County Democrats’ Scandal Not Much, but It’s a Start

Very crafty, these local Democrats.

And may I be frank? I didn’t think they had it in them. I thought they had about as much public relations sense as Howard Hughes, who spent the last 20 years of his life trying to convince people he didn’t exist.

Rip Van Winkle was a party animal compared to Orange County Democrats, who take the expression “out of sight, out of mind” to a whole new level. The local Republicans revere Ronald Reagan; the Democrats feel the same way about Judge Crater. You want to talk about stealth candidates? This is the Stealth Party. All you need to join is to know the secret handshake.

Finally, though, they may be getting the idea.

Finally, they figured out how to make the front page of the paper and get people talking about them. Up till now, this was a party whose idea of a fund-raiser was to have a carwash, sell 25-cent hot dogs and give away red balloons.

Now, they have themselves a scandal. I’d like to think they did it on purpose, but you never know with amateurs. The only thing I do know for sure is that they shouldn’t fight it. This is the best thing that’s happened to them since Watergate.

For starters, it isn’t much of a scandal--it’s more of a hoo-ha--but remember, these people are inexperienced at this sort of thing. I’m sure the Democrats would be the first to admit they are nowhere near as practiced as the local Republicans, who consider it a waste of time to engage in chicanery that doesn’t at least run the risk of a federal investigation or an indictment.

So, the Dems are taking it slow. This is their equivalent of sticking a toe into the pool to test the water.

Sure, they’re acting like they’re upset about the negative publicity. Eventually, they’ll come to learn what the local Republicans have known for years: As long as they spell your name right, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. You think Messrs. Rohrabacher and Dornan and Conroy worry about bad publicity? You may not like those guys, but, unlike the local Democrats, they never make the mistake of letting you forget their names.

As for the Democratic scandal, it’s almost embarrassing to outline it, but, hey, I didn’t dream it up. It’s their scandal, and if this is the best they can do, who am I to judge?

What happened was, the chairman of the county party, Jim Toledano (that’s T-O-L-E-D-A-N-O), received $10,000 from a woman in Arizona and spent it on a mailer just before election day in late March. The mailer was sent to registered Democrats, identified a couple candidates who had been endorsed by the state party and then encouraged people to vote.

As it turned out, however, the donor was a sister of one of the candidates mentioned. She had already given as much as she was legally entitled to give to her brother’s campaign, so her late contribution might violate election laws. Toledano says he didn’t know the donor was the candidate’s sister.

That spurred a number of local Democrats to take umbrage with Toledano for blindly accepting the contribution and then deciding on his own to spend it without consulting the executive committee of the county party.

At a meeting this week, the committee issued a 5-4 vote of no-confidence in Toledano and demanded his resignation. He has refused, and the skirmishing is underway. The local party treasurer has already resigned in protest of Toledano’s action.

Toledano concedes he should have consulted the board and says he wouldn’t have spent the money on the mailer had he known of the donor’s connection to the candidate. Earlier in the week, though, he referred to criticism of him as a “tempest in a teapot.”

A tempest, indeed. And long overdue, as far as the Democrats are concerned.

It works like this: First, casual observers may be drawn to news of “infighting” among local Democrats. Then, they may discover there’s a “rift” in the party. Before long, they may learn of “noisy factions.” From there, it’s an easy leap to “intraparty bloodletting.”

That, my friends, is how you generate interest in your party. I can imagine a husband saying to his wife someday soon, “Say, honey, did you know there was another party here in Orange County? Apparently, there’s some intraparty bloodletting going on. Maybe we should learn more about them.”

Surely Toledano must know that. Surely he and the executive committee cooked up this whole thing. When he said earlier this week that the airing of the incident is “so damn counterproductive,” that was part of the script, right?

The only problem this scandal poses for local Democrats is figuring out how to keep it alive.

Dana Parsons’ columns appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.