A Rollicking Roster of GOP Races

By David Reyes

Feb. 29, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

With Robert K. Dornan’s bid for a return to Congress and a GOP candidate from Garden Grove vying to be the first Vietnamese American elected to the state Assembly, Republicans are drawing most of the attention in Orange County’s elections Tuesday.

Among the most-watched campaigns have been those waged by 46th Congressional District incumbent Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and Dornan, the outspoken conservative who lost his own congressional seat to Democrat Loretta Sanchez in 1996.

Dornan, 70, said he is seeking a return to Congress to help fight the war on terrorism and to counter what he described as Rohrabacher’s “lack of empathy toward Israel.”

Rohrabacher, 56, has rejected the charge that he is too critical of Israel: “I strongly believe that the only way to peace ... is that the Palestinians must give up the right of return and Israel has to give up the settlements,” he said in a statement.

Dornan, who has a long record of bombastic campaign rhetoric, is viewed as an embarrassment by many Republican Party leaders. “Unfortunately, he’s become a caricature,” former state GOP Chairman Shawn Steel said.

35th Senate District

Another high-profile GOP primary race has been run in the 35th Senate District, where Assembly members John Campbell (R-Irvine) and Ken Maddox (R-Garden Grove) are battling it out to replace Sen. Ross Johnson, Orange County’s longest-serving legislator. Johnson must leave office because of term limits.

Johnson has endorsed Campbell, an owner of Orange County car dealerships, who has tapped other car-dealer owners and various businesses to raise nearly $1 million, more than twice what Maddox has raised. Campbell also is the only legislator endorsed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Campbell highlights his Sacramento connections, including his early support and a $100,000 contribution for the recall of former Gov. Gray Davis.

Maddox, who must leave his Assembly seat because of term limits, has stressed his conservatism and attacked his opponent in direct mailers for allegedly “being soft” on illegal immigration.

Dana Point Mayor Joe Snyder, a retired Marine colonel, is running a grass-roots campaign for the Republican nomination and has raised about $31,000, said a Snyder volunteer.

70th Assembly District

In one of the county’s more expensive races, at least six Republicans are seeking nomination to represent the party in the 70th Assembly District. The battle is being fought most fiercely between Newport Beach businesswoman Cristi Cristich, who expects to spend $1 million in the primary, and Irvine aerospace executive Chuck DeVore.

Donald P. Wagner, president of the South Orange County Community College District board of trustees, is the only elected official among the candidates.

The field also includes Chonchol D. Gupta, 20, a UC Irvine mechanical engineering student; engineer Long K. Pham, 53, a member of Gov. Pete Wilson’s Regulatory Reform Roundtable task Force in 1995; and Marianne Zippi, 59, a Newport Beach businesswoman who has complained about the “good old boys” in politics.

68th Assembly District

In the 68th Assembly District race, two Garden Grove council members are fighting over who will succeed termed-out Republican Ken Maddox.

Since the last election, the district that encompasses Garden Grove, Fountain Valley and most of Westminster has been largely redrawn to include Costa Mesa and a portion of Newport Beach -- a factor that may make ethnicity a key element in the Republican primary fight between political aide Mark Leyes and attorney Van Tran.

“Much has been said about the fact that if Van Tran were elected, he’d be the highest serving Vietnamese American in the country,” said Mark Petracca, associate professor of political science at UC Irvine.

Besides the ethnicity issue, the two have battled over which candidate is more Republican, with mailers on both sides targeting alleged connections to Democrats.

Leyes, a former Democrat, supported Bill Clinton for president in 1992, though he later cited Clinton’s presidency as the reason he switched party affiliation. Leyes has accused Tran, through voter registration drives, of registering hundreds of Vietnamese Americans as Democrats in the district.

73rd Assembly District

In South County’s 73rd Assembly District race, former allies Laguna Niguel Councilwoman Mimi Walters, 41, and Orange County Supervisor Tom Wilson, 63, are battling each other in the primary.

Walters, a former investment executive and Laguna Niguel council member, has criticized Wilson for accepting campaign donations from public employee unions, who she said might expect favors in return. Wilson, a retired aerospace manager who has served two terms on the county Board of Supervisors, describes himself as a moderate who will be able to work well with both Republicans and Democrats in Sacramento.

Also running is Vista school board member Jim Gibson, 49. Republicans hold a 2-to-1 registration edge over Democrats in the district, which stretches along the coast from Dana Point to Oceanside in northern San Diego County.

69th Assembly District

Not all the primary battles are among Republicans. In Orange County’s central area, Tom Umberg faces opposition for the Democratic nomination to reclaim his seat in the 69th Assembly District primary, the only district in Orange County with a Democratic majority among voters.

Umberg will face Santa Ana council member and Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Claudia Alvarez.

Republican voters will choose between two Santa Ana businessmen, Otto Bade and Ruben Ross.

Umberg, considered the favorite because of his experience, represented the area in the Assembly from 1990 to 1994. He left the post to seek the attorney general’s job but lost.

