Southland Bush Backers Protest Delay in Vote Tally

These were not your scruffy street protesters. Their hair was trim, their shirts tucked in. They had asked for the time off work. Many had never been to a demonstration.

They were Republicans, and they were brimming with anger in Hollywood on Wednesday, protesting delays in declaring the winner of the presidential election and a perceived media bias in favor of Al Gore. About 150 of them came from as far as Rancho Cucamonga and lined the corner of Sunset and Cahuenga boulevards to rally in front of the CNN building.

“How many times does Al Gore have to lose?” shouted James Joblon, of Redondo Beach. “If we get involved in hand-counting every ballot in the country, this thing will never stop.”

Earlier in the day, the burly stockbroker at Morgan, Stanley, Dean Whitter had put his calls on hold, had a colleague stand in for him, and drove 45 minutes to join the first rally of his life.

His starched white shirt and gray trousers belied an aggressive temperament. “I have ABC, CBS and NBC on my speed dial. When I see liberal bias, I call and complain. But they know my voice now, so I have to disguise it.”

The rally was organized by a state GOP volunteer and Beverly Hills dentist, Joel Strom, who contacted numerous grass-roots groups. The call touched a nerve in people like the 34-year-old Joblon, who said they were frustrated that CNN and the other networks called the election in Florida for Gore long before the polls were closed, possibly discouraging Republicans from voting.

Joblon was working at the Manhattan Beach Republican Party headquarters at the time, calling party members and urging them to vote. The early call for Gore “deflated us,” he said. “We couldn’t get people to vote.”

But mainly the demonstrators Wednesday feared there would be no end to the legal battle if Vice President Al Gore doesn’t concede the election and give up his efforts to recount the ballots.

“First they’re trying to redefine the word ‘is’!” announced one woman, referring to President Clinton’s grand jury testimony during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. “Now they’re trying to redefine the word ‘vote.’ ”

She complained that Gore was only pushing for a recount of Democratic counties, thus further skewing the results.

Around her, others chanted: “CNN, Stop the Spin” and “No Bush, No Justice!” as cars and trucks on Sunset honked in support of the demonstrators.

Dorie Hollowell, a first-time protester and home-schooling mother from Glendale, got an e-mail message about the rally from a local GOP group. She felt compelled to come down because she worries that if the election gets mired in the courts, it will turn into something akin to the O.J. Simpson trial. “He gets a team of big lawyers and he wins,” she said, referring to Simpson and Gore.

Connie Miller, a 54-year-old grandmother of nine, loaded her Chevy minivan with six strangers from her local Republican chapter in conservative Rancho Cucamonga and headed to Hollywood. The morass of an election was infuriating enough to prompt this baby-boomer, who once voted for Jimmy Carter and Jerry Brown, to make a placard and join her first protest.

“We can put this whole thing through the court systems,” she said. “But there is a time when humble men put their own ambitions aside.”