Running for Robertson : More Than 35 Backers of Candidate Seek County GOP Committee Seats

In what appears to be an organized effort, more than 35 supporters of GOP presidential candidate Pat Robertson have filed to run in the June 7 election for the Orange County Republican Central Committee.

Though some hedged when questioned about their involvement in the former religious broadcaster’s campaign, all of those reached for comment acknowledged that they either support Robertson’s candidacy or are evangelical Christians who share his views on moral issues. There are at least seven husband-and-wife teams in the group.

“We’re going to help turn our country around back to sanity,” said Rosemary Rauschl of Placentia, who said she attended a Robertson rally last week in Garden Grove at which Central Committee candidacies were suggested.

Lawanda A. Barnhart of Costa Mesa, a Robertson supporter, said she “just felt when somebody brought it up in the (Garden Grove) meeting that there would be a chance of being able to help. . . . I think moral decay is the most horrible thing that is happening.”

Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) said he believed Robertson candidates for Republican central committees are showing up in filings statewide.

“Republicans have mentioned it in our (Assembly) caucus as if it is rather common that it’s happening,” Ferguson said. Many Robertson supporters were recognizable, he noted, because they are running as husband-and-wife teams.

Robertson’s candidacy, some feel, has little hope of succeeding in 1988, although he has talked of mobilizing 100,000 volunteers for a last-ditch effort in the June 7, winner-take-all California primary. Robertson also says he hopes to be a rallying point for conservatives at the GOP convention in August and already is planning for the 1992 presidential race.

To this end, Robertson forces are reportedly trying to gain a foothold in the Republican Party at local and state levels throughout the nation through such maneuvers as Central Committee membership. Robertson recently predicted that before the 1988 elections are over, he will have influence in more than one-third of the nation’s local parties.

In Orange County, there are six Central Committee members elected from each of the eight Assembly districts. Each Republican nominee for Assembly, state Senate and Congress also is an ex-officio member, bringing total committee membership to 66.

The committee, with a $300,000 to $400,000 annual budget, meets monthly and conducts voter-registration, get-out-the-vote and fund-raising activities. It also elects a chairman, currently Thomas A. Fuentes, who plays host to GOP candidates visiting the county and serves as a spokesman for the party in the county.

Ferguson said Republican Party leaders are not alarmed that Robertson supporters are running in force for the Central Committee.

“I think most Republicans would welcome anyone into the party or into the Central Committee who shares their values, and most evangelicals share traditional family values of the party,” Ferguson said.

He said it “is quite common that various movements throughout the history of America who, after trying as third or fourth parties, have made efforts to--I don’t think infiltrate is the right word--to join one of the major parties and exact an influence on that party.”

Ferguson added: “Not all of those movements are good, bad or indifferent. It’s a mixed bag.”

Twenty-five residents of Ferguson’s 70th Assembly District, including about a dozen Robertson supporters, have filed as Central Committee candidates.

Craig J. Donofrio of Santa Ana, who is running for the committee in the 67th Assembly District, said that Robertson supporters “have been encouraged to get involved at any level that they can.”

But he debunked any fears that Robertson forces were planning to take over Republican Party politics.

“There seems to be this panic I keep hearing about that Robertson people are trying to overthrow the government,” said Donofrio, a student at Christ College Irvine. “We’re just trying to get more moral people involved with government to right some of the wrongs that have been done in the past.”

According to several candidates who identified themselves as Robertson supporters, the idea for entering the races came from Norman Hahn, Orange County coordinator for Robertson’s presidential campaign.

“Is there anything wrong with that?” Hahn replied when asked if he encouraged Robertson supporters to run for the committee. “That sounds good to me--doesn’t it to you?”

Hahn, an Anaheim resident who is also a Central Committee candidate, refused to say whether Robertson or someone from his campaign had asked him to encourage people to run.

However, others who had talked to Hahn were more forthcoming.

Donald E. Lawson, who, along with his wife, Carol, is a Central Committee candidate, said Hahn called him and asked if he would run.

“We were motivated by Pat Robertson and the moral issues involved,” Lawson said, adding that he and his wife oppose abortion and homosexuality. “There are several issues that get involved in morals that I just feel some day we’ve got to stand up for.”

Vic McKinzie of Costa Mesa said that he and his wife, June, decided after hearing Hahn speak that they would run for the Central Committee because “we prefer to see this country returned to our previous principles and ideals.”

McKinzie said he and his wife “feel that the gay movement is not a civil rights issue at all” and “that any nation that has stooped to that type of life style has crumbled.”

But McKinzie said he is running on his own and not as a Robertson candidate. “This will be my campaign,” he added.

Like most other Robertson candidates who were interviewed, McKinzie said he was a member of an evangelical church.

Paula Doyle of Costa Mesa, a member of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, said that she and her husband, Richard, are Central Committee candidates because they want to have a say in how the country is run.

“I’d rather have me voicing my own opinion than someone in there who does not have my same views voicing theirs instead,” Doyle said. According to Federal Election Commission reports, Doyle made a $238 contribution to Robertson’s campaign. Her sister, Paulette A. Reinsel of Huntington Beach, also is a Central Committee candidate.

County chairman Fuentes said that he “enthusiastically” welcomed Robertson supporters to the Central Committee, “and that means walking precincts with us, writing checks to us and helping get out the vote on Election Day with us. There’s not much glamour to the role.”

But Fuentes predicted that few of the Robertson people would be elected because, for the most part, incumbents are reelected. He said that is because most voters know few of the candidates and figure that an incumbent must have proven himself or herself to some degree.

However, because there are so few voters who care about Central Committee elections, that also means that a well-organized effort could get some Robertson candidates elected.

“They know there’s going to be a small vote out there,” Ferguson said. “This new group has a strong constituency who does know the difference between one candidate or another.”

Fuentes, who said he had not yet decided whether to run in January for a third two-year term as chairman, laughed when it was suggested that if the Robertson forces were successful, they could oust him from his post and elect one of their own as chairman.

“That’s a hell of a thought,” he said.