Steven Greenhut
Senior editorial writer and columnist for the Register
In Orange County, when someone uses the term "rhino," the listener doesn't think immediately about a form of tusked animal found in zoos, but about a strange species of political animal that is somewhat of a donkey in elephant's clothing.
The proper spelling is RINO, and it stands for Republican In Name Only. It's a proliferating species in this part of the veld, given that, despite the county's shifting demographics, Orange County remains a Republican bastion, so politically ambitious liberals and "moderates" still have to use the Republican label. In fact, O.C. RINOs are so well-funded that they could sweep the March 2 primary races for the state Assembly.
As readers know, the state's two mega-metro areas -- Los Angeles and the Bay Area -- dominate statewide politics. Those regions send truckloads of far-left legislative species to Sacramento. Balance comes from some other areas in the state (San Diego, the Central Valley, the Inland Empire), but the population imbalance gives the lefties a nearly 2-1 majority in both zoos, er, houses, of the Legislature.
Traditionally, Orange County has been the heart and soul of the conservative and libertarian movements, sending reliably right-wing legislators to Sacramento to stand against the taxing, spending, regulating and social engineering promoted by left-wingers. The O.C. delegation is too small to win many battles, but it -- and like-minded legislators from elsewhere -- keeps the home fires burning in Sacramento.
Except in one solidly Democratic district, the races for Assembly in Orange County are decided in the Republican primary. Whoever wins in March wins in November.
So those political activists with a more liberal bent don't waste their time on the general election. They run and support candidates in the Republican primary.
Because it is a Republican primary, these RINOs cannot come out and proclaim their political colors. They must disguise their views the way a real rhino might hide in the tall grass from a hunter
Hence, every liberal/moderate Republican running March 2 champions his and her "conservative" views, especially on the safe tax, fiscal and regulatory issues. (Of course, as former state Sen. John Lewis points out, the moderate Republicans who mix and match their views tend not to hang tough on tax and fiscal issues, either.)
If Republican voters aren't careful in the coming election, Orange County will not have a single conservative representing it in the Assembly. Not one. It will be one big RINO herd.
Let's do the math. Currently, the incumbents who are running unopposed and will certainly win re-election are RINOs: Tom Harman of Huntington Beach, Lynn Daucher of Brea and Todd Spitzer of Orange. Harman and Daucher won because of the now-nullified open primary, which allowed non-Republicans to vote in the GOP primary in 2000. Harman and Daucher are liberal on many issues, and took part in a brief bipartisan budget effort last year that would have raised taxes.
Spitzer, who has no discernible ideology, is more of a mixed bag. He was pretty tough on taxes, but he supported a measure in March 2003 that would have made it easier to raise taxes for transportation (he backed away in the face of criticism), and voted no on a package of budget bills because it cut too much from education. He talks a lot about bipartisanship.
There is a big difference between being represented by principled advocates of limited government who can always be counted on to hold firm -- Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, Sen. Dick Ackerman, R-Fullerton, and Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Murrieta, come to mind - and being represented by those who have to be prodded along to stay in line. Harman, Daucher and Spitzer fall into the latter category.
(Parts of this article not dealing with the 68th District omitted here - for the full text, read the PDF version of the article)
In the 68th Assembly District race to replace termed-out Ken Maddox, two Garden Grove council members are going head-to-head. In this case, it's the former Democrat, Mark Leyes, who is the conservative's choice, and the former member of the Young Americans for Freedom, Van Tran, who more closely fits the RINO description.
My viewpoint is shaped