Because of voter-approved term limits, Umberg can serve only one more two-year term in the Assembly. Additionally, he can serve two four-year terms in the state Senate.

Whoever wins in November will take the seat of Lou Correa, who has represented the district, including Santa Ana, central Anaheim and eastern Garden Grove, since 1998. The district includes a sizable Latino population.

Facing term limits, Correa is running for the Orange County Board of Supervisors seat now held by Supervisor Chuck Smith.

Before entering the Legislature, Umberg was a federal prosecutor in Santa Ana. After leaving Sacramento, he helped run President Clinton’s 1992 campaign in California. He was chosen by Clinton in 1997 to serve as deputy director to drug czar Barry McCaffrey. In 2000, he returned to California and is now managing partner of the law firm Morrison & Foerster.

But his long record does not intimidate Alvarez, who at 34, decided she didn’t mind running a long-shot campaign. She has spent nearly four years on the Santa Ana City Council and five years in the Orange County district attorney’s office.

In the Republican primary, Bade, 58, a restaurant owner who founded the South Santa Ana Merchants Assn., has also served on numerous community boards. He believes liberals have damaged the Legislature and limited opportunities for businessmen and students in California.

Bade’s opponent, Ruben Ross, has been an activist in Temple City for many years. He ran unsuccessfully for the Assembly several times. In his ballot statement, Ross wrote that he would like to address the state budget, help local businesses, reduce business taxes, improve schools, improve public safety and give greater recognition to California veterans. He did not return calls for comment.

County, cities, schools

Also on Tuesday’s ballots in Orange County are a handful of nonpartisan races and ballot measures. Among them is the race by four candidates -- three council members and one state assemblyman -- to succeed Orange County Supervisor Chuck Smith.

The candidates include Correa, who cannot seek reelection to his Assembly seat because of term limits, Garden Grove Mayor Bruce Broadwater, Santa Ana Councilman Brett Franklin and Westminster Councilman Kermit Marsh.

Supervisor Bill Campbell is running unopposed for reelection to the county board in the 3rd Supervisorial District.

Residents in three Orange County school districts -- Saddleback Valley Unified, Orange Unified and Huntington Beach Union High -- will decide whether to approve a property tax increase in order to pay for the repairs, modernization and expansion of schools that district officials say are desperately needed.

Huntington Beach Union’s Measure C would provide the district with $238 million that would cost taxpayers an additional $30 per $100,000 in assessed land value; Orange Unified voters will decide on Measure A, a $200-million request. If passed, property owners in Orange Unified would pay a $39.29 tax increase per $100,000 in assessed value. Saddleback Valley’s Measure B would provide $180 million in funds -- an increase of $37.14 per $100,000 in assessed value. The bonds would be paid off over a period of 25 to 40 years.

District officials point to decades-old buildings with outdated fire alarm systems, rusted plumbing, leaking roofs and insufficient classroom space; critics of the bonds express frustration that the districts did not do a better job of maintenance over the years.

Sixteen of the county’s 27 noncollegiate school districts have passed similar bond measures since 1986.

Other races

A number of other races have attracted less attention in Orange County, either because they are uncontested or because they are largely playing out in neighboring counties:

* Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) is unopposed in the 40th Congressional District primary, and Rep. Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar) is unopposed in the 42nd Congressional District primary.

Democrats Christina Avalos, a consultant who lost to Royce in 2002, and J. Tilman Williams, a former Garden Grove council member who is now a trustee for the Garden Grove Unified School District, are fighting to face Royce in November.

* Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Riverside) in the 44th Congressional District is facing fellow Republican David J. Rizzo, a podiatrist who works for a management consulting firm.

* Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Anaheim) is running unopposed for the 47th Congressional District Democratic nomination. Two Republicans -- Alexandria Coronado, a member of the county Board of Education, and Virgel Nickell, a businessman who has run unsuccessfully for state Assembly twice -- are in the primary to see who will challenge Sanchez.

* Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) is running unopposed in the 48th Congressional District.

* Two incumbent state senators -- Bob Margett (R-Arcadia) in the 29th Senate District, and Dick Ackerman (R-Irvine) in the 33rd Senate District -- are running unopposed.

* State Assembly members running unopposed include Rudy Bermudez (D-Norwalk) in the 56th Assembly District on the county’s northern border, and incumbents Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach) in the 67th, Todd Spitzer, (R-Orange) in the 71st and Lynn Daucher (R-Brea) in the 72nd.

* In the 60th Assembly District race, three Republican candidates, including the wife of the area’s current representative, are scrambling for name recognition in a suburban swath that includes parts of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties. Gayle Pacheco, whose husband, Assemblyman Robert Pacheco (R-Walnut), represents the district but cannot seek re-election because of term limits, may draw voters who like her husband, who has endorsed her. She faces Jax Markets chain President Bill MacAloney, the only Orange County resident in the race, and Bob Huff, a member of the Diamond Bar City Council.

Times staff writers Jennifer Mena, Stuart Pfeifer, Joel Rubin and Kimi Yoshino contributed to this report.

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