Ideology Looms Over School Board Races in S. County : Elections: Conservatives complain of mislabeling. Others fear ‘extremists.’

With a crowded field of candidates and a chance that conservatives could gain a majority on the Saddleback Valley Unified School District board, South County is abuzz about the most volatile campaigns for school trustee posts in recent years.

As national conservative Christian groups--two of which are headquartered in the county--have focused on school board races across the country, including here in Orange County, longtime activists in Saddleback and Capistrano Unified are sounding the alarm that candidates they consider “extremists” could take over South County districts.

But the candidates tagged as extremists reject the label, saying they shun ties to the Christian right. They claim they are simply conservatives anxious to improve the educational system.

“I’m just a mom who wants to run for school board and I’m being painted as this diabolical candidate,” said Pat Soriano, a Lake Forest resident who is seeking one of two open seats in the Saddleback district. “Absolutely, I’m conservative. Conservative in this area is mainstream.”

Not so, according to the South Orange County Chambers of Commerce and the parent group Community Action for Public Schools, which was founded last year in response to the conservative shift on the Saddleback board that occurred when Frank L. Ury and Debbie Hughes were elected in 1992.

Both organizations issued biting press releases last week warning of an extremist threat. The chamber has endorsed school board candidates for the first time in eight years, backing the incumbents in both local districts without interviewing any of the candidates.

“These people are really out of step with our community,” said Louise Adler of Laguna Hills, associate professor of education at Cal State Fullerton and a former Saddleback school board member.

“This is not an issue of whether or not (religious people) should be part of the political process,” said Adler, who co-chairs Community Action for Public Schools. “It’s a question of whether people of a particular religious persuasion should have a right to control it.”

Adler and others said they fear that, if conservatives are elected, the schools would be rife with censorship, biased curricula and school prayer would be introduced, and services for poor and bilingual students would be curtailed.

Soriano and other self-identified conservative candidates--Dave Schultz, Susan Krumpotich and Bill Goodwin in Saddleback, and Dorsey Brause and Morrie Hansen in Capistrano--said they oppose school prayer. They do acknowledge that cutting spending and changing the curricula are among their plans.

Elsewhere in the county, veterans of last year’s failed voucher initiative and those who opposed the state’s new testing system are also being targeted as right-wingers and Christian “stealth candidates” who want to dismantle public education. That leaves some candidates crying about a backlash in which all conservatives are being accused of running stealth campaigns.

A pair of Tustin Unified candidates, for example, have been accused of ties to the Christian right by members of that community. But one candidate, Jonathan Abelove, is Jewish, and the other, Jane Bauer, is a lifelong Democrat.

“I expected there would be a lot of things said about me that would not be true, but you don’t know until it happens how awful it feels,” Abelove said after a forum on “stealth candidates” last week.

“I think this is dangerous,” said Bauer, a Tustin schools trustee for nine years. “We have to be careful about labeling, and the electorate has to be careful about listening to these labels.”

In recent years, Christian and right-wing groups have turned their attention to local politics, hoping to create a grass-roots groundswell, bring public schools back toward traditional values, and groom conservatives for higher posts. The six most conservative candidates in the South County races insisted that they are not connected to such groups, but in interviews and campaign literature they echo the groups’ pro-family agendas.

Though they refused to say which candidates they favor, leaders of the Christian Coalition, the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition and Citizens for Excellence in Education, a Costa Mesa group, all acknowledged plans to devote more money and energy than ever to school boards this fall.

But campaign finance statements filed last week show no financial support for any South County candidate from any Christian organization.

“For a long time, (Orange County has) had strong, conservative, pro-family representation at the state level and on the board of supervisors . . . we want to take the success we’ve had with the top and seek to bring that influence to the more localized races,” said Rev. Lou Sheldon of Traditional Values Coalition.

“We have strong beliefs,” added Sara Di Vito Hardman, California director for the Christian Coalition, which held an organizational meeting in Orange County last week. “We’re not trying to necessarily impose our beliefs, but why should beliefs be imposed on us and our kids?”

But the Rev. George Hooper, associate pastor at Shepherd of the Hills in Mission Viejo, said he is concerned about the rise of conservative Christians in politics.

“I don’t have a problem with anybody being religious. I don’t have a problem with anybody being on the right of the political spectrum,” Hooper said. “But when one theological perspective is claimed as the only true Christian perspective on a political issue, it is demeaning to persons of all faiths.”

Nowhere is the issue hotter than the Saddleback Valley district, which already has two conservative board members in Ury and Hughes. With four conservatives seeking two seats, the results of the Nov. 8 election could tip the balance of power on the volatile school board, which has been plagued by marathon meetings, nasty squabbling and 3-2 votes over the past two years.

A total of 10 candidates signed up to run for the two Saddleback seats, but two have dropped out.

Still running are incumbents Dore J. Gilbert and Bobbee Cline, who received the Chamber of Commerce endorsement; Soriano and Schultz, who are backed by Ury and Hughes; Pamela Rush and Sande Gonzalez, who were heavily involved in the recent debate over the Mission Viejo High School mascot; and Krumpotich and Goodwin, who have been accused of connections to the religious right but are generally seen as more moderate than Schultz and Soriano.

In Capistrano Unified, Brause, a semi-retired former president of a Christian college who has lived in the area for three years, is running against Annette B. Gude, a 14-year veteran of the board. In the same district, incumbent Crystal Kochendorfer faces a challenge by Hansen, a real estate broker who has served as the auctioneer for many school and charity events.

All six conservative candidates said they support Proposition 187, the initiative which would deny public education to illegal immigrants. Most incumbent board members, along with the state’s teachers’ union, oppose the initiative.

In March, the council voted to give officials of the water district time to present a plan The Saddleback Republican Assembly, a right-wing group, has endorsed Schultz, Soriano, Brause and Hansen.

The parent group and the Chamber of Commerce have reserved their harshest words for Schultz and Soriano, who plan to share funds and put their names on the same flyers. Both candidates are members of the Saddleback Valley Community Church, and both attended the Christian Coalition meeting, where their campaign literature was distributed.

Schultz, 33, an engineer who warned in a church newsletter that acceptance of divorce, sex outside of marriage and homosexuality “will have dire consequences for a society already suffering moral decay,” is a Mission Viejo resident with four young children. Soriano, 45, has three children, and has been active in local schools for more than a decade.

In their literature and in interviews, both candidates said they support a back-to-basics curriculum, with character education that emphasizes American citizenship and Judeo-Christian values. They also said they hope to fight tax hikes, cut student fees and increase parental control over instruction.

They are proud of their Christianity and conservatism, but loathe the label “religious right.”

“I don’t mind being called conservative. I just don’t like being labeled extremists,” Schultz said. “I think they’re trying to create some hysteria.” They accused incumbents Cline and Gilbert of being “closet Democrats,” though both are registered Republicans.

Cline, who has been on the board for five years, notes on her campaign flyer that she teaches Sunday school. Gilbert, a physician, was first elected in 1981. Both received support from teachers’ unions in the last election.

The incumbents fear that if Schultz or Soriano are elected, the local schools will head in an entirely new direction.

“These are people who are moving through life with blinders on and don’t respect people who have other points of view,” Gilbert said. “I think it’s time for the people of our community to let these people know that we will not be intimidated or bullied by their actions.”