Lincoln Club Supports Allen Recall : Politics: The Orange County GOP organization earmarks $50,000 for the effort. Although the Speaker was welcome to attend the group’s meeting, she declined.

Calling her a traitor to her party, an influential Republican organization voted unanimously Friday to back a recall effort against Assembly Speaker Doris Allen (R-Cypress) and vowed to spend $50,000 to oust her from office.

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Three Orange County Republican lawmakers urged the Lincoln Club to help recall Allen, who two weeks ago became the first GOP Assembly Speaker in a quarter-century and the first woman ever elected to the post. She garnered the votes of all the Assembly Democrats and just one Republican, herself.

The Lincoln Club’s decision followed a series of communications between the group’s members and Allen over whether she would attend their Friday morning meeting at the Santa Ana Country Club in Costa Mesa.

Allen sent letters Thursday to several Lincoln Club leaders, requesting that she be allowed to the attend the meeting and discuss the recall.

“I believe I have earned the right to address you on these issues,” Allen wrote. “I trust you agree that there are at least two sides to every story, and I respectfully request an opportunity to tell mine.”

Lincoln Club leaders said they told Allen she was welcome at the meeting. But the Speaker decided not to attend, saying she was tied up with business in Sacramento and didn’t have time to make the trip down.

Keith Welch, Allen’s senior adviser, faulted the Lincoln Club for not delaying their decision on the recall until Allen could address them.

“I thought that given the importance of the decision, they would have given her the courtesy of some flexibility in terms of scheduling,” Welch said.

Lincoln Club President Doy Henley said the group was dismayed that Allen gained the top job by aligning herself with former Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), an outspoken liberal.

“It was an out-and-out betrayal of everything she used to stand for,” Henley said. “She’s betrayed her principles.”

Assemblywoman Marilyn C Brewer (R-Irvine) and state Sens. Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove) and John R. Lewis (R-Orange) attended the meeting and urged club leaders to back the recall effort.

The Lincoln Club has about 340 members, including many of Orange County’s top business and professional leaders. The group’s endorsement is expected to give a boost to the recall movement, which begin just days after Allen was elected Speaker.

Welch described the club’s criticism of Allen as “old news,” adding: “We are going to survive and prosper with or without the Lincoln Club.”

Welch said Allen’s fate rests with the voters in her district, not with the club members.

“If the recall does go forward, it is going to be decided by the people who have elected her overwhelmingly,” he said.

Allen did receive some support from the 67th Assembly District Democratic Committee, which in a resolution adopted this week said a recall “would be a frivolous and wasteful use of public money to solve an internal Republican Party power struggle.”

Times political writer Peter M. Warren contributed to this report.