O.C. ‘Machine’ Must Loosen Its Grip on Party

Moderate Republicans have declared war on the conservative leadership of the California state party and especially the core of that leadership represented by the Orange County Central Committee. While it has been simmering for a long time, this war never will be ended in our lifetime. All the split can do is weaken the GOP in the next election.

To begin with, a train can’t do without its engine. The party needs its conservative engine. The party can, however, find a new driver to help steer it in a new direction. Each side must come together quickly and heal this rift if they have any hope of electing the next president, holding control of Congress or ever wresting control of California from the Democrats.

The moderates in the “New Majority Committee,” made up of business interests and political wannabes, have each election become more and more frustrated. Those who ran for office or who wanted to run, especially women, couldn’t win or were dissuaded from even trying. They blame it on the fact they won’t agree to the conservative litmus test on abortion.

The business leaders among these moderates say they are tired of losing. They see their party portrayed by Democrats and the media as bigoted and racist, captured by conservatives and the religious right. In addition, many in this group are very pragmatic when it comes to politics. They are heavily regulated and taxed by government at all levels. They need relief to survive and prosper.

They found that the Republicans they elected were so conservative that they will not or cannot respond to their special-interest needs. They also believe that the GOP under that leadership can’t win, and if it did win, couldn’t govern. These businessmen have two choices: They can support Democrats, as some have already done, or they can help change their party leadership into one that is more pragmatic and less ideological. More business-friendly.

Their frustration began back in the mid-’80s when Chairman Tom Fuentes, along with a small group of conservative politicians and Lincoln Club leaders, took over the county Central Committee. Later they were joined by a group of wealthy men of the religious right. By 1987 they had both the power and the money.

The politicians became known as “the cavemen,” and the entire group became “The Orange County Political Machine.” They took control of the party out of frustration with its do-nothing leadership of the late ‘70s. They pledged to build the party to majority status with tough conservative leaders. They began as good men with laudable goals.

In order to reach their goals, the machine selected, trained and supported primary candidates who not only shared their views but who would follow their leadership. They were successful in winning by getting their candidates the endorsement of every elected Republican and by directing campaign funds to them.

Behind the scenes, the party leadership dissuaded moderate Republicans from even trying. The machine took over the leadership of party clubs, such as the California Republican Assembly, and later transferred that control over the entire state party. The end of their power and the decline of the state GOP began soon after they moved one of their conservative leaders, state Sen. Ross Johnson, into Assemblywoman Doris Allen’s Senate district and defeated her. What followed: the recalls, the election irregularities, a vendetta with the district attorney, loss of the majority and the governorship and the loss of a GOP congressman, state senator and assemblyman right here in the bastion of American Republicanism.

The party has been floundering ever since. The big money men have now closed their purses, and the machine is now tired, rusty and ineffectual. This war must be over quickly.

Fuentes must resign after the upcoming election and allow others, both conservative and liberal, to take over and provide the party the leadership it desperately needs. The machine must loosen its control of the state party and all of the support clubs and allow them to grow and become dynamic once more.

The new leaders must recognize that it was power, concentrated into the hands of a few well-meaning but highly ambitious men, that caused the problems we now face. They must kill the litmus tests, and insist that all Republican leaders learn how to articulate and accentuate the primary values that GOP conservatives and moderates alike share. They must learn to tone down those on which we disagree.

As Ronald Reagan said, those who agree with us in our party on most issues are not our enemies, they are our friends.