Measure R Gets Backing of Some Top Democrats : Recovery: South County developers Richard O’Neill and Howard Adler sign on as committee co-chairmen.

At the urging of Sheriff Brad Gates, several prominent Orange County Democrats on Monday endorsed Measure R, the proposed half-cent sales tax that its architects say is vital to the county’s financial recovery.

South County developers Howard Adler and Richard J. O’Neill signed on as co-chairmen of the Citizens for Economic Progress--Yes on Measure R committee, a group that is backing the sales tax on the June 27 ballot. Several prominent Democrats, including attorney Wylie Aitken, added their names to a list of the measure’s backers.

All three said they had been contacted by Gates, who in recent days has been lobbying Democrats to join what some polls indicate will be an uphill fight to persuade voters that Measure R is necessary. The committee, which Gates is heading, has been criticized as too Republican and not representative of a broad spectrum of county leadership.

In addition, Adler and Aitken called on Supervisors Roger R. Stanton, William G. Steiner and Gaddi H. Vasquez--the three who were in office when the county declared bankruptcy--to resign. Their resignations would help get Measure R passed, they said.

“Their profile in courage is upon them,” said Aitken, a well-known trial lawyer and county resident for 40 years. “I think it’s time for them to indicate quite clearly that their own ambition is irrelevant and the future of the county is more important.”

Gates, a Republican, welcomed the “leadership and support” from Adler and O’Neill and called their endorsements “further evidence of the broad base and growing support for Measure R.”

There are more than 400,000 Democratic voters in the county.

“Richard O’Neill and Howard Adler join many prominent Republicans who have put partisan interests aside to work together for the Orange County recovery,” Gates said in a prepared statement.

Adler and O’Neill are both influential movers and shakers who have been active in the county, state and national Democratic Party leadership for decades. Aitken is the chairman of the Democratic Foundation, a fund-raising organization.

“The main thing is, the future of the county would be in jeopardy without passing this,” said O’Neill, 71, owner of the 40,000-acre Rancho Mission Viejo and a former state party chairman, who had lunch with Gates on Monday.

“This is a great place to live now,” O’Neill said. “But I think the outside world is thinking, ‘What about the schools, what about the public services, why should we move our businesses there?’ ”

Adler, 51, a Laguna Hills resident and former longtime county party chairman, said Gates contacted him over the weekend. He said he made his final decision Monday.

“I think it will be a disaster if the people of this county don’t stand up and take responsibility,” Adler said. “They keep talking about personal responsibility. Well, here is an opportunity. The cost is minimal and the stakes are very high.”

Aitken described Measure R, which would raise the county’s sales tax to 8.25%, as a “pay me now or pay me later type of thing.”

“I suspect it will be a lot cheaper to pay now,” Aitken said.

Officials who back Measure R have painted a bleak picture of the county without the sales tax. They predict a plunge in property values, bankrupt school systems and perhaps a state takeover.

Measure R backers were dealt a blow last week when the county Republican Party’s central committee, a group that includes County Treasurer-Tax Collector John M.W. Moorlach, unanimously opposed the measure. Delegates claim the county has not explored other efforts, such as privatizing services, selling off assets or reducing what they characterize as a “bloated” bureaucracy.

Moorlach, who was appointed to the county office after the resignation of Robert L. Citron, later backed off from the vote and suggested he should have abstained because he has yet to make up his mind about Measure R.

The vote revealed a sharp split between the central committee and the top Republican government and business leaders who are listed as members of the Yes on R Committee. Among them are Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi and county Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy.

But the Democrats are split on the measure too. County Democratic Chairman James Toledano has publicly opposed the measure, and the party’s central committee postponed a vote on it Monday following a lively debate. A vote is expected at the committee’s meeting next month.

“The vote on Measure R is not a referendum on the leadership of Orange County,” argued William R. Mitchell of the Orange County chapter of Common Cause, who spoke in favor of the initiative. “The vote is how do we solve a problem we didn’t make.”

Mark Petracca, a UC Irvine political science professor who opposes the referendum, said that Democrats “for moral, economic and political reasons, should oppose Measure R. . . . Not a dime will go to schoolchildren, to elder care or to the homeless. The tax is not targeted for any specific purpose.”