He’s the First in Orange County to RSVP : Politics: Thomas M. Whaling of Lake Forest, a fan of Jesse Jackson <i> and </i> George Will, joins Ross Perot’s new Reform Party.

A semi-retired attorney from Lake Forest who describes himself as a “political anomaly” last week became the first Orange County voter to register as a member of Ross Perot’s nascent, third political party.

Thomas M. Whaling, 62, said he voted for Perot in the 1992 presidential elections and remains a fervent supporter of the Texas billionaire’s populist politics and his crusade to change government.

“I think he’s genuine,” said Whaling, a community activist who has twice sought public office himself. “He’s very inspirational to me because he brings people together. The media was unfair to him, they put him down for being simplistic, but he was thrown into a sound bite world and he gave sound bite answers.”

At least 89,007 California voters would need to register for the Perot-led Reform Party, or 890,064 would need to sign petitions, by Oct. 24 to qualify for a primary ballot in March. Dubbed the Independence Party in other states, it is called the Reform Party in California to avoid confusion with the American Independent Party.

Whaling said he embraces conservative fiscal policies, calls himself a gadfly and a maverick, and is a familiar face at Board of Supervisors meetings. He said he supported past presidential independents such as Thomas Dewey, Jesse Jackson and John Anderson.

“I’m hard to define, somewhat inconsistent . . . “ Whaling said. “I’m not fixed in ideology. I’m fixed in finding solutions.”

He opposes abortion and the death penalty and supports affirmative action and gun control.

Whaling said he is angered by “massive regulation” in government, despises the influence of lobbying groups and worries that environmental concerns sometimes automatically take precedence over economic ones. He cites as influences the late farm workers’ union organizer Cesar E. Chavez, conservative columnist George F. Will and jurist Robert H. Bork.

Whaling said he has been both a registered Republican and a Democrat. He ran as the latter in an unsuccessful state Senate bid in 1990, and also fell short in a run for a Laguna City Council seat in 1994.

He said Perot “touched me deeply when he went to Vietnam to get our boys back. I’m a former Marine and, by God, he did more than the politicos did to get our boys back. He did the right thing.”

Whaling’s dream ticket for the 1996 presidential race would unite Gen. Colin L. Powell and former education secretary William J. Bennett together under the banner of Perot’s Reform Party.