Bono Adopted Son to O.C.’s GOP

Rep. Sonny Bono was mourned Tuesday by Orange County Republicans who became acquainted with the former entertainer during his 1992 Senate race and eventually embraced him as an adopted son, clamoring for his services as a master of ceremonies at fund-raisers.

The relationship initially was an odd fit--the goofy singing sidekick and former Democrat circulating among some of the state’s most conservative GOP activists. But doubts about Bono’s suitability for politics were dispelled by his self-effacing humor, easygoing chatter and empathetic tales of leaping into politics by fighting regulation-hungry bureaucrats in Palm Springs.

“A lot of people didn’t have much of an opinion of him, but then they met him and he won everyone over,” said Bill Christiansen, executive director of the Orange County Republican Party.

Buck Johns, a director of the Lincoln Club of Orange County who became friends with Bono after the Senate primary, said Bono provided a bridge to an industry that hasn’t produced many politically active Republicans.

“The whole thing is kind of eerie and such a great loss,” Johns said. “He was really coming into his stride back in Washington. He was a guy who had turned his life around and was on top of his game. Every time he turned around, we were trying to get him in front of a microphone.”

Bruce Herschensohn, the conservative commentator who beat Bono in the 1992 primary, nonetheless became quick friends with him during the race, though Herschensohn clobbered Bono. In 1994, Herschensohn chaired Bono’s winning bid for Congress, using his conservative credentials to help make Orange County an important fund-raising base for the campaign.

Herschensohn said he was trying to talk Bono into running again for the U.S. Senate this year against incumbent Barbara Boxer, but Bono was happy in the House.

“I’m not sure America knows how much it lost last night,” Herschensohn said Tuesday. “He cared so deeply for the issues and took himself so lightly. There was a great advantage to him having been a celebrity because he wasn’t taken with celebrity status. He was an amazing man, a gentle and compassionate man. He lit a spark with me.”

Irvine attorney Howard Klein, who with his wife, Janet, had become friends with the Bonos, said he was awakened at 2:45 a.m. Tuesday by an NBC reporter calling about Bono’s death.

“The thing I liked most about him was he was totally lacking in being full of himself, and that’s pretty rare in politics,” Klein said. “Beneath that simple exterior was a very quick mind and a very engaging person. We’re very sad.”

Developer and GOP donor George Argyros said he last saw Bono in November at an event at the Nixon Center for Peace & Freedom in Washington, D.C. They discussed possibly visiting Russia together but the trip never materialized.

“It’s a real loss and a real shock,” said Argyros, who met Bono when he was mayor of Palm Springs. “Sonny was really a young man. He was so folksy and pleasant. He represented America in a very fine way.”