Voters tilt Democratic in village of Laguna Woods

Like many of his neighbors in the Orange County retirement village of Laguna Woods, Dave Blodgett, 87, might seem like a natural John McCain man. He fought on Navy PT boats in the Pacific during World War II and was moved by the Republican presidential candidate’s story of survival in a Vietnamese prison camp.

Yet while Orange County on Tuesday held true to its image as a reliably Republican county, with a majority voting for McCain, Blodgett and most other Laguna Woods voters bucked the trend. The latest numbers Wednesday gave Barack Obama 52% of the ballots in Laguna Woods to McCain’s 45%.

“This is a little island of sanity in Orange County,” Blodgett said of the 19,000-population village, noting that Democratic presidential nominees won more votes there in the last two elections as well.

“Orange County votes one way, and Laguna Woods votes another way,” said Blodgett, who has read both of Obama’s books. “I actually felt love for him. I’ve never felt this way about any other politician my whole life.”

Countywide by the latest numbers, Obama received the highest percentage of votes -- 47% -- than any Democratic presidential candidate in 44 years, exceeding even the count of Lyndon B. Johnson. McCain received about 51%.

What accounts for the Democratic tilt in Laguna Woods? Residents point to a sizable population of Jewish retirees, a population that is two-thirds female, and an influx in recent years of New York and Chicago residents who brought their politics with them.

There also is concern about healthcare costs and, as the economy staggers, about evaporating pensions and the solvency of Medicare.

Barbara Amster, 73, president of the Laguna Woods Democratic Club, which has a membership of about 300, lives on a pension from New York, where she taught college.

She said her husband recently broke a hip and required surgery, and the bills were staggering. “I can’t even begin to pay them, even after Medicare and my other insurance,” she said. “If you live from hand-to-mouth, and you’ve worked your whole life, you feel you deserve better.”

Amster said many worried that a Republican president would jeopardize Medicare.

She was part of the celebration party Tuesday night, which drew some 200 people to Clubhouse 7. Attendees munched on sandwiches and, for $5, could get two margaritas. There was dancing and cheering. “It was as wild and rowdy as we can get here,” Amster said.

Jonathan Adler, 67, who is active in the Democratic Club, said that in recent years the Democrats had pulled slightly ahead of Republicans in the number of registered voters. Among the retirees are many who remember the Great Depression and World War II.

“They remember FDR and they remember Truman,” he said. “Some of them are former Spanish civil war veterans.”

In the 1930s, he said, some were “communists, socialists, what Joe McCarthy would call ‘pinkos’ -- labor organizers and leftists. They’ve kept their progressive politics.”

For all the passion, the tone among neighbors in tightknit Laguna Woods is mostly civil. Adler, a retired attorney, plays on tennis, basketball and softball teams three times a week.

“You have to be a little delicate when you’re on a court and your partner’s an arch-conservative,” Adler said. “There’s a kind of etiquette about not coming down very hard on politics unless it’s welcome. That said, in the hot tub and around pools and elsewhere that we meet, there are hot discussions.”

This election, the Democratic Club fielded more than 70 volunteers to register voters and place calls to likely voters.

“Our fastest-growing segment is 85-plus,” said Blodgett, a retired research analyst for an oil company. “An awful lot of people here went through the Great Depression and World War II.”

Laguna Woods is dominated by Laguna Woods Village, a sprawling retirement enclave that has the bulk of the city’s population and was known as Leisure World until recent years. It features two golf courses, tennis courts, pools, a theater, stables and an internal bus system. It is a place where the average age is 78.

At City Hall, the free Sunday matinee this week is “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl,” about a family during the Great Depression.

Shirley Morgan, president of the city’s Republican club, which has about 475 members, said Republicans used to outnumber Democrats significantly, but she’s seen that changing since she arrived in 1999. “We don’t know anything about Obama,” she said. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s a socialist.” Morgan would not give her age, saying, “An age is a number, and this one is unlisted.”

She said she remained optimistic about a McCain victory until election day. “Everybody’s just trying to recoup,” Morgan said. “We shall return.”

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christopher.goffard@latimes.com