A behind-the-scenes look at Orange County’s political life : Unconventional Wisdom Prevails in Elections for GOP Central Committee

A few lessons on electoral politics, based on the results of last week’s races for the county’s Republican Party Central Committee, where the top six finishers in each Assembly district earn seats:

1. Don’t count on name recognition. Witness the cases of W. Snow Hume, Thomas A. Fuentes and Eddie Rose. Hume made the newspapers almost daily in early 1995 as a critic of the county bankruptcy, then finished ninth in his district. Fuentes has been party chairman for 12 years but didn’t capture the most votes in his own district, finishing second. Rose, a Laguna Niguel councilman who got lots of coverage for his letter on city stationery decrying the O.J. Simpson verdict, came in dead last.

2. Don’t worry about indictments. Rhonda Carmony, charged with three felonies related to the November election of Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) and awaiting trial in a separate case for seven alleged violations of the Political Reform Act, won a seat. She captured the second-largest vote total in her district, placing right behind her grandmother, Norma Bastanchury.

3. It doesn’t hurt--in most cases--to be running for another office on the same ballot. It worked for Jim Righeimer, who lost a bid for county school board; Gil Ferguson, who was trounced in a state Senate race; Jacob “Jim” Rems, also trounced in an Assembly race; Bruce Whitaker, who lost a supervisorial race; and Bill Dougherty, who also lost a bid for supervisor. Eric Woolery won twice, for county school board and county central committee.

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Splitting the vote: Eyebrows were raised when Lake Forest Councilwoman Helen Wilson and Mission Viejo Councilwoman Susan Withrow both jumped into the race for supervisor in the county’s 3rd District. Wouldn’t these two highly regarded South County women split the vote?

As it turned out, they did, and the results couldn’t have worked out better for Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange) or Deputy Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer, who will battle in a runoff in November that now could also include a write-in candidacy for Supervisor Don Saltarelli.

In a slate of eight candidates, Withrow and Wilson, the only South County candidates and the only women in the race, together tallied more than 23,000 votes, about 3,000 more than Conroy, who placed first.

Withrow remains “very angry” at Wilson, who entered the race late.

“She was a spoiler from the outset,” fumed Withrow, who said she was “shocked” when Wilson entered the race. “Now, once again, we won’t have any South County representation on the board to ensure somebody’s looking out for us when that airport comes along.”

In retrospect, Wilson said, the decision for both to run for the seat was a mistake, but she adamantly denied she was in the race as a spoiler for anyone and characterized Withrow’s remarks as “pretty self-centered.”

Wilson said she had many supporters from all over the county--including Mission Viejo--urge her to run because she is more conservative than Withrow and opposes abortion rights.

But she agreed with Withrow on one thing: There’s no doubt the South County’s chances for its first-ever supervisor were killed by both of them being in the race. “I think one of us would have been in a runoff for sure,” Wilson said. “We would have had a South County candidate in the runoff, absolutely.”

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Thanks, but no thanks: Westminster Mayor Charles V. Smith placed first in last week’s 1st District race for county supervisor, putting him in a runoff with Mark Leyes. But his bid for that office cost him in another way.

When GOP presidential nominee-to-be Bob Dole came to Little Saigon last week, his entourage decided at the last minute that Smith was not welcome on stage as the official greeter from Westminster, as had been rehearsed the night before.

“I found out later that somebody had recommended that I not be on stage because I was in a supervisorial race . . . and I was in disfavor with the Republican Party,” which was backing Leyes, said Smith, a lifelong Republican and Westminster mayor for the past eight years. “It was kind of a slap in the face, not to me, but the whole city of Westminster.”

Smith said the snub has angered the entire council, and a letter of protest from the council has been crafted to send to Gov. Pete Wilson, who appeared at the event and whose staff helped with the arrangements.

To top off the embarrassing situation, when Westminster City Councilman Tony Lam was introduced, things were messed up too. “They introduced him as a Garden Grove councilman,” Smith said.

The Dole campaign did not return a call for comment. Wilson’s aides referred all questions to the Dole camp.

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Popular proposition: One of the biggest disappointments of Tuesday’s election, according to officials of both parties, was the success of Proposition 198, the initiative that will open party primaries to all voters. Rapped by politicians around the state, it breezed to a lopsided victory, including in Orange County.

The criticism did not stop after the election either.

“This is one of the worst ballot initiatives I’ve ever seen,” said Howard Klein of Irvine, a member of the county GOP central committee. “Essentially, it renders party registration meaningless. It allows a person to wear a party designation in an election even though he or she may have gotten a minority of votes from their party in the primary.

“I think it’s a fraud, I think it’s unconstitutional and I believe it will be overturned in the courts.”

UPCOMING EVENTS

* Monday: Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) will be the guest speaker at a reception for the Christopher Cox Congressional Club from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Club. Information: Randy Bronk at (714) 786-3600.

* Thursday: Monthly meeting of the Orange County Federation of Republican Women at 10:30 a.m. at the Turnip Rose, 300 S. Flower Ave., Orange. Information: Carol Wolfert at (714) 529-6030.

Compiled by Times staff writer Len Hall, with a contribution from correspondent Frank Messina.

Politics ’96 appears every Sunday. Items can be mailed to Politics ‘96, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or faxed to (714) 966-7711.