Dole’s Choice Brings Praise, Protest in O.C.

In the Republican heartland which is Orange County, some folks were just praying Friday that charming former football star Jack Kemp might enliven the Republican ticket.

“If you look at Clinton-Gore, there’s nobody more bland than Gore and nobody more animated than Clinton,” said Harold Ezell, the former western regional commissioner for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. “Now we’ve got that same combination in reverse.”

Said Orange County Supervisor and Republican convention delegate Marian Bergeson: “Disregarding his gray hair, when you hear Jack Kemp speak, he exemplifies youth and vitality.”

In other words, Bob Dole, sagging in the polls and flagging in charisma, couldn’t have picked a better running mate.

“Without being nasty about it, it’s very true he gives us a real lift here,” said David Moore, president of the Western Growers Assn. and a delegate to the Republican Convention from Newport Beach. “But,” he cautioned, “you want to make sure the second person doesn’t overshadow the first.”

The well-traveled Kemp, a Los Angeles native, could make a claim to being one of Orange County’s own. He bought his first home in Costa Mesa back in 1960 when he signed a two-year, $25,000 contract as the San Diego Chargers quarterback.

Later, his son Jeff Kemp played quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams. Kemp’s brother, Tom, whom he periodically visits, three nieces and a nephew all live in the county.

But as Orange County also is the birthplace of Proposition 187, the red-hot anti-illegal immigration measure, the choice of Kemp, even with his local ties, was not universally well-received.

In fact, when Barbara Kiley, co-chairman of the 187 campaign, heard the news, she “gagged.”

“Jack Kemp came to the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, in my hometown, to diss Prop. 187,” said Kiley, a Yorba Linda city councilwoman and first time alternate delegate. “I’m not real happy at all. . . . And I don’t think [Gov.] Pete Wilson’s jumping up and down and saying ‘Goody, goody.’ ”

Who would Kiley prefer? “Almost anybody. Can I have Bob Dole and Al Gore?”

By 2 p.m., Fountain Valley resident Thomas Logan already had zinged off a fax to The Times protesting the anticipated choice.

Logan, like Kiley, believes putting Kemp on the ticket would lose California.

“Bob Dole’s selection of Jack Kemp to run with him as V.P. on the GOP ticket has no doubt cost him any chance of winning California voter approval,” Logan wrote. “Kemp’s open opposition to Proposition 187 . . . is still fresh in the minds of many California voters.”

But Ezell said Kemp’s opposition to 187 is a thing of the past.

“There’s no way, if he’s on the ticket, that he hasn’t had to face the immigration plank in the platform,” said Ezell, who co-authored Prop. 187. “That plank, Sensible Immigration Policy, is tougher than 187 ever hoped to be.”

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Bergeson and several other Orange County delegates said Kemp’s past support of minority communities will bring minority Republicans into the fold.

“He has a relationship, especially with the Hispanics, that no one else high up in the Republican Party does,” Moore said. “He appeals to a number of people that would tend to make a difference and, hopefully, close the gap in the upcoming race.”

Moore remembered Kemp’s high-profile clash with a Costa Mesa city councilman in 1990 over a proposal that the city require charities to screen out clients who are illegal immigrants.

Kemp, then U.S. Housing and Urban Development secretary, sent then-Councilman Orville Amburgey a letter saying HUD would withhold block grant money if the city adopted such a measure.

“If the Costa Mesa policy regarding illegal immigrants were to be applied across the southwestern United States, I could foresee many unjust violations of the civil and human rights of Mexican--Americans and Asian-Americans,” Kemp wrote.

Ho Chung, a Garden Grove city councilman and a Republican delegate, said Kemp has a record of looking out for the “common people and the grass-roots people.”

“He’s very dynamic and he’s not an extremist,” said Chung, who is Korean American.

Ky Ngo, a delegate from Garden Grove, said Kemp has won the support of the Vietnamese community with his strong anti-Communist stance.

“I’m 110% behind him,” said Ngo, who first met Kemp while working on George Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign.

Democrats, questioned at random at South Coast Plaza Friday, had only yawns for Dole’s choice. “I don’t think anything will help Dole beat Clinton,” said Ron Williams, 65, visiting from Carbondale, Ill. “He’s too old. . . . If Kemp were nominated for president, it might make a difference. But he’s not.”

Les Moore, 38, of Laguna Niguel, was more blunt. “I don’t know who Kemp is. I’m voting for Clinton.”

Times staff writer Binh Ha Hong contributed to this story