State’s Newest Power Plant Is in Garden Grove : Politics: With its representatives in top leadership posts in the Legislature, the city has clout within California’s GOP.

The crowd at City Hall was crowing Friday, one day after a second of this city’s lawmakers captured one of the Republican Party’s top posts in Sacramento.

“Garden Grove is now the center of the universe,” declared Mayor Bruce A. Broadwater, the only Democrat on the five-member City Council who was nonetheless pleased at the local Republican ascent to power. “Things are good for Garden Grove.”

But some residents were unimpressed with the political doings and don’t see any direct benefits for the city of 154,000.

Assemblyman Curt Pringle, R-Garden Grove, won the post of majority leader in the state Assembly Monday--just three days before Sen. Rob Hurtt, also from Garden Grove, was named minority leader of the state Senate.

“Curt Pringle and I are co-authoring legislation to move the Capitol to Garden Grove,” Hurtt joked Friday from his Knott Avenue office on the city’s west side. “We are both family men and we could get a lot more done a lot more efficiently and still be with our families. It would make things more convenient.”

Also celebrating the week’s turn of events Friday were staff members for Rep. Robert K. Dornan, a Garden Grove resident and presidential candidate.

“We’re in seventh heaven,” said Patricia Fanelli, the congressman’s district administrator, who added that Dornan is in Bosnia and probably not aware of the new posts for Pringle and Hurtt.

“It will be a happy surprise,” she said.

The latest political buzz, however, was lost on many in the lunchtime crowd Friday at Zlaket’s Market, where patrons gobbled down deli sandwiches unaware that their hometown now boasts both Republican leaders in the state Legislature.

“I had no idea that happened,” said 17-year resident Diane Selivan, who also was unaware that Pringle’s office is only doors away from the deli she frequently visits. “I really should be more politically involved.”

But Selivan hoped the new-found status would earn Orange County’s fourth-largest city a bit more respect.

“People call the city Garbage Grove and it kind of gets to you,” she said.

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Indeed, the city has suffered from a bit of an identity crisis since it was incorporated in 1956.

Once filled with rows of orange groves and strawberry fields, the 17.8-square-mile city evolved largely into a bedroom community without much major development.

But, Garden Grove is home to the Crystal Cathedral, an internationally known architectural monument where the Rev. Robert H. Schuller’s sermons are broadcast on television each week. The city also plays host to the annual Strawberry Festival--a tribute to a time when the city was one of the largest strawberry-producing areas in the nation.

“Garden Grove is one of the oldest cities [in Orange County], but you will still have people who say, ‘So, where’s Garden Grove?’ ” Hurtt said. “I think you’ll be seeing the city’s name in the newspaper a lot more from now on.”

Broadwater, elected mayor nine months ago, points out that Garden Grove was one of the few cities that did not have money in Orange County’s investment pool, which lost $1.7 billion of its value last year because of risky investment strategies.

“We’ve been able to balance our budgets for three years in a row without deficit problems,” he said.

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Longtime resident Lily Kuroda, 61, said having Pringle and Hurtt in more powerful positions will have little effect on the city because “I think we’ve been doing pretty well here. It’s a good city.”

Despite being a Republican and a 26-year resident of Garden Grove, Kuroda admits that she had mixed feelings when she learned of the new jobs for the staunch conservatives from her hometown.

“I think it’s fine, but they are both a little too conservative for me,” she said as she sat with friends outside of a yogurt shop on Main Street.

Mary Jo Stratton, who moved to Garden Grove only a month ago, said she has been too busy unpacking boxes to get up to speed on local politics.

“I don’t know who’s the senator or who’s the councilman, but I love this place,” said Stratton, standing outside of Pringle’s office at Main Street and Acacia Avenue. “I should have moved her 20 years ago.”

Working the cash register inside of Zlaket’s Market, Virginia Zlaket smiled and said she has been “whistling Dixie” all week because of the success of Hurtt and Pringle, who is an occasional customer at the market she runs with her husband, Leo.

“I’m thrilled that they put Garden Grove on the map this week,” said Zlaket, president of the city’s Chamber of Commerce. “I’m also thrilled as a business person because these are successful businessmen who went on to Sacramento. This is a good week for Garden Grove and a good week for everyone.”

* ROB HURTT’S AGENDA

The Senate minority leader won’t push new policies without GOP control. B7