<i> A behind-the-scenes look at Orange County’s political life</i> : Pringle Keeping Options Open About Possible Run for Supervisor

Sound strange? Maybe so, but one of the more persistent rumors circulating around the county has Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) deserting the state Capitol and coming home for a run for the five-member Board of Supervisors.

Pringle, long considered one of the rising stars in Sacramento, has the potential to hold an Assembly seat through 1998 and must then--or sooner--make a change. For the record, Pringle says he’s “keeping options open” and doesn’t deny he is interested in a board seat.

“I wouldn’t rule it out. . . . I would certainly keep that as an option. It’s one that I look at regularly,” Pringle said last week in Sacramento, where he was struggling through state budget negotiations. “It has one great appealing notion: I would be able to be home with my family. Right now I haven’t seen them in a week.”

“Presently,” Pringle said, he lives in the 2nd Supervisorial District now represented by Roger R. Stanton, whose term runs out next year.

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Hit piece: Things heated up in the final weeks of the primary for the vacant Assembly seat in North County’s 72nd District and a late June hit piece targeting Richard Ackerman, the eventual Republican winner, has gotten Fullerton political activist Stuart Stitch in hot water. It seems that Stitch helped circulate a mailer that attacked Ackerman as a “liberal lawyer” and a “Democrat in disguise” and included the Fullerton Recalls Committee and its identification number.

The problem was, Stitch didn’t have the approval of the committee to use its name or its number. When Stitch attempted to file the paperwork on the mailer with the county registrar of voters, it was forwarded to the county district attorney’s office.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Guy Ormes acknowledged receipt of the information about the mailer and said a decision is pending.

Ackerman was not amused.

“On top of everything else, everything in the mailer was lies,” Ackerman said.

Stitch’s attorney, Mark S. Rosen of Santa Ana, referred questions to Stitch. Stitch did not return repeated phone calls for comment.

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Surprise vote: Considering he and chief rival Chris Norby of Fullerton both spent about $125,000 on their campaigns, most insiders were shocked at Ackerman’s wide margin of victory in the primary July 18. Ackerman, who had been out of politics for two years after a 12-year stint on the Fullerton City Council, outpolled Norby, a current council member, by nearly a 2-to-1 ratio.

“It rather surprises everyone that the numbers had such a big spread,” said Tom Fuentes, the chairman of the county Republican Party.

Fuentes, who said he was “very pleased” with Ackerman’s victory, suggested it was at least partially a result of Ackerman’s “years of support for other Republican candidates.”

“Dick is a guy who has given to the community for a long time . . . and is recognized as a stalwart Republican and a real team player,” Fuentes said. “That is one of the reasons Republican volunteers and party activists turned out to work for him. Perhaps it was sort of a thank you for his long years of supporting team members.”

Ackerman, a Fullerton attorney, faces Democrat Shirley Hafner, a clerk at UCI Medical Center in Orange, in a runoff Sept. 12.

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Flip-flops: Much was made about new County Chief Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier changing political party affiliations recently from Democrat to Republican. She is obviously not the first local official to make a party change.

Some of the others who have for various reasons jumped from the Democrats to the GOP include Garden Grove council members Mark Leyes and Tony Ingegneri, Supervisors Roger R. Stanton and William G. Steiner, former Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, former Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young and Phil Yarbrough, a former member of the county Democratic Central Committee now considering challenging Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove).

Only one former Republican who switched to the Democrats immediately comes to mind: Retired Superior Court Judge Bruce W. Sumner, a former state attorney general candidate and currently the chairman of the Orange County Charter Commission.

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Coming soon: J.C. Watts, the former Oklahoma quarterback who is now one of only two black Republican congressmen, will be in Orange County on Aug. 16 at a private gathering of the 400 Club, an influential group of Republican volunteers. The meeting will be held at the offices of developer Buck Johns’ Inland Group in Newport Beach.

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Silva’s abstention: According to Connie Silva, the wife of Supervisor Jim Silva, the $750 contribution made to the supervisor that prevented him from voting July 10 on the proposed takeover of the Santa Margarita Water District came in August, 1994, not last April as his staff had said and as was recently reported in Politics ’95.

The contribution came from the Irvine-based Nossaman, Gunthner, Knox and Elliot law firm during Jim Silva’s race for the board seat, Connie Silva said.

Jim Silva, one of seven members of the Local Agency Formation Commission that oversees the dissolution of special districts, abstained in the 4-to-2 LAFCO vote that prevented California-American Water Co. from taking over the district.

“The contribution came long before Jim even knew he would be a member of LAFCO,” she said.

UPCOMING EVENTS

* Tuesday: State Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Newport Beach) will be the special guest at a reception held by the Newport Harbor Republican Assembly at 5:30 p.m. at Prego Ristorante, 18420 Von Karman Ave., Irvine. Information: Evelyn Hart at (714) 645-9127.

* Wednesday: A campaign kickoff reception for Haydee V. Tillotson’s run for the 67th Assembly District seat will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at her headquarters, 15272 Bolsa Chica Road, Huntington Beach. Information: (714) 895-9652 or (714) 895-9552.

* Wednesday: The Orange County Young Republicans will have their general meeting at the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel. Information: (714) 754-5955.

* Thursday: A beach party honoring Assemblywoman Marilyn C. Brewer will be at 5:30 p.m. at Newport Dunes Resort, 1131 Backbay Drive, Newport Beach. Information: (714) 660-6100.

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Compiled by Times staff writer Len Hall.

Politics ’95 appears every Sunday.