State GOP Turns Focus From Dole’s Campaign

Politely but assuredly, California Republicans turned their focus away from Bob Dole’s struggling presidential campaign Saturday by calling on the party’s activists to help fight a high-stakes battle for control of Congress and the state Legislature.

Remember 1992, state Republican officials said at their semiannual convention here. That’s the last time a failing GOP presidential candidate abandoned California and was blamed for a Democratic windfall in races for Sacramento and Washington seats.

“I don’t expect to see that happen again,” state GOP Chairman John Herrington said. “I realize it’s on everybody’s lips . . . but I don’t think in ’92 we knew how bad it could be until we saw what [former President] Bush did in California. . . . We now have that information in black and white.”

So party leaders insisted that Dole will wage a serious campaign in California--if not for himself, then for the good of his party.

Political strategists describe a fierce battle in California for control of the Assembly, currently held by a razor-thin Republican majority. The state Senate is in Democratic hands and is expected to stay that way in this election, most observers believe.

In the Assembly, Jim Morrissey (R-Santa Ana) is among those Orange County Republicans who face a potentially stiff challenge. Democrat Lou Correa is facing off against Morrissey in the district, which has a heavy edge in Democratic registration.

Morrissey’s seat is a so-called “watch seat” for Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle of Garden Grove, who presides over the 80-seat lower chamber with a bare majority of 41 members. The district encompasses parts of Anaheim, Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, Orange and Santa Ana.

In Congress, the 52-member California delegation is split exactly in half, 26 Democrats and 26 Republicans. House Speaker Newt Gingrich predicted this week that Republicans could gain three seats or lose four in California, depending on how the election goes.

Two races in Orange County are considered potential trouble spots for Republicans. Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) faces a surprisingly well-funded challenge from Loretta Sanchez. Supporters of Dornan, whose campaign coffers are bare thanks to a fruitless run for the GOP presidential nomination, maintains he will be reelected.

Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) on Saturday discounted any threat from Sanchez, saying voters in the district “know and like Dornan.” But Sanchez, a moderate Democrat, has been working Republican as well as Democratic circles and is looking for greater support.

State GOP Chairman Herrington said Saturday that the Republican Party expects to spend about $13 million from state and national sources for its California candidates in this election. Most of the money will be used for offices, phone banks, mail and advertising to encourage Republican voting.

But Herrington also said he hopes to spend another $500,000 to help pass Proposition 209, the November ballot initiative to eliminate affirmative action programs in government. The Republican Party already invested nearly $500,000 to help the measure qualify for the ballot earlier this year.

Many Republican officials believe the initiative will help their candidates because it is popular in polls and it is opposed by many Democrats, including President Clinton. Ken Khachigian, Dole’s California strategist, said Saturday, however, that the GOP presidential campaign has not yet decided how much emphasis it will put on the issue.

Khachigian has spent the last few days trying to calm jittery Republicans, whose fear about Dole’s commitment to the state was heightened again this week when a poll said President Clinton was leading the race by 22 points. The Republican campaign was also rocked on Thursday when internal disagreements led to the surprise resignations of two top Dole strategists.

Khachigian assured reporters and delegates that Dole has already committed to spend nearly $2 million on television advertising in the state through the end of September. Like Herrington and other state officials, he also insisted that the race is still winnable in California.

But from the podium, most officials made little effort to whoop up enthusiasm for the presidential campaign.

Instead of Dole or vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp, who had once been expected to speak at the convention, the national campaign was represented in a dinner speech by Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Meanwhile, at a luncheon, state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, Dole’s campaign co-chairman in California, never mentioned the presidential candidate’s name in his brief remarks to about 500 delegates.

Instead, Lungren identified a different set of stakes for the party to consider. Today, he noted, California has more Republican members in Congress than at any other time in the state’s history; Republicans control the Assembly for the first time in 25 years and five of the state’s seven constitutional offices are held by the GOP.

Gov. Pete Wilson, who serves with Lungren as Dole co-chairman in California, also addressed Republicans, saying, “If you have friends who somehow doubt whether this election really makes a difference . . . just tell them to take a look at what we have accomplished by sending just a few more Republicans to Sacramento.”

Times political writer Peter M. Warren contributed to this report