<i> A behind-the-scenes look at Orange County’s political life</i>

Barry Zanck has a “Geraldo” problem.

Zanck, a candidate for the Newport Beach City Council, got ripped at a recent candidate forum by an unidentified woman who had been in the audience for a 1993 appearance on Geraldo Rivera’s daytime TV show. The hourlong segment was entitled “Men Who Think They Are God’s Gift to Women.”

In case you were wondering, Zanck was cast as one of God’s gifts.

“It was a joke,” said Zanck. Indeed, the 41-year-old bachelor and former stand-up comic says his appearance was really just a performance.

But not everyone in Newport Beach appreciates Zanck’s sense of humor. His attacker at the candidate’s forum called the candidate “sexist” and pleaded with voters not to cast their ballots for Zanck.

During the 1993 taping, Zanck tackled a question about picking up women by replying: “It’s not all that tough. We just have to find women who aren’t as smart as we are.”

Now, however, he wants to set the record straight. It was an act, Zanck insists. For the record, Zanck does not believe he is God’s gift to women.

“The truth is,” he said, “the garbage goes out more than I do.”

Friends in High Places: As he visited Nicaragua several times in recent years to promote democracy on behalf of the Republican Party, Orange County Republican Party Chairman Tom Fuentes forged close friendships with conservative leaders such as Managua Mayor Arnoldo Aleman.

Fuentes’ friend was elected president of Nicaragua last week, a victory that “is a joy that borders on tearfulness,” Fuentes said. “To see the fulfillment of democracy established by Arnoldo’s election is something that is tremendously emotional for me.”

Aleman’s decisive win could also be profitable for Orange County. Fuentes, who led a group of county business leaders on a tour of Nicaragua last year, expects that closer ties to Nicaraguan leadership will mean better access to the country’s cheap labor pool and farm industry for county businesses.

Revenge of the Cavemen: Orange County’s statehouse delegation has never been known as a bunch of tree huggers. But their 1996 performance on the California League of Conservation Voters environmental scorecard is a new low.

Local legislators got lower marks than they did in 1995, when the group voted the environmentalist line a tad more than 19% of the time. This year, they dropped like the ozone layer, scoring an average of less than 7%.

The highest score was recorded by Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange), who voted for environmental measures only 13% of the time. Assemblywoman Marilyn C. Brewer (R-Irvine), considered a squishy moderate by some conservatives before she came to Sacramento, got a whopping 4% mark. Assemblymen Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) and Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) scored perfect zeros.

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Environmental Score Card

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Lawmaker 1996 1995 Assembly members Dick Ackerman (R-Fullerton) 4% 33% Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) 0 N/A Marilyn C. Brewer (R-Irvine) 4 24 Mickey Conroy (R-Orange) 13 24 Jim Morrissey (R-Santa Ana) 9 18 Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) 0 19 Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) 5 7 State senators Sen. Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove) 11 6 Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine) 10 20 Sen. John R. Lewis (R-Orange) 10 5

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Source: California League of Conservation Voters

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Playing Politics: Sports and politics rarely mix, but in a gung-ho, recreation-oriented community like Mission Viejo, the combination makes sense.

With the second-largest American Youth Soccer Organization chapter in the country and thousands of other children playing other organized sports in this city of 92,000, Mission Viejo parents organized their own City Council candidates forum this week to quiz candidates about sports-related issues like user fees for playing fields.

“There are few things in our lives that matter more to us than our children,” said Allan Gallup, chairman of the Mission Viejo Soccer Foundation, which ran the forum. “We wanted to create a way for parents to get educated about the issues and the views of candidates on sports and recreation.”

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Out on His Ear: The Central Committee of the Orange County Republican Party voted unanimously Monday to expel lawyer William A. Dougherty, who earlier this month joined about a dozen other Republicans in endorsing President Clinton.

Dougherty, a retired colonel in the Marine Corps, said he would fight the action by filing suit against the committee. He has been critical of the leadership of the party in the county, saying they “represent the religious right wing of the Republican Party and . . . are all anti-abortion.”

By Times staff writer Eric Bailey with contributions from Times political writer Peter M. Warren and correspondents Frank Messina, Hope Hamashige and David Phinney of States News Service.

Politics ’96 appears every Sunday. Items can be mailed to Politics ‘96, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or faxed to (714) 966-7711.