Similar Message, Different Starting Points

They talk the same talk, but they walk to a different beat.

Lou Lopez and Cynthia Coad, vying for the 4th District seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, say they support an airport at El Toro, are tough on crime and back pro-business interests.

But their style, their backgrounds, their search for votes, even their financial backers are as different as man and woman.

Those differences underscore the sweeping demographic changes in the 4th District, which at least two decades ago was a hotbed of conservatism and a stronghold of the radical-right John Birch Society.

Once predominantly white and middle-class, the district is becoming a more diverse area housing more and more Latino, Asian and white working-class families.

“It’s very hard to balance the many competing interests in this district,” said Supervisor William G. Steiner, who is retiring in January. The district consists of Anaheim, La Palma, Buena Park, Orange, Placentia and a section of Fullerton.

Lopez, 54, a second-generation Mexican American, is a former police officer who was raised in the tough working-class city of Colton in San Bernardino County.

Coad, 66, is a millionaire, a native Midwesterner transplanted nearly 40 years ago to Orange County, where she earned a doctorate in education and raised seven children.

Perhaps most important, Coad has the backing of the entire Orange County Republican Party machinery and has raised more than $400,000 for her campaign since January--a good chunk of it from her own bank account. She said she now has $130,000 in her campaign coffers.

Lopez, on the other hand, has few big-name endorsements or donors, and has raised a total of $98,000, most of it for the June primary.

But he burns out his rubber-soled tennis shoes walking every precinct in his district and talking with residents most likely to vote--those who nearly gave him a victory in the June primary election.

“You don’t have to be a genius to figure out what is happening here,” said Mark P. Petracca, chairman of UC Irvine’s political science department. “It’s in the cards that there are significant changes occurring in the county.”

Should the district elect Lopez, he said, it would mark the first time that a Latino challenger has won a board seat outright. Gaddi H. Vasquez, who was appointed 1987 to fill a remaining term, ran as an incumbent and won in 1988 and 1992.

Coad, who is fluent in Spanish, also recognizes the potential power of the Latino vote. She has scheduled interviews with Spanish-language newspapers and has challenged Lopez to a debate in Spanish. Lopez declined.

Of the 196,000 registered voters, more than 40,000 are Latino and Asian. Anaheim, a city that in the 1920s elected Ku Klux Klan members to the council, is now 50% Latino. La Palma has the largest Korean population of any city in the county.

If Lopez has a strong hand, it is that he is a reflection of the district he wants to represent.

“I’m just a regular guy,” he said.

Indeed, Steiner, who has not endorsed either candidate but who has known Lopez for more than two decades, said he is a solid person.

“Lou doesn’t have an agenda--what you see is what you get. [But] I guess if I needed a loyal friend, it would be Lou Lopez,” he said.

And, as Lopez’s consultant tells it, it has not been a good year for millionaire candidates: Wealthy gubernatorial candidates Al Checchi and Jane Harman and Senate candidate Daryl Issa all lost in the June primary. Lopez beat Coad in the largest city, Anaheim, by about 1,000 votes in the primary, but lost the district 28% to her 29% in a field of five candidates.

“It didn’t take long to recognize that he connects with the community,” said David Ellis of Ellis/Hart Associates, who joined Lopez after the primary as his campaign consultant.

“Raising just $68,000, he gave this multimillionaire a real run for her money,” Ellis said. “It’s not the right time for rich people trying to buy elections.”

Lopez, who recently retired from the Anaheim Police Department after 29 years on the beat, loves pressing the flesh. The Anaheim city councilman approaches residents in a disarming manner, asking them, “What do you think of the Anaheim council? Have we been doing a good job? I’m trying to do the best I can and I need your support.”

On his walks--about five hours a day, seven days a week--many residents unleash a flurry of complaints about the state of their cities, the schools in disrepair, racial tensions and the tax breaks Anaheim politicians give Disneyland developers.

Lopez keeps his cool, calmly explaining Disneyland’s preferred status and switching subjects to his ideas for helping the community. He tells them, for instance, that he wants to become an advocate for Orange County children by lobbying Sacramento officials for more money for county schools.

As an Anaheim resident of 15 years, Carla Santibanez had never met a councilman until Lopez showed up at her door. By the end of their conversation, Lopez had turned the skeptical and angry Santibanez into a staunch supporter.

“I think he’s doing a great job,” she said, smiling as Lopez walked away. “I didn’t mean to bust his chops.”

But if Lopez is a man of the people he is sorely lacking in party and big-name support. Though he’s backed by Sheriff-elect Mike Carona and the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs, Lopez did not get the endorsement of his own Anaheim Police Department’s union. The Anaheim Fire Department is supporting Coad.

“We felt he didn’t fulfill his obligations to us as a councilman,” said Bruce Bottolfson, president of the Anaheim Police Assn., which opted to remain neutral. “He was virtually worthless to us for four years. He’s a good campaigner but having worked with him for so many years, he’s still an enigma to us.”

Coad, on the other hand, has garnered endorsements that read like a list of Who’s Who in Orange County politics and include four law enforcement agencies. She was propelled into political life by former state Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle, who asked her to run for a school board seat, and encouraged to join the supervisor’s race by most of the Republican leadership.

“I like to see smart people get involved in this process,” said Pringle, who has known Coad for the past five years. “She is just focused on making sure she delivers on the betterment of the community even when others tell her no.”

She is a determined woman who has written three books, put her husband through dental school, learned to read and speak Spanish and established her own scholarship fund for underprivileged children. She also is an advocate for women and devoted one book to tips for mothers returning to the work force after raising children.

“She’s strong, but she’s not a bra-burner,” said close friend and confidant Katherine Smith, a trustee at Anaheim Union High School District.

Coad has a track record of community activism. She is a board member of the Independencia Community Center in the predominantly Latino area of west Anaheim, where she has given seminars in Spanish on dental health and education to residents. She is a member of the West Anaheim Neighborhood Development Group, which is trying to improve the neighborhoods and increase open space and parks in that part of the city.

It is that desire to effect change that spurred her to run for supervisor, she said.

“When we wanted to retrofit west Anaheim, we got laughed at in the county,” she said recalling a meeting with some county planners. “The government does not have all the answers but the government should be there to help coordinate.”

But for all her credentials and intelligence, some observers say, she is aloof and unapproachable. Known by her close friends as Cindy, she often likes to be called Dr. Cynthia Coad in public. Her contact with voters is direct, succinct.

In the primary, she did not walk any precincts, relying solely on mailers and television interviews. She’s making the rounds now, though, walking neighborhoods and knocking on doors.

Wasting no time on small talk, she says to residents, “Hello, my name is Cynthia Coad and I’m the right candidate for the Board of Supervisors.” Still, she seems more comfortable discussing issues than walking under the hot sun shaking hands, some say.

On her first day walking precincts last week, residents said they were impressed with her sharp mind.

“I’m not happy with the current Board of Supervisors,” said Amy Davis, after Coad knocked on her door. “She’s really smart. [And] having women that you can talk to in politics is very good because they listen. That sometimes does not happen with the other half.”

With less than two months until the general election, however, Steiner said both candidates have a steep learning curve ahead.

“They are both good people, but both have a lot of homework to do in terms of getting up to speed on the very significant issues that the Board of Supervisors faces.”

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District Change

The electorate in Orange County’s fourth supervisorial district has changed from predominantly white to a more diverse group. Its more than half-million residents earn a median household income approaching $50,000.