Rifts Show at State GOP Event

An uproar over illegal immigration roiled the state Republican convention on Saturday as party leaders struggled to keep the rank and file united behind Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and President Bush.

Hundreds of GOP loyalists booed the president at a rally where U.S. Senate hopeful Howard Kaloogian and his allies denounced Bush’s plan to give temporary legal status to undocumented workers.

“Enough is enough!” the crowd shouted. “Enough is enough!”

A Kaloogian supporter, Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, told the crowd he knew a gynecologist who surveyed patients about the plan and found it rated “right below genital herpes.”

Schwarzenegger fared no better than Bush. Even staunch allies of the governor distanced themselves from his effort to strike a deal with Democrats on a bill to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista warned that the move would “empower criminal aliens.”

“If we find an illegal, we have an obligation to deport them; it’s that simple,” said the San Diego County car-alarm tycoon, who bankrolled the recall petition effort that led to Schwarzenegger’s victory. “As long as people are here illegally, to give them the ability to further cover their status is to empower Al Qaeda.”

And Mike Spence, leader of one of the party’s biggest conservative activist groups, the California Republican Assembly, shouted, “Resist the compromise, and let your legislators and the governor know they’ll end up with Gray Davis: Out of work and starring on sitcoms,” alluding to the ousted governor’s cameo next week on the CBS show “Yes, Dear.”

Also sparking dissent at the state GOP convention here beside San Francisco Bay was Schwarzenegger’s plan to borrow $15 billion to balance the state budget, a measure that appears on the March 2 ballot as Proposition 57.

Schwarzenegger forces rounded up support for the measure from every county GOP chairman and were poised to secure the full state party’s endorsement this morning.

“This isn’t a question of whether it’s good or bad,” said state Senate GOP leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga. “The other options are all worse.”

But more ideological Republicans balked at the break from the GOP’s tradition of taking conservative stands on fiscal issues, saying sharp spending cuts are a better choice for California.

“Six billion in interest is not a good deal; that’s a lousy deal, and Arnold wouldn’t take that deal in his own business,” said Millbrae Republican Barry Fellman, who wore a “No Way Jose” sign around his neck to display dissatisfaction with his party on immigration.

Despite the fuss, the weekend also had the feel of a celebration for Republicans, who through the recall gained control of the governorship for the first time in five years. Schwarzenegger was greeted with multiple standing ovations Friday night in his dinner speech to delegates. He said nothing about the driver’s license measure.

On Saturday, the convention’s central focus was the U.S. Senate race. Competing with Kaloogian in the party’s March 2 primary are former Los Altos Hills Mayor Toni Casey, former Secretary of State Bill Jones and former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin.

In a hotel-ballroom debate, and in remarks to reporters, the candidates squabbled over who was best suited to defeat Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer in November.

“The person who goes into this campaign is going to have to have experience in a statewide effort,” argued Jones, a former Fresno assemblyman who won two terms as secretary of state, but finished third in the 2002 primary for governor.

Jones cited his triumph over Napa Valley Democrat Michela Alioto in his 1998 bid for reelection as secretary of state as proof that he could defeat a Bay Area liberal like Boxer, who lives in Marin County.

Casey, however, argued that Jones could not draw the support from Democrats and independents that a Republican needs to win a general-election race. She pointed to his stands against abortion rights and gun control, along with what she said was his past support for offshore oil drilling, which he now opposes.

“Bill Jones is the old face of the Republican Party, and I am the new face of the Republican Party,” she said.

Given his family’s acceptance of federal farm subsidies, she said, Jones could not be trusted to hold the line on spending.

Marin, too, turned on Jones, the early frontrunner in the polls, saying his Assembly votes for $7 billion in tax hikes during the 1991 fiscal crisis suggest he could not be trusted to cut taxes.

Marin denied accusations by Jones that she, too, supported higher taxes as a Huntington Park council member. She went on to question his loyalty to the president, saying Jones “betrayed” Bush by yanking his endorsement in the 2000 presidential primary and switching to rival John McCain. She played up her own status as a former presidential appointee.

“I have a relationship with the president that is based on trust and confidence and friendship, so I can go in and make the case,” she said.

For his part, Kaloogian cited his outspoken advocacy for the Davis recall and stressed his opposition to abortion and illegal immigration.

“I think you can win even on social issues that too many Republicans have given up and abandoned,” he said.

Kaloogian was one of many at the convention who lashed out at San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, for granting marriage licenses to thousands of gay couples who stood in long lines at City Hall. Kaloogian also questioned the sexual orientation of Democratic Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, a married Democrat, as he joked about whether Lockyer was committed to court action to block gay marriage.

“I don’t know where the attorney general stands on this,” he said. “Perhaps he stands in line. I’m not quite sure.”

Kaloogian was the only Senate candidate to speak out against Schwarzenegger’s fiscal measures. Among those working on Schwarzenegger’s behalf to ensure that conservatives would not block the party endorsement of Proposition 57 was Issa. The congressman told a party committee that borrowing $15 billion was the only way Schwarzenegger could “deal with the Gray Davis hangover.”

“If you’re hired to replace a fired chief executive, you’re able to blame your predecessor and reorganize the company,” he said.

Assembly Republican leader Kevin McCarthy plugged Schwarzenegger’s companion measure, Proposition 58, which would place spending and debt restrictions on the state. McCarthy said it would force discipline on a Democratic-controlled Legislature incapable of breaking its habit of spending more than the state brings in.

“We need adult supervision,” he said. “We eat all the candy in the shop until we throw up.”

But immigration was the issue of passion Saturday, and Kaloogian was the candidate capturing it at his rally with Tancredo in a crowded white tent outside the convention hotel near San Francisco Airport. Next to the stage, two boys wearing Kaloogian T-shirts carried posters reading, “No Terrorist Driver’s License.” The signs showed a driver’s license bearing a photo of Osama bin Laden. Tancredo, who flew in from Colorado for the rally, said that America had taken “rabid, overstated multiculturalism” too far.

“People are still coming across our borders with the intent to do terrible things to us,” he told the cheering crowd. He called Bush’s proposal “lousy, lousy policy.”

Gloria Irwin, the Glenn County Republican Party chairwoman, said she agreed that Bush’s plan was “terrible.”

“The main street in our little town looks like Tijuana,” said Irwin, whose hometown, Orland, is 100 miles north of Sacramento.

As for Schwarzenegger’s stand on driver’s licenses, she said, “He’s going along to get along, and that’s not a good thing. I wish he would get a little more backbone.”