Jim Beam

Deja vu, once again: Jim Beam is nearly unbeatable in his native Orange, where he was mayor for six years and a council member for 10. But each time he ventures out of town to run for higher office, he has not merely lost, he has been nudged out in excruciatingly close elections.

The first time was back in 1974, when he lost an Assembly race to Bruce Nestande by about 300 votes. In 1986 it was a supervisorial race to Don R. Roth by less than one vote per precinct.

The March 26 primary was another squeaker. Only 318 votes separated Beam and Bill Campbell of Villa Park for the Republican nomination in the 71st Assembly District.

“I’m the champeen of this,” said a good-natured Beam last week.

Will he try again?

“I don’t think so,” Beam said. “But, of course, that’s what I said 10 years ago.”

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Delayed reaction: Presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan’s visit on March 21 to Greenville Fundamental Elementary School in Santa Ana went off without a hitch, at least until the following school board meeting.

The visit, brokered by conservative board member Rosemarie Avila, seemed logical for Buchanan, a critic of immigration and supporter of English-only education. Greenville, unlike many schools in the heavily Latino Santa Ana Unified School District, offers English instruction only.

Board member Audrey Yamagata-Noji wondered if the school had been used as a political tool. Unhappy parent Maria Rosa Lopez went further, informing the board that two parental advisory committees had unanimously condemned the visit.

“Mr. Buchanan is anti-immigrant, anti-bilingual education and I don’t know what else,” Lopez said. “Our schools are full of immigrants. . . . It was a slap in the face.”

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Is he or isn’t he?: Even Supervisor Don Saltarelli says he is not sure if he’s interested in conducting a November write-in candidacy for the 3rd District seat.

Based on the outcome of the March 26 primary, it will be Deputy Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer of Brea against Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange), but Saltarelli said his office has been inundated with calls and letters urging him to run.

“I guess there is a feeling, based on the primary vote, that three out of four people are not interested in Mr. Conroy and four out of five are not interested in Mr. Spitzer,” Saltarelli said. “I’m flattered, but I have so much on my plate at the moment that I can’t even think about organizing a write-in campaign.”

Saltarelli, appointed to his seat last October by Gov. Pete Wilson to fill the vacancy left by Gaddi H. Vasquez’s resignation, did not rule out such a campaign, however, and said he has kept his promise to Wilson to be only an interim candidate, even if he does run.

“The interviewing committee asked me if I had any long-term political aspirations and I told them no. I believe I kept my word by not filing for my seat in December,” he said.

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Write-in advice: Saltarelli didn’t ask for advice, but Mike Eggers of Dana Point, the former mayor, called the difficult process of a write-in candidacy “a tap dance.” Eggers helped Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) win by write-in campaign in 1982, then only the fourth time such a candidacy had been successful in the history of Congress.

“You have to have a tremendous volunteer force and a clear and definite difference between the candidates,” said Eggers, who gets “four or five calls” every election cycle from people inquiring how Packard did it.

Packard launched his write-in campaign after coming in second by 93 votes to Johnny Crean in a madcap primary field of 18 Republican candidates. Fifteen of the 18 urged Packard to do it, Eggers said.

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Slow but sure: It may have been after 10 p.m. election day when the first precincts were counted and 3 a.m. before the final results were in hand, but accuracy takes precedence over speed, said county Registrar of Voters Rosalyn Lever. That’s why Orange County still uses the cumbersome DataVote system, which often requires five different ballot cards per voter, and not the speedier one-ballot Votamatic system used elsewhere in California.

The Votamatic card is pocked with 312 tiny, punchable squares, which work quickly in a machine, but are a nightmare when hand-checking votes in a recount, Lever said.

“The time that we finish counting is definitely an issue, but not a major issue,” Lever told reporters who were fending off angry, deadline-busted editors on election night. “As far as I’m concerned, we have the most accurate system there is.”

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New face: Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) has hired Terry Bye, a former assistant to Assemblyman Keith Olberg (R-Victorville), to replace the recently resigned Mark Denny as an administrative assistant in charge of district office operations. Denny was one of three GOP operatives who pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme to help get Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) elected last November.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

* Monday: A fund-raiser for state Sens. Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove) and John R. Lewis (R-Orange) will be held in a private suite at the Pond of Anaheim before a Mighty Ducks game. Call Doug Swardstrom at (714) 895-2250.

* Wednesday: The general meeting of the Orange County Young Republicans will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Communications for America, 100 Bayview Circle, Newport Beach. Call (714) 754-5955.

* Wednesday: County Clerk-Recorder Gary L. Granville will be the guest speaker at the San Clemente Republican Women Federated meeting at 10 a.m. at the Pacific Golf and Country Club. Call Analee Swanson, (714) 492-2864.

Compiled by Times staff writer Len Hall, with contributions from correspondents Jeff Kass and Russ Loar.

Politics ’96 appears every Sunday. Items can be mailed to Politics ‘96, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or faxed to (714) 966-7711.