State GOP Maintains Divisions at Meeting

Battered by electoral losses and beset by financial woes, the state Republican Party confronted more dissent Saturday in Anaheim as presidential candidate Steve Forbes bashed the party’s front-runner, George W. Bush, and moderates staged a protest meeting across the street from the party’s official convention.

Speaking to reporters before he addressed party delegates at lunch, Forbes castigated Texas Gov. Bush for failing to speak out against recent moves by some of his supporters.

He specifically cited Michigan Gov. John Engler’s decision not to back a school choice effort and Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist’s support for a tax hike. Forbes said that both governors, who are senior allies of Bush, were snubbing Republican ideals.

“Leadership is not silence,” Forbes declared. “It is not well-turned phrases or cliches or sound bites. Leadership ultimately comes from principled substance. That’s what I’m offering.”

Yet Forbes carefully calibrated his remarks at the convention. In front of reporters, he and his associates indicated that as far as Bush was concerned, the gloves were off.

“The governor is using the Oscar De La Hoya approach,” said Forbes campaign manager Ken Blackwell, referring to the recently dethroned boxer.

“He’s going to try to coast through the last few rounds, and we’re not going to allow him to do that.”

But minutes later in front of the delegates--many of whom sported Bush buttons--Forbes pulled his punches.

He did not mention Bush apart from an elliptical request that voters not “settle for politics as usual.”

Forbes’ earlier complaints were dismissed by Bush spokeswoman Margita Thompson.

“It is fine for some candidates to talk about things, but what is important is Gov. Bush has acted on Republican principles and delivered results, such as signing the two largest tax cuts in Texas history,” she said.

The GOP front-runner did not attend the convention. He was invited to speak at Friday’s dinner but had already committed to attend the Republican National Hispanic Assembly meeting in Washington.

On Saturday, Thompson said, he attended the Ryder Cup golf matches at the invitation of his close friend and team captain Ben Crenshaw.

For good measure, Forbes also took aim in an interview at perennial Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, who is contemplating a third-party bid.

This week, Buchanan came under fire from candidate John McCain for suggesting in a book that the United States need not have entered World War II.

“World War II--our participation in it--was one of the finest moments in American history,” Forbes said in the interview. “It was true evil. . . . To think that Hitler bore no ill will to America is preposterous.”

The Republican activists gathered less than a year after their worst electoral loss in 40 years, the devastating rebuke by California voters in 1998 that cost Republicans all but two statewide offices, those of secretary of state and insurance commissioner.

The party remains $300,000 in debt, even as it plans an $18-million campaign for GOP candidates in the 2000 state elections.

More ominously, the torn relations between the party’s conservative and moderate camps showed no sign of mending.

Though they later intermingled, delegates began the day literally in two camps, with the majority of delegates at the Marriott Hotel and a much smaller rump group of moderates meeting across the street at the West Coast Anaheim Hotel.

The most immediate concern of delegates was mounting a successful campaign against Democratic incumbent Dianne Feinstein in next year’s U.S. Senate race.

Although the Senate race has been virtually dormant on the Republican side, there have been recent signs of life.

Republicans close to Rep. Tom Campbell said the Silicon Valley official is talking to supporters about running.

On Saturday, state Sen. Ray Haynes of Riverside officially opened his campaign against Feinstein during a convention rally.