Pringle Attacked From Right at GOP Convention

Former Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove), a candidate for state treasurer, is taking heat at the GOP’s semiannual convention here from three of the party’s loudest and most activist conservative groups: the California Republican Assembly, Young Americans for Freedom and the College Republicans.

Pringle, who gained power with the help of the conservative movement, said he is unconcerned about the attacks from the right, which intensified recently after he made an endorsement for a central California congressional seat.

“I’m in a primary campaign,” said Pringle, who faces a tough fight against Assemblyman Jan Goldsmith (R-Poway). “This represents a small pool of people within the party. I don’t think it’ll hurt me. My reception in this party isn’t any different than it was three or four years ago. You’ll always have some detractors.”

The displeasure by Young Americans for Freedom was most strongly felt here at the convention, its message delivered underneath the doors of every delegate’s room at the Airport Hyatt in a neon-yellow flier condemning Pringle as “a cancer to the conservative movement.”

Delivery of the flier followed a Friday night vote by the group to expel Pringle from the state YAF advisory board and to urge him to call off his run for treasurer.

YAF, considered the super-conservative arm of the party, wanted the resolution to provide a wake-up call, said Brian Park, YAF state chairman and national director from Orange.

The resolution said Pringle had “lost touch with his conservative convictions” and engaged in “liberal pivoting” by backing abortion-rights supporter Assemblywoman Marilyn C. Brewer (R-Newport Beach) and by supporting state budgets that subsidized “the Holocaust of pre-born Californians.”

The group’s ire was joined by College Republicans, a small group of young activists who provide volunteers across the state for the party’s campaigns. An effort late Friday to co-endorse Pringle for treasurer failed; the group already had endorsed Goldsmith.

In two weeks, the California Republican Assembly--the largest and most organized of GOP groups--is expected to make its endorsements for statewide office.

The group last month censured Pringle because of his backing of Assemblyman Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos) over Assemblyman Tom J. Bordonaro Jr. (R-Paso Roblos) in a special election to replace the late Rep. Walter Capps (D-Santa Barbara). Bordonaro edged out Firestone, finishing second to Capps’ widow, Democrat Lois Capps, and will face her in a March 10 runoff.

College Republican Assembly President John Courtney said Pringle was free to endorse whom he wanted but was condemned for “misrepresenting the record” of the two GOP choices by describing Firestone as the conservative. Firestone supports abortion rights; Bordonaro opposes them.

Goldsmith has powerful backers. Prominently displayed throughout the hotel lobby Saturday were posters touting Goldsmith’s endorsements as “the conservative choice for taxpayers,” with Republican officeholder signatures including Pringle state Senate colleagues Rob Hurtt of Garden Grove, Raymond N. Haynes of Riverside and Richard Mountjoy of Arcadia, a candidate for lieutenant governor, and Reps. Duncan Hunter of El Cajon and Randy “Duke” Cunningham of San Diego.

Veteran Republican strategist Dan Schnur said the public repudiation of Pringle by a portion of the party’s activist core is a problem for the primary, “but not a large one.”

“Unless all of these [legislators] are prepared to turn over their campaign treasuries to Goldsmith, it’s not the kind of thing that will have a large impact in a statewide race,” said Schnur, former spokesman for Gov. Pete Wilson and a consultant to the state GOP.

Orange County political activist and GOP donor Buck Johns is one who sees good purpose in Pringle’s appealing beyond his former narrow base.

“Pringle ran for speaker as an Orange County conservative but learned that he had to expand the tent to bring more guys in,” he said. “People see us as ‘Cavemen of Orange County’ lacking the timbre for statewide office. But he has dispelled that and is a credible candidate for governor someday.”

Some believe a continuing erosion from the right could be damaging, because Pringle has already faced criticism from other elements of the party for elbowing San Mateo County Supervisor Ruben Barrales out of the treasurer’s race. Barrales, a Latino now running for controller, was touted by many within the GOP as a minority candidate who could parry the perception that the Republican Party is a bastion for white men and hostile to minorities.

But Barrales decided to look elsewhere after Pringle entered the race.

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Peter M. Warren can be reached at (714) 966-5982. His e-mail address is peter.warren@latimes.com.

Jean O. Pasco can be reached at (714) 564-1052. Her e-mail address is jean.pasco@latimes.com.