviction of longtime friend Sen. Frank Hill (R-Whittier) in the Capitol corruption trial in Sacramento.

Morrow, whose district includes a wide swath of South County, said he still believes in Hill’s innocence and that the jury’s decision “seemed more a verdict on the system.”

But Morrow’s opponents in the November election may see the friendship as a political liability. Hill helped bankroll Morrow’s 1992 election, loaning him $96,000. In turn, Morrow this year gave Hill $20,000 for his reelection campaign.

The assemblyman is confident that voters won’t castigate him for remaining loyal to his pal from college days. “The voters are savvy enough and fair enough to realize that someone isn’t guilty by association,” Morrow said.

He added that his opponents would be “taking it far afield to suggest Frank’s loans were somehow tainted. If that were so, the FBI would be asking me a lot of questions, and that hasn’t been the case.”

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Brown Out?: Some local Republicans claim the 69th Assembly District seat being given up by Democrat Tom Umberg of Garden Grove is prime for a GOP takeover, partly because Assembly Speaker Willie Brown needs to direct party money to other Assembly seats where officeholders are in danger of losing their jobs. If so, according to the premise, Michael Metzler, Democratic nominee in the 69th District, would be largely on his own to defend the only local legislative post held by a Democrat. (Republicans regularly use Brown’s photo in local campaign mailers to whip up support for their candidates.)

“They’re nuts,” the Speaker said recently. “You have to defend seats that are already Democratic.”

But he also made it clear that the amount of state Democratic Party money to Metzler’s campaign will largely depend on how much Metzler raises on his own. “If Mr. Metzler runs as hard as Mr. Umberg ran, I am sure that the support from outside of the district will be equal to what it was for Mr. Umberg,” Brown said.

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Half Full or Half Empty: A recent Orange County fund-raiser for the Democrats’ statewide slate raised $50,000 “and still counting,” said one party official, who claimed the event “was a good outing in Orange County.” But the total was far short of the $100,000 party leaders had hoped to take in from the event held in San Juan Capistrano on June 18. Beforehand, party leaders had promised that half of the proceeds would remain in central Orange County.

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Dollar Politics: A 1988 political fund-raiser at the Disneyland Hotel--jointly benefiting former Rep. Jack Kemp’s presidential campaign and then-Orange County Rep. William E. Dannemeyer--was included in a long list of campaign finance violations committed by Kemp, according to a Federal Elections Commission report released recently. The result was the largest penalties ever assessed by the FEC, with Kemp agreeing to pay $120,000 in penalties and refund $111,000 to contributors.

Dannemeyer, who lost the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, said he never even knew the FEC had questioned the joint fund-raiser. He said he strives “to comply precisely with the requirements of federal fund-raising laws. In my years in public life, I have escaped the clutches of the Federal Elections Commission.”

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Debate Anyone? Claiming that Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) has not taken a position on the November ballot advisory measure calling for a commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, Cox’s Democratic opponent, Gary Kingsbury, instead challenged Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) to debate the issue.

Cox said Kingsbury is wrong. Cox said he has repeatedly stated his opposition to the measure, because he believes the 4,700-acre base should be sold to the highest bidder without any preconditions on how it should be used.

Kingsbury, who also opposes the ballot initiative, said he wants to debate Rohrabacher because the Huntington Beach congressman has made passage of the measure his “No. 1 priority,” even though the base is in Cox’s district.

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White House Call: Democrat Robert J. Banuelos, who plans to mount a write-in campaign in the 46th Congressional District after finishing second in the June 7 primary, complains that local Democratic leaders didn’t take him seriously in 1992 when he was the party nominee and received 41% of the vote against the incumbent, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove).

But a White House political affairs staffer thought Banuelos was serious enough to warrant a visit last weekend. Banuelos narrowly lost to businessman Mike Farber earlier this month, even though Farber outspent Banuelos by 45-to-1. “I was really impressed by his grass-roots efforts. . . . We know that he came real close to winning (the primary) and that he had little financial resources,” said White House emissary Joe Velasquez, adding that he tried to encourage Banuelos to support Farber. “The Latino community is very important to us.”

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For Pete’s Sake: At the Republican-dominated county Board of Supervisors, the mere mention of Gov. Pete Wilson’s Democratic challenger brings a cold shudder that recently and briefly froze County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider. During a discussion of ways that the county could be affected by state government’s financial situation, Schneider mentioned you know who as another factor to consider should you know who be elected in November.

“Excuse me?” Supervisor Roger R. Stanton reacted in apparent disbelief. “What was that?” Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez chimed in. For the remainder of the discussion, Kathleen Brown’s name was not uttered again.

Compiled by Times political writer Gebe Martinez, with contributions from staff writers Eric Bailey and Kevin Johnson.

Politics ’94 appears every Sunday.