Ferguson Unloads on Local Republican Leaders : Politics: Former veteran assemblyman accuses GOP’s ‘O.C. mafia’ of destroying careers of party’s own if they don’t do as they’re told. One of his targets calls the remarks sour grapes by a defeated officeholder.

Former Assemblyman Gil Ferguson on Wednesday blasted Orange County’s Republican Party establishment--which he called the “Orange County mafia”--for purportedly destroying political careers, including his own and that of Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress).

In a luncheon speech to a Republican women’s group here, Ferguson said local GOP leaders will lie and deceive to ruin the career of any Republicans who do not do what they are told.

“They will say anything, anything to hurt you,” said Ferguson, a staunchly conservative Republican and former Marine lieutenant colonel who spent 10 years representing Newport Beach in the Assembly and was defeated in his bid for the state Senate.

“It doesn’t do you any good to sue because you’re a public figure,” Ferguson said.

Allen, the former Assembly Speaker who faces a party-sponsored recall in her 67th District in northwest Orange County, made the mistake of being an independent woman who thinks for herself, Ferguson said.

“Doris makes up her own mind. They couldn’t stand for that . . . so they destroyed her,” Ferguson told the Capistrano Valley Republican Women Federated.

Along with Allen, Ferguson charged, the political careers of former Assembly candidate Barbara Stone, Laguna Niguel City Councilwoman Patricia C. Bates and Newport Beach attorney Thomas Reinecke have been derailed by the local political “mafia.”

Among the county GOP leaders whom Ferguson mentioned by name are Assemblyman Curt Pringle of Garden Grove, state Sens. Rob Hurtt of Garden Grove and Ross Johnson of Irvine and Thomas A. Fuentes, a Lake Forest resident and the longtime chairman of the county party. Johnson defeated Ferguson last spring in a highly charged race for the state Senate.

Fuentes called Ferguson’s comments “petty” and said the former assemblyman has “turned bitter” at the end of his political career.

“I feel very sad about Gil’s deterioration through the years,” said Fuentes, who has been party chairman for 12 years. “He is sadly possessed of the sour grapes attitude of a candidate who has three times sought the state Senate and been rejected by Republican voters. . . . Unfortunately he has been unable to cope with this rejection.”

Ferguson bemoaned what he called the sexist attitude of the local Republican “machine” and said it hurt Allen’s chances to survive, despite the fact that she was the first woman to become Speaker of the California Assembly.

Allen is being denounced by her Republican colleagues and is the subject of a recall campaign because she cooperated with Assembly Democrats to become Speaker. But Ferguson predicted that won’t happen to new Assembly Speaker Brian Setencich (R-Fresno), who was also elected with the support of Democrats, partly because he is a man.

“You watch, there won’t be a single Republican saying one bad thing to him,” Ferguson said.

Stone and Bates are two more examples of women who have fallen victim to the sexist GOP leadership, Ferguson said. Stone, a Cal State Fullerton political scientist, and Bates, a former Laguna Niguel mayor who was edged out of an Assembly seat in 1992, were deemed outsiders by party leaders, Ferguson said.

Fuentes called the charge of sexism “totally false.”

“The Republican Party in Orange County has been the party of opportunity for women,” Fuentes said. “This is just crazy.”

Reinecke, another staunch conservative, was barely defeated in the GOP primary for Assembly in 1992--won by Assemblywoman Marilyn C. Brewer (R-Newport Beach)--after what Ferguson termed “the machine” spread a false rumor that he paid for an abortion for his wife.

“Philosophy has nothing to do with politics . . . it’s all about power,” Ferguson said. “To any politician, the most important thing in the world is power, just plain power.”