State Republican Faithful Question Leadership of Party Chairman

Anger over this month’s defeat of Republican congressional candidate Tom Bordonaro in California’s Central Coast has erupted into a challenge over the leadership of state GOP Chairman Michael J. Schroeder, an attorney from Irvine.

Supporters of Bordonaro, who lost a March 10 special election to Democrat Lois Capps, have accused the party chairman of blocking critical campaign funds until it was too late, and of releasing them only after urgent phone calls from Gov. Pete Wilson and House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

“One man sabotaged our campaign, and that was Mike Schroeder,” Bordonaro campaign manager Jim Kjol said. Bordonaro got 45% of the vote in a race whose outcome was considered a boost for Democratic chances in the state in November.

Schroeder said he initially refused to authorize spending because Bordonaro’s campaign wanted the party to pay for a campaign mailer without reporting it on required federal forms, an allegation Kjol called “nonsense.”

“I will not get drawn into a debate with political consultants who already failed Tom Bordonaro once,” Schroeder said.

Such intraparty sniping isn’t unusual heading into a primary season. And Schroeder has taken heat before as head of the state GOP, which represents 5.2 million Californians. What’s unusual is the direction of the fire: from the party’s right wing, which nurtured Schroeder from his background as chief of the conservative Republican Assembly to take over the party in February 1997.

Many Republican activists claim Schroeder’s stubbornness and combative approach is the mark of a lone-wolf management style that has alienated even staunch conservatives. The fear is that unless Schroeder stops dictating and starts delegating, the party could suffer unnecessary defeats in November.

Previously, party moderates have been the ones grumbling most about Schroeder: about how he served as the lead attorney to Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) with allegations that Latinos in Orange County committed voter fraud to defeat him, while at the same time overseeing the party’s ethnic outreach efforts, and of his failure to appoint a party finance chairman for the 13 months he’s been in office.

“I don’t believe ideologues make good leaders, and Mike Schroeder proves the case,” said Republican consultant Eileen Padberg of Irvine, who often clashes with party conservatives. “He uses power to enhance himself, not the party. That is seriously going to hurt [GOP gubernatorial candidate] Dan Lungren in November and seriously impede the party’s progress and growth in California.”

Schroeder conceded that he invited criticism with his defense of Dornan’s charges, but did so because “no one else was going to do it, and it needed to be done.” During the party’s September convention in Anaheim, he asked delegates if he should back away from the investigation and was told overwhelmingly to continue pursuing it.

He said a new finance chairman should be named next week.

“You can look at the operation of any state chairman or party and see areas of disagreement,” Schroeder said last week from his Santa Ana law office.

Kjol said Schroeder dragged his feet on helping Bordonaro because he was “pimping” for his friend, Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove), whom Bordonaro challenged unsuccessfully for Assembly GOP leadership in 1996.

Bordonaro jumped into the congressional race after Republican leaders believed they had cleared the field for Assemblyman Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos), a more moderate candidate. Gingrich praised Firestone during a campaign swing, which torched state conservatives. Democrats rallied behind Capps, running to replace her husband, Rep. Walter Capps (D-Santa Barbara), who died midway into his first term.

Bordonaro won the special primary and announced he wouldn’t support Gingrich for House speaker. That set off Schroeder, who helped organize the 1995 recall against Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress). She was removed from office after making a deal for Democratic support to become speaker of the Assembly.

Kjol and Todd Harris, a former state party spokesman who worked for Bordonaro, said Schroeder invoked a little-known party rule and refused to authorize funding to pay for a Bordonaro absentee-ballot mailer that was to be sent to GOP voters.

What followed was a 10-day stalemate between Schroeder and the campaign. By the time the $30,000 mailer was authorized about Feb. 14, less than a month before the election, Capps’ campaign already had sent two mailers to Democrats.

Wilson spokesman Ron Lowe confirmed that the governor called Schroeder to dislodge the money.

Bordonaro lost the election by 12,000 votes.

Schroeder said the delay probably had little effect on the race’s outcome.

“No competent conservative believes that a single mailer being delayed 10 days cost you 12,000 votes,” he said.

Schroeder said it was doubtful Bordonaro could have won the district anyway. In 39 races where congressional widows have run to replace their husbands, the women won 38 of them. He said the most significant reason for Bordonaro’s defeat was his refusal to sign a pledge to support a constitutional amendment limiting congressional terms, leading U.S. Term Limits to spend $325,000 to defeat him.

A national Republican Party official involved in the race confirmed Kjol’s account about the mailer.

State Republican Party Vice Chairman John McGraw downplayed the anger over the Bordonaro loss and said the grumbling about Schroeder is more sizzle than substance.

“Everyone has their own style,” said McGraw, a computer software designer from Northern California. “People are upset, and I don’t blame them. It’s tough to lose; no one likes it. But complaining about it doesn’t accomplish a whole lot.”