California GOP Likes Bush’s ‘Inclusion’

The incoming mail at the Texas Capitol is so crammed these days with “Dear Governor Bush” letters from around the country that a missive from California’s Republican congressional delegation to the potential presidential contender got scant attention.

But the March 4 letter to Texas Gov. George W. Bush is worth a closer look because it shows how eager, or desperate, the state’s GOP leadership is to find a standard-bearer for Campaign 2000 who is willing and able to compete in the polyglot, multiethnic and wildly expensive political market that California has become.

Those who signed the letter--19 of 24 members of the GOP delegation--urged Bush to “heed our call and the nation’s call” and run for president. While stopping short of a formal endorsement, the members praised the governor’s record effusively and told him he would help spread an “inclusive vision of hope and opportunity throughout California and America.” Republicans in the state Legislature had sent Bush a similar letter in January.

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Inclusive, prominent Republicans acknowledge, is not how voters in the Golden State have perceived their party in recent years. In the contests for president in 1996 and governor in 1998, Democrats Bill Clinton and Gray Davis thumped their Republican opponents with centrist campaign platforms that eschewed immigrant-bashing and focused on education and other issues with broad appeal.

The ringleaders of the delegation’s “draft Bush” movement, Reps. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) and David Dreier (R-San Dimas), are quick to point out that Bush fits a similar profile with his message of “compassionate conservatism.”

As governor of Texas--like California a border state--Bush has captured a high number of Latino voters by cultivating close relations with Mexico. The Latino vote is exactly what California Republicans have lacked since former Gov. Pete Wilson hitched his party’s fortunes in 1994 to Proposition 187, the ballot measure that denied public assistance to illegal immigrants.

Bush also has concentrated on education reform, fostering a school accountability system that has become a national model. It is no coincidence that California is now searching for its own formula to get better results from public schools.

The prospect of a campaign message tailored to the California electorate has helped some GOP representatives become reconciled to a potential candidate who may not be as conservative as they would prefer.

“Many people are saying, ‘I don’t agree with him on every issue but I want [a Republican] to win,’ ” Dreier said. “The desire to find the perfect candidate is transcended by the desire to have a Republican president.”

Some members of the delegation may yet gravitate to other potential GOP contenders, such as Elizabeth Dole, the former U.S. transportation secretary and wife of 1996 presidential candidate Bob Dole; Dan Quayle, who was vice president to George W.’s father, George Bush; or Sen. John McCain of Arizona. The holdouts who declined to sign the delegation’s letter are an ideologically diverse group: Reps. Tom Campbell (R-San Jose), Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) and Doug Ose (R-Sacramento).

Ose’s press secretary, Peter DeMarco, said the freshman representative simply is “very cautious by nature” and waiting for the field of candidates to develop.

Rohrabacher, an impassioned conservative, said he wants to know what the younger Bush thinks of his father’s China policies (to Rohrabacher, they were too lax) and what his stance would be on illegal immigration (Rohrabacher favored Proposition 187). “I’ve got to study where George [W.] Bush stands on the issues,” Rohrabacher said. “This is more than a personality contest.”

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Still, the Texas governor charmed many members of the delegation in a one-hour, closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill late last month while in town for a national conference of governors.

“He’s nice, and he’s good with people,” said Rep. George P. Radanovich (R-Mariposa). “He’s a frank talker, a square shooter. He can be endearing.”

Another participant said the body language in the room “told the whole story. . . . Members were very attentive. There was lots of nodding, a lot of eye contact.”

Above all, what California Republicans want--and appear to have received--from the Texas governor is a commitment to compete in their state in the March 2000 primary. In 1992, the elder Bush essentially ceded California to Clinton. The state’s prize catch of 54 votes in the Electoral College--one-fifth of the total needed to win--fell to the Democrat as the Republican chose not to buy major amounts of statewide television advertising.

State Republicans, still reeling from their electoral losses last year, see that strategy as a non-starter. “He doesn’t believe it is possible to become president without California,” Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) said of the younger Bush, “and in any case, his plan is built around California.”

Times staff writer Faye Fiore in Washington contributed to this column.