O.C. Delegates to Share Cautionary Tale

Now it’s the Democrats’ turn to party.

A 37-member delegation of spirited Democrats is scheduled to arrive in Chicago on Monday for the party’s four-day national convention, the counterpart to the Republicans’ gathering in San Diego two weeks ago.

Even though Orange County is predominantly Republican, the Democratic group includes prominent business, education and community leaders, said Howard Adler, a wealthy Laguna Hills developer and party activist attending his fourth convention.

“These are people who in their own fields are very important, particularly in labor or business,” said Adler, who is hosting a luncheon for the delegation and other state leaders Monday.

People such as Robert McDonough of Capistrano Beach--chairman of Remedy Temp Inc. and a trustee of the Democratic National Committee, an honor bestowed to those who donate $100,000 to the party annually--will attend. So will Bruce Lee, the former western regional director of the United Auto Workers union.

Others include South County rancher Richard O’Neill, Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr. and former Assemblyman Tom Umberg of Villa Park. Chauncey Alexander of Huntington Beach, the former executive director of the National Assn. of Social Workers, is attending with his wife, Sally “Hang Ten” Alexander, the 82-year-old congressional candidate who has challenged her opponent, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), to a September surf-off.

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“Sally is bringing her Boogie Board with her,” said Chauncey Alexander, who is 80 and a lifelong Democrat.

One of the key messages the delegation will share with the national party is a concern that Orange County has become the “spawning ground” for the extreme religious right wing that has taken over the Republican Party, according to Adler.

“We think that crowd was in control of the real agenda in San Diego,” Adler said. “We want our party to realize how powerful these people have become and how serious the problem is here. . . . We want to let them know that if we really are going to change things, we have to change things here.”

Many in the delegation will stay in the same hotel, the Chicago Hilton and Towers, said delegate Linda Moulton-Patterson, 53, the former mayor of Huntington Beach who gave a speech at the party’s 1992 convention in New York. Moulton-Patterson pleaded guilty last month to a misdemeanor count of filing false election papers during her unsuccessful 1995 Assembly race.

“That was a mistake that is behind me now,” she said.

She and her husband, Jerry, who was the last Democratic representative from Orange County, arrived in Chicago on Amtrak Zephyr, which rolled over the Rocky Mountains and western plains.

For her, being on the convention floor for the nighttime, nationally broadcast speeches will be a highlight.

“It’s really inspiring, and also a great party,” she said. “But I think it’s important that all Democrats and moderate Republicans help get the message out that, with Bill Clinton. . . . America is headed the right way.”

Although there is little drama expected in the nomination of Clinton, the Democrats still hope to add the kind of bounce to the Democratic Party that polls show the Republicans enjoyed from their convention. Part of that strategy is to remind people that the Clinton presidency has had its share of successes, said McDonough, 74, a native of Chicago.

McDonough acknowledged that he is part of a distinct minority in Orange County: a backer of Clinton.

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“Unquestionably, there is a preponderance of business people who side with the Republicans, which I personally think is a little short-sighted,” McDonough said. “I believe Clinton has been very favorable to business and has done a very good job with it.”

The delegation also includes educators, who are particularly fired up because Republican nominee Bob Dole criticized the power of teachers unions during his acceptance speech in San Diego, Moulton-Patterson said.

“I have talked to a lot of people in education who were offended by Dole’s acceptance speech,” she said. “I think a lot of moderate Republicans will support President Clinton because of his stands on family, women and educational issues.”

Margaret Robinson, the county central committee’s vice chair and a delegate from Santa Ana, called the Dole remark against the teachers unions as a “cheap shot.”

“It was like, ‘Why did that even come up?’ ” said Robinson, a teacher in the Santa Ana Unified School District. “If you look at history, the [teachers unions] support candidates who are supportive of education. . . . There is this perception that [the unions] are anti-Republican, but they are not. They are nonpartisan.”

Other traditional Democratic issues such as health care and workers’ rights should get some attention, Chauncey Alexander said.

“I want to make the party more progressive in its support of down-sized workers in this country, to do things like provide retraining opportunities for them,” said Alexander, a part-time faculty member at Cal State Long Beach. “I will also be active, since I live in Huntington Beach, on fighting the reduction of regulations some have proposed for clean water and the pollution of our ocean waters.”

The county delegation can also share with the rest of the country what it is like to live in a county controlled by conservative Republican officials, said Umberg, who is director of the Clinton campaign in California. No Democrats hold any elected office in Orange County higher than a judgeship.

“The Orange County delegation is in a unique position. . . . We have a perspective on what America would look like if Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich were actually controlling the nation’s agenda,” Umberg said.