GOP Ballot Scheme Assailed

I’m afraid Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi is wrong when he says that Orange County is “not Chicago.” For when it comes to the Republican bosses’ control of the Republican candidates here in Orange County, it practically puts Chicago politics to shame. Now, under present big-money Republican bosses here in Orange County, true conservatism is out the window and extremist right-wing dogma is in.

We should all thank God that we have Capizzi as district attorney since he has shown himself to be a moral person by impartially doing the job he was elected for. Let’s hope that Capizzi continues to do a thorough job in finding out who was the person, or persons, directing all of this felonious chicanery from above.

JAMES R. GALLAGHER

Huntington Beach

* First there were uniformed poll guards in the 1988 election designed to frighten Hispanic voters from the polls. That operation, headed by Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove), was forced to pay over $450,000 in fines for its scare tactics.

Now we have more dirty tricks. When will now-Speaker Pringle and his gang learn that the one thing you do not mess with is the electoral process, which is at the very core of our democracy. Maybe they believe they can destroy the integrity of the electoral process in order to win elective offices and to push their right-wing agenda.

WYLIE A. AITKEN

Chairman

Democratic Foundation

of Orange County

Santa Ana

* The recent course of events with respect to the indictment of Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) is very disturbing. The whole affair elucidates something extremely insidious in American politics that threatens the very concept of our republic and runs quite counter to democratic principles. And to observe the behavior of many of the members of the GOP with respect to this crisis leads one to think that the democratic values of the members of that party are wholly absent.

The struggle to obtain a majority in the Assembly has led the Republican party to stop at nothing. This concept is very frightening because the Republican party is so strongly behind keeping Baugh in office. They seem to be saying that they do not believe in democracy but instead in a more tribal form of authoritarian government. Republicans are supposedly the party of law and order. Yet they seem to flout the very same law and order when it benefits themselves.

LARRY S. SCHMID

Huntington Beach

* Your headline “Democratic Process Destroyed” (Letters, March 17) is at the least a gross exaggeration of Scott Baugh’s political impact.

The saintly contributors to the premise that he “destroyed the democratic process” in the short while that he has been in politics ignore the decades of Democratic leadership of such powerful pillars of virtue as California’s former Assembly speaker, Willie Brown; Jim Wright the former speaker of the House; former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski of Chicago, and many others who were in office for decades.

Consequently, the Republicans didn’t have to attend “dirty tricks school.” They learned only too well from the school of natural Democrat inclinations after years of their leadership. The fault with the Republicans is that a few came to believe that this kind of behavior was proper.

BOB BALL

Anaheim

* It’s a real bummer the way Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and the state Republican vice chairman, Michael Schroeder, are dumping on our district attorney--a fellow Republican, no less.

Lighten up, guys! Capizzi is doing exactly what he’s supposed to--fighting crime. And sleaze, too.

DICK LEWIS

Newport Beach

* In this day and age of press and government bashing, it is indeed refreshing to observe these two institutions operate in an exemplary fashion. Case in point: the Scott Baugh fiasco.

The Times’ dogged pursuit of this story and the astute investigation by the Orange County district attorney’s office serve to illustrate how valuable a service each of these entities can perform. As we say in the Marine Corps, “Job well done. . . . Carry on.”

JOHN BOAG

Huntington Beach

* It seems the Republican Party has a long history of cultivating felons. Could it be the GOP is now intent on repealing the assault-weapons ban so it can become America’s first street gang with representatives in all 50 states?

BRUCE HOWELL

Costa Mesa