No Grand Old Party at Playboy Mansion

As a guy who’s never been invited to the Playboy Mansion but still holds out hope, I won’t write anything to upset Hef.

So, standing on personal principle, I will not join the state Republican Party’s denunciation of Orange County Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez’s decision to hold a fund-raiser for a national Hispanic political organization at the mansion this summer.

In fact, I question whether the Republicans are really all that upset--even though they put out a press release last week in which state party Chairman John McGraw asked Sanchez to find a “more appropriate venue” than the “notorious Playboy Mansion.”

With that in mind, I contacted Stuart DeVeaux, a GOP spokesman. He assures me the party is truly indignant.

“I look at this two ways,” DeVeaux says. “If you’re a resident of Orange County, you’ve got to be a little upset. This is her chance to highlight her district and she chooses the Playboy Mansion, of all places.”

But it’s not just Playboy, DeVeaux says. In the GOP’s eyes, Sanchez is leaving her district behind and opting for Los Angeles. “She went for the bright lights and wet bars of Hollywood over the working families of Orange County,” DeVeaux says. “Once again, the Democratic Party is choosing Hollywood over real people.”

The Sanchez event will coincide with the Democratic National Convention this August in Los Angeles. The GOP says it could think of any number of places in Sanchez’s central Orange County district better suited for the event.

Like where? I ask DeVeaux.

He suggests, among others, the Anaheim Hilton, Santa Ana Stadium, the Disneyland Hotel, Centennial Regional Park and the Garden Grove Community Center.

Maybe it’s the lure of the mansion, I suggest to DeVeaux, not realizing I’d fed him a pitch down the middle of the plate: “I’m sure Bill Clinton, knowing there’ll be a reception at the Playboy Mansion, will be the first in line,” he says.

A Sanchez spokeswoman returned my phone calls Tuesday but we missed connections. She had told me last week, however, she didn’t want to respond to the GOP’s pique. All I really wanted to know was why Sanchez chose the mansion in the first place.

‘Sober and Formal’?

An amused bystander in all this is Bill Farley, Playboy’s national spokesman.

“I have no truck with either party,” he says. “I’m a Libertarian.”

Farley notes, however, that Playboy historically has lent (for a price) its Holmby Hills grounds to a wide variety of groups--although not recently for political events.

“I hate to insert myself into the middle of a battle between two political parties,” Farley says, “but the reality is that many of the leading charities, ranging from Cedars-Sinai [Medical Center] to City of Hope, have seen the mansion as a perfectly acceptable place to invite their most esteemed guests to give their highest awards and to raise money for their good causes. I don’t see any reason why it’s not acceptable for political events.”

The last political event he remembers at the mansion, Farley says, was a fund-raiser in the 1980s for then-Chicago Mayor Harold Washington.

Lamentably, Farley says, the Playboy image may be deemed hazardous to one’s political health. “I hate to give people the impression we’re not wild and crazy guys, but when we have an event like this, whether it’s charity or the introduction of an author’s book or a political event, it’s quite sober and formal.”

The Sanchez event likely will be held poolside. Guests will be free to roam the six-acre grounds, which affords two paths into a redwood forest and a fairly large collection of exotic birds and monkeys. If the mansion itself is made available, Farley says, fully clothed playmates lead the tours.

Call me a wild-eyed ‘60s radical, but that sounds like a lot more fun than a night at the Garden Grove Community Center.

Still, if the GOP wants to alert the voters of Sanchez’s 46th District to this alleged slight, I’ll be their messenger.

But I will not condemn the event.

To the contrary, I’d like to cover it.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com.