Orange Trustee Denounces Liberal Activists

The conservative slate of candidates for the board of Orange Unified School District charged Wednesday that labor unions, militant liberals and “homosexual activists” are trying to take over the large district in the Nov. 4 election.

“Over the last four years, the school board majority, which represents the interests of this conservative community, wrested control of the school board and gave it back to the parents,” incumbent board President Martin Jacobson said. “Now the labor unions are trying to take it back.”

That was the opening volley at a news conference by the conservatives to denounce their challengers for accepting backing from what they said are forces outside the district: the California Teachers Assn. and its local union; county Democrats; and a coalition of other groups called Kids First for Education.

Jacobson, who campaigned in 1993 wearing an electronic surveillance bracelet after blocking an abortion clinic entrance in an Operation Rescue action, said he is concerned about any political action committee that includes gay-rights advocates because “they want teachers to portray homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle, and that is not appropriate.”

One of the main targets of the morning attack was the Orange Unified Education Assn., which represents teachers in the sprawling district that serves 29,000 children in all of Orange and Villa Park, and parts of Anaheim, Santa Ana and Garden Grove.

Members of that group said the conservative candidates are not limiting their support, either, to local parents and neighbors. They pointed out that the conservative slate--Jacobson, Kathy Ward, Linda Davis and Terri Sargeant--used the news conference to announce their endorsements by state Sen. John Lewis, Assemblyman Bill Campbell and the influential Lincoln Club, Orange County’s conservative Republican organization.

Suzanne Vaugine, president of the teachers union, said of Jacobson: “He’s panicking. He’s pulling Halloween dirty tricks with things he thinks will inflame the community. He doesn’t seem to have an issue. He’s just bashing groups of people.”

One observer of the highly charged campaign said Wednesday that throwing out charges at the last minute is hardly new.

“It’s a standard ploy that’s called sly innuendo,” said Fred Smoller, a political science professor at Chapman University in Orange. Of the conservative slate’s comments, he said, “It’s a modern-day version of Red-baiting. They’re trying to discredit individual candidates by tying them to larger movements in our society that are unpopular.”

Jacobson and the others said they had no choice but to pull off the gloves because their opponents have the potential to outspend them and thus gain an advantage.

Observers say that Kids First and other groups behind the moderate candidates are, indeed, providing more help this year than in past races.

Their slate includes incumbents Rick Ledesma and James Fearns, who regularly are on the losing side of 4-3 votes on the contentious school board. Moderates Gisela Meier and William G. Vasquez also are endorsed by the OUEA and Kids First, a coalition of groups including local Democratic clubs, the gay-Republicans’ Log Cabin club and gay-rights groups, and the Elections Committee of Orange County, known as ECCO.

A third group of moderates, all in the race challenging Ledesma, are Bea Gonzalez, J. Carolan Smyth III and Robert L. Douglas.

Jeff LeTourneau, chairman of ECCO, brushed aside Jacobson’s remarks that the independent groups supporting moderates are from outside the district.

“That’s the biggest lie of all,” he said. “There is not one group in this coalition that does not have hundreds of members in Orange. The secondary issue is that four school boards in this county are one vote away from being taken over by this right wing. That’s important to everybody.”

Disclosure statements filed by individual candidates show that most are paying for their own campaigns with amounts ranging from $2,000 to $13,000. Some have reported contributions from individuals, political party clubs and groups such as the Pro-Life Political Action Committee.

With few direct contributions, some candidates said, they and their rivals are facing the same financial constraints.

“I am not being financed by any union,” said Meier, who is challenging Jacobson. “I am receiving money from a whole range of people, and I haven’t asked any of them what their sexual orientation is.”

Vaugine said the California Teachers Assn. has contributed about $2,700 to each candidate on the moderate slate. The local association’s campaign is funded largely by 240 teachers who donated earmarked campaign funds during a two-year period.

“This rhetoric of separating the teachers from the union is smoke and mirrors,” she said. “I was elected by the teachers.”