Umberg Directs ‘Spin War’

Tom Umberg has a score to settle.

Orange County’s last Democratic state legislator, the man who lost to Republican Dan Lungren in the 1994 attorney general’s race, is helping to direct a group of two dozen Democratic campaign guerrillas offering counter-spin to the GOP convention blitz.

As state director of the Clinton-Gore campaign, it is Umberg’s job to answer the barrage of information Republican campaign managers are putting out from the podium at the Republican National Convention and in press conferences around the city.

“The convention turns out to be a one-week commercial,” Umberg said from the rapid-response team headquarters in a run-down, industrial section on the eastern edge of downtown. “Our mission is to put out that the [Republican] economic plan would be an unmitigated disaster for California.”

The Democratic team includes representatives from Clinton’s California campaign and their colleagues from Washington. They have taken over the former headquarters of a defunct surf-wear manufacturing company, where they gather each day to send out their spokespersons: U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), general chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Ann Lewis, national spokeswoman for the Clinton-Gore campaign.

At a morning news conference Monday, the two national figures attacked the GOP platform, targeting what they called “the Extreme-Team economic message.” Today, the focus is expected to shift to a contrast between President Clinton’s “positive impact” on families and the trouble they claim will result for California families if Bob Dole captures the White House.

Are the Republicans annoyed that the Democrats have invaded their party?

“A lot of what I see is rather juvenile and rather outrageous,” said Ken Khachigian, who is running the Dole campaign in California. “To the extent they are not credible, their message will not resonate with voters. Their approach is not very sophisticated.”

Khachigian, who makes his home in San Clemente, shows little respect for his rival. “I think he is a twerp,” he said. “He is not a heavyweight and is not politically well-respected in Orange County.”

Umberg, an attorney, first came to prominence when he was elected to the Assembly in 1990, besting first-term Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove). Umberg held the office until 1994, when he decided to run for state attorney general.

His timing couldn’t have been worse. Umberg lost badly in a nationwide Republican landslide created, in part, by voter dissatisfaction with Clinton’s failure to deliver on his programs and unhappiness with the Democratic Congress. He returned to practicing law.

Today, Umberg’s seat is held by a Republican, Jim Morrissey (R-Santa Ana), leaving county Democrats with no state or federal office-holders. Pringle, who was reelected in 1992 to a neighboring, reapportioned district, now is Assembly Speaker.

Two years after his crushing defeat, Umberg has returned to politics in part for the “psychic value of having the feeling on Nov. 5, 1996, that I had done a good job,” he said. Victory would “give some relief from the nightmare of 1994. We lost my race and a world of other seats,” he said.

While Umberg said he enjoys practicing law, he clearly looks and sounds happier working the political circuit. Last week, he went jogging with President Clinton in Santa Monica. He helped plan much of the president’s visit to the state, which also included stops in Northern California and Long Beach.

It is widely rumored that Umberg hopes for a presidential appointment if Clinton wins a second term. Clinton’s previous California state director, John Emerson, is now deputy director of inter-governmental affairs in the White House.

Umberg, who took a leave in June from a lucrative job with a national firm to run Clinton’s California campaign, said he has “no plans” other than to return to his law practice in the fall.

“I haven’t given that up,” said Umberg, who lives in Villa Park with his wife, Robin, and their three children. “This is just a break to take on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in a presidential race.”

Bill Carrick, political consultant to the statewide Clinton campaign, praised Umberg for “having radar” about the suburban swing voters Clinton is targeting in California. “This isn’t a thing he knows by the numbers,” Carrick said. “He really knows the human beings we have to move in California.”

But this week, Umberg’s attention is focused on getting out the Democrats’ message and doing some tweaking of his own. The effort is part alchemy and part running against the clock.

In addition to news conferences and press releases, the Democratic team is passing out leaflets, rolling billboards around the city on a flatbed truck and lampooning Dole’s views on tobacco with a ubiquitous walking cigarette named “Buttman.”

“Every day we neutralize something they do is a day they have lost,” Carrick said. “We are significantly ahead in the state and they have a lot of ground to make up.”

Times Staff Writer Jim Rainey also contributed to this report.