A Background Role for O.C. Congressmen

This is supposed to be their party, in their state, in their own backyard.

But instead of flaunting the influence that comes with being a congressman at the Republican National Convention, most of Orange County’s congressional delegation is lying low--generally out of sight of the California delegates and nowhere near the convention podium that has featured other House members.

“I haven’t seen [an Orange County congressman] in the last couple of days,” said Emily Sanford, an Orange County delegate, who was breakfasting at the state’s headquarters hotel on Harbor Island here.

As of Tuesday evening, there had been no Dornan sightings along the 37 booths of Talk Radio Row in San Diego’s convention center, where the likes of Oliver North and Mary Matalin have been holding court and where sometime-talk show host Rep. Robert K. Dornan surely would be drawn.

And while former Vice President Dan Quayle was staging a rousing pep rally with California convention delegates, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) was outside in the hotel driveway, strapping a surfboard onto a recreational vehicle. Rohrabacher apparently bypassed a private lunch Tuesday for former Reagan White House staffers and campaigners.

“I’m going surfing first,” Rohrabacher said.

From the beaches of San Diego to the most private back-room meetings and points in between, local congressmen are doing what thousands of others who are not official delegates do at these conventions: meet, talk, gossip, spin the GOP message, and party, party, party.

They are all doing something. They’re just not doing it in the national media spotlight generally focused on the convention floor.

“I didn’t come here just to go around and attend things. I select [events] I can benefit from,” said Rep. Jay C. Kim of Diamond Bar, who is using the gathering to promote his support for a national sales tax.

Curiously missing in action so far has been Dornan, who spent more than a year of his life seeking the GOP presidential nomination and is drawn to the spotlight like a moth to a flame. Acquaintances and staffers said he was scheduled to be in San Diego for the convention.

Dornan is expected to make an appearance today--not live on stage, but in an edited video appearance that was offered to all the 1996 GOP presidential candidates. He will also be among the honorees at an antiabortion rally at Sea World today.

Rep. Ron Packard of Oceanside was seen on the convention floor mingling with delegates Monday evening. But he and his staff could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The most visible member of the delegation has been Rep. Christopher Cox of Newport Beach, Orange County’s most influential congressman and a man who received some early press as a possible vice presidential nominee.

On Sunday, Cox traded in his business suit for a denim shirt and led a “motorcyclists for Dole” parade. On Tuesday, he kicked his profile into higher gear as he went on spin patrol for the Republican National Committee, rolling from one radio talk show to the next promoting the new Dole economic plan. Cox also spoke at a lunch featuring the House leadership team, of which he is a member, and began a series of pep talks to convention delegates from other states that will last throughout the convention.

His favorite opening joke on the stump: “The vice presidential debate between [GOP vice presidential candidate Jack] Kemp and [Vice President Al] Gore will be a debate between the quarterback and the goal post.”

Cox also is moving in prestigious circles. He was scheduled to dine Tuesday evening with Kemp and conservative economist Arthur B. Laffer.

While they have not enjoyed the glare of the spotlight, others have had Kodak moments. Rohrabacher, for example, sang “California Girls” with Jan and Dean and later danced on stage with his surfboard at a California beach party Sunday.

Some business has been squeezed into the schedule.

Rohrabacher and Cox were among a group of House and Senate members who met with aerospace union workers Monday. “The unions are all unhappy with Clinton,” Cox maintained. Today, Rep. Ed Royce of Fullerton was assigned by the Republican National Committee to brief foreign ambassadors on the GOP’s foreign policy agenda for the campaign.

But ultimately, the Republican convention is, of course, all politics.

Royce, who is on the House Republicans’ recruitment team, has been spending most of his time behind the scenes with Republican candidates who are trying to knock Democrats out of House seats.

“Here we have some of the best spokespeople for the Republican Party,” Royce said. “The challengers are getting the themes to use in their campaigns. I would imagine that all of them are taking copious notes.”