He’s a Disputed Party in a Partisan Mailing

County Treasurer-Tax Collector John M.W. Moorlach was reelected in June to his second term in the nonpartisan post. But there’s nothing nonpartisan about his recent Moorlach Newsletter.

The front of the mailer, prepared by Moorlach’s campaign, invited readers to a fund-raiser for Republican Secretary of State Bill Jones. Inside is a 1998 voter guide with Moorlach’s endorsements--all of GOP candidates--in partisan races and his Republican picks for nonpartisan offices, such as schools and water boards.

The heavy partisan push isn’t surprising, given Moorlach’s other post as an elected member of the Orange County Republican Central Committee. The newsletter says that the first priority for choosing candidates is “loyalty to the Republican Party.”

Still, the newsletter infuriated community activist Tom Logan of Huntington Beach. He questioned whether Moorlach should be using his nonpartisan position for partisan purposes.

Even though the mailer was paid for by the campaign, it lists Moorlach’s county phone and fax numbers and could be misread by some as an official county document, Logan said.

Moorlach said being Republican is “one of the things of who I am.” He said he sent the newsletter and endorsements to encourage voter participation among his campaign supporters.

“If you’re a Democrat, cross out the Republican names,” he said. “I want to get people involved in the process, and they don’t have to agree with what I’ve written down.”

Gary Huckaby, spokesman for the state Fair Political Practices Commission, said there is no specific prohibition against candidates listing their public work numbers on campaign materials. However, public resources cannot be used for campaign activities.

Shirley Grindle, author of the county’s campaign-reform law, said Moorlach showed poor judgment by issuing partisan endorsements.

“He’s answerable to the entire public and here he is playing footsie with one side,” she said.

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Down and dirty: Politics can sometimes get bloody, but Assembly candidate Lou Correa never expected it to extend beyond rhetoric.

The Democrat challenger in central Orange County’s 69th Assembly District was knocking on doors and handing out campaign literature a week ago when he was bitten by a pit bull.

It happened as Correa approached a so-called “mixed household”--the wife is a Democrat and the husband is registered as a Republican. After Correa knocked, the husband answered the door and his dog charged toward the startled candidate.

The animal skipped Correa’s brochure and went straight for his hand. The dog finally let go when its owner came to Correa’s rescue.

Correa, who hopes to unseat incumbent Assemblyman Jim Morrissey (R-Santa Ana), didn’t let a flesh wound stop him. He went to the hospital, got the hand bandaged and went back out to knock on doors, said Chris Leo, his campaign manager.

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Debate debate: They happen every campaign cycle. This time it’s former Rep. Robert K. Dornan complaining that Rep. Loretta Sanchez, the Garden Grove Democrat who beat him in 1996, is refusing to meet him face to face.

Mark Dornan, who serves as his father’s campaign manager, said they have made 10 formal requests for debates with Sanchez in the past three months. She hasn’t agreed to any of them, though both sides in June had apparently committed to at least one debate.

“We don’t care what Mr. Dornan does. We don’t care what he is up to,” Sanchez campaign spokesman Lee Godown said. “Why should we debate him when he’s just going to throw insults?”

It’s actually deja vu in reverse: Dornan didn’t agree to debate Sanchez until the Sunday before the election two years ago. He said then that Sanchez didn’t deserve a debate, something Sanchez is claiming this time of Dornan.

Despite finally agreeing to meet before the 1996 election, the two almost never made it into the same room. The night before their lone debate, Mark Dornan made a citizen’s arrest of Sanchez’s husband, Stephen Brixey III, for tearing down Dornan’s campaign signs.

Dornan’s wife, Sallie, attended the event instead. Dornan eventually arrived midway through and sat in the back but went to the podium only after Sanchez had finished her remarks.

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Virtual politicking: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher was stuck in Washington with Congress in session, but that didn’t stop him from meeting face to face with Councilman Shawn Boyd of Seal Beach.

Except Boyd was in Rohrabacher’s Huntington Beach office.

They talked in a real-time video teleconference about Rohrabacher’s efforts to obtain federal help for a sand-replenishment project.

The technology comes courtesy of a Los Angeles company that supplied the system to the Republican lawmaker’s office. A week ago, former astronaut Pete Conrad of Newport Beach appeared as a witness by teleconference--also from the congressman’s district office--to Rohrabacher’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.

Rohrabacher Chief of Staff Rick Dykema said no other office boasts such high-tech gadgetry.

“He’ll be using it any time he needs to talk to someone there and he needs to be here,” Dykema said from Washington.

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Upcoming events:

* Monday: Gubernatorial candidate debate, 6 p.m., Chapman University’s Argyros Forum, Lecture Hall 209. Attending will be alternative-party candidates Dan Hamburg of the Green Party, Libertarian Steve Kubby, Nathan Johnson of the American Independent Party, Harold Bloomfield of the Natural Law Party and Gloria Estala La Riva of the Peace and Freedom Party. Democrat Gray Davis and Republican Dan Lungren were invited, but have not committed to appear. Sponsored by Chapman University and the Forum of Alternative Parties.

Compiled by staff writer Jean O. Pasco, who covers politics for The Times, with contributions from staff writer Eric Bailey in Sacramento. Pasco can be reached at (714) 966-7712 or by e-mail at Jean.Pasco@latimes.com. Information can be faxed to Campaign Journal at (714) 966-7711.