Toledano Survives Vote, Now Faces New Test

Surviving an attempt to oust him might have been the easy part for Jim Toledano, Orange County Democratic Party chair, who now faces the task of uniting a deeply split party less than six months before a presidential election.

On Tuesday, the day after a close vote to remove him from his post, Toledano said: “Now we have to pick up the pieces. . . . The bottom line is, we have an opportunity to carry Orange County for Bill Clinton, so the job is to mobilize our resources.”

That might not be easy, considering the lingering hard feelings among some party officials over Toledano’s controversial handling of a $10,000 campaign contribution in the March primary election.

Vice Chair Jeanne Costales resigned Monday night, immediately after Toledano weathered the recall, and said she will not work with a chairman she does not trust.

“I’m really sad, but I find I cannot work with a chair whose judgment I do not respect, whose word I do not trust and whose integrity I doubt,” said Costales, of Lake Forest, who also resigned her post as finance committee chair. Party Treasurer David Levy also resigned over the contribution issue.

“As far as party unity goes, [Toledano] is much better served working with someone who can work well with him,” Costales said.

Costales and Levy were among the leaders of the anti-Toledano faction going into the vote Monday night at the Carpenters Union Hall in Orange. It turned out they were in the 34-22 majority that voted to remove Toledano, who clung to his post because party bylaws require a two-thirds vote of committee members present to oust a chair.

“I’m just shocked with people’s inability to see what Jim Toledano did, and I’m shocked they didn’t take our lawyer’s advice,” Costales said.

Attorney Fredric D. Woocher, hired by the party leadership to investigate the $10,000 contribution, urged party leaders to repudiate Toledano for accepting the money, depositing it in a secret bank account and using it to finance the mailer, all without authorization from other county party officials.

Woocher also notified the Federal Election Commission last week that Toledano had acted on his own in spending the money on a last-minute mailer.

The mailer urged voters on behalf of the party to support congressional candidate Jim Prince, who came in third, and Assembly candidate Lou Correa, who ran unopposed. The $10,000 contribution came from Arizona residents Paul and Debra Lee LaPrade. She is Prince’s sister.

Toledano has acknowledged it was a mistake to deposit the money and spend it without consulting other party officials. He also said he did not know LaPrade was Prince’s sister.

But his actions prompted a faction of the party to call for his recall.

The rancorous debate over Toledano’s fate has left many party officials reeling and weary just when they need to mount a solid campaign to win support for Clinton, who polls show has a strong chance of beating probable Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole, the Senate majority leader from Kansas.

“We were very afraid the party was going to fall apart last night,” Marie Fennell of Huntington Beach, a member of the executive board and a Toledano supporter, said Tuesday. “This was very, very divisive . . . but once the dust settles, we will get busy and work on the campaign. We are tired of fighting among ourselves.”

Her sentiments echoed those of Ray Cordova, the regional director of the state Democratic Party and one of Toledano’s most outspoken opponents.

Cordova said despite the fact “a small minority is keeping Toledano” in office, the party must press forward.

“I don’t have faith in Toledano . . . but for us to attempt to come back and [try to remove him again] would be viewed as sour grapes,” said Cordova of Garden Grove. “With Jeanne gone, I’m going to have to step in and do more.”

Cordova added that he remains concerned about the possible consequences of the contribution. It may have violated federal campaign finance laws because the LaPrades had already reached their contribution limits on the Prince campaign.

Toledano has maintained that the Prince campaign and the LaPrades must carry any burden of any possible campaign violations.

Nonetheless, Carolyn Poindexter, an ally of Costales, said it is not so easy to forgive and move on.

“I am just overwhelmed,” said Poindexter of Anaheim, the president of the Democratic Club of North Orange County. “I am devastated by the loss of Jeanne. She has been the best fund-raiser the party has known for a long time.”

Toledano “needs to mend fences big-time,” Poindexter said.

Toledano began that process Monday night, telling the gathering that the recall’s point “was taken.”

On Tuesday, he reiterated his plea to party brethren that what he did, mistakes and all, was done for the good of the party.

“I made a good-faith mistake,” said Toledano, party chair for 17 months. “I did it because I thought it would benefit the party to have the publicity--of the mailer, not the controversy. Other than the way it was done, it was a straightforward, positive thing that unfortunately turned into a controversy.”