Beachcombing Clinton Finds Campaign Funds

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s fund-raising visit to Laguna Beach on Tuesday was a tale of two sides of the Secret Service line.

On one side, inside a home beyond the dark-suited agents, were more than three dozen people who each paid $2,000 for the honor to schmooze with the first lady, who is in the throes of a tough New York senatorial race. The three-course menu included pecan-encrusted chicken stuffed with goat cheese, shrimp-and-crab enchiladas, lemon creme brulee, Louis Roederer Reims champagne and souvenir candy bars embossed with “HRC.”

Guests--including Bonnie Madrick of Yorba Linda--said they cherished every moment.

“I’m so excited. I felt I got assurance that she’s for women’s rights and that she’s going to do all that she can to take care of women,” said Madrick, adding that it’s sometimes hard “to be a Democrat in Nixon country.”

The luncheon raised more than $90,000, said Janice Johnson, who with her husband, Roger, organized the event at their beachside home. The couple are friends of the Clintons’. Roger Johnson, former chief executive of Western Digital Corp., once headed the U.S. General Service Administration under President Clinton.

In the neighborhood, however--where celebrities are as common as hermit crabs--the first lady’s visit raised nothing if not a collective shrug.

“How trendy,” quipped Susan Lawrence, a lifelong Laguna Beach resident and owner of a local Asian exports store who was walking her cocker spaniel, Lei Lani.

John Ponce, 44, said he was unfazed by Clinton’s visit.

“I’m not going to pay $2,000 to get someone elected to New York, I’ll tell you that,” said Ponce, a jeweler who lives half a block from the Johnsons.

That didn’t stop Baltimore residents Larry and Ann Rouch, 66 and 62, respectively. They were the only Hillary-watchers during the 3-hour event. Son Steve, a waiter at a local restaurant, brought them over to take pictures.

But to the few people and media outside, the first lady was elusive.

“I got a picture of the back of her head,” Ann Rouch lamented. Later she settled for a picture with “Mike,” a Secret Service agent.

“He was a really nice young man,” said the retired teacher.

At the fund-raiser, Clinton--clad in a gray silk pantsuit--presented herself as someone capable of working with other senators, in distinction to her opponent, New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Clinton tried to distance herself from the Republican candidate through her stances on issues, including abortion rights, and through their personality differences.

“She said that Giuliani was competent, but that a concern was his ability to work with 99 other senators when he can’t fire or control them like he would as a mayor,” said host Roger Johnson.

Clinton repeated her adamant gun-control stance, guests said, and spoke about education, health care and other issues.

Pamela Goldstein, 70, brought her daughter, Serena Elliot, 32, to the event so “she could feel what it’s like to be around powerful women.”

Elliot, a commercial real estate agent, sat next to Clinton.

“I asked her about Chelsea and about moving to New York and how she was settling in,” Elliot said. “It was a lot of fun.”

It was Clinton’s second visit to Laguna Beach in as many days. A similar fund-raising event was held in the Temple Hills neighborhood Monday night.