Ricchiazzi at center of fray

Paul Clinton

With a flood of e-mails and phone complaints in the past few days,

Assemblyman Ken Maddox said he has been taking heat for touting an

endorsement from Newport Beach Councilman Dick Nichols.

Maddox, on Monday, reiterated his stance that he doesn’t agree

with Nichols’ racially insensitive remark about Mexicans, but won’t

remove his name from his endorsement list for state Senate.

“I don’t even agree with my wife 100% of the time,” Maddox said

Monday. “I disagree with the statements, but I’d rather reach out to

the man.”

Nichols criticized Assemblyman John Campbell, who is running

against Maddox for the 35th District seat in the state Senate, for

his appointment of Frank Ricchiazzi, an openly gay Republican

activist from Laguna Beach.

Ricchiazzi sent a blistering e-mail on Friday urging supporters to

contact Maddox and ask “why he is not speaking up, when his

supporters have been attacking John Campbell for selecting me as his

representative.”

In 2000, Campbell named Ricchiazzi as a voting delegate to the

California Republican Party.

On Monday, Ricchiazzi, who founded the Log Cabin Republicans,

renewed his call for Maddox to condemn Nichols’ comment. In a story

in the Coastline Pilot’s sister paper the Daily Pilot, Nichols

criticized the appointment of Ricchiazzi as “questionable” and called

it one of Campbell’s “around-the-back maneuvers.”

“I hope that Ken Maddox makes a very clear statement that this is

somebody he doesn’t want anywhere near his campaign,” Ricchiazzi

said. “Ken has been a friend of Log Cabin.”

In August, Maddox attended and spoke at a pool party in Laguna

Beach that doubled as the annual meeting of Log Cabin Orange County.

Maddox also appointed former Log Cabin President John Stordahl as

an associate nonvoting representative to the state’s Republican

Party.

Despite his apparent efforts to court the group, Maddox said he

doesn’t support its political agenda, saying he “can’t support

domestic partnerships.”

“What strikes me as odd is that Campbell is positioning himself as

a gay-friendly legislator,” Maddox said. “He’s clearly to the left of

me on social issues. John Campbell is trying to shore up his Laguna

Beach votes.”

Campbell defended appointing the activist.

“I don’t intend to get into name calling with Maddox,” Campbell

said. “I appointed Frank Ricchiazzi because he is the best, most

hard-working volunteer in the county. Period. I’d reappoint him next

week.”

In 2002, Maddox supported two bills -- Assembly Bill 1330 and

Assembly Bill 1684 -- that extended domestic partner benefits. Maddox

said he supported those bills because they paved the way for a labor

agreement with state employees.

“If these things were not put into effect, state employees would

be without a contract,” he said. “These had to be in there, much to

my chagrin.”

Terry Price, the newly installed president of the Lincoln Club of

Orange County, said he objected to Nichols’ characterization of the

largest local GOP fund-raiser as “not a bona fide Republican group.”

The group has donated $250,000 to the effort to recall Gov. Gray

Davis, he said.

“[The comment] flies in the face of a 42-year history of backing

and funding Republicans of all makes and shapes,” Price said. “It’s

an assemblage of people that are like minded 80% of the time on

issues.”

* PAUL CLINTON is a reporter for the Coastline Pilot’s sister

paper the Daily Pilot. He may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by

e-mail at [email protected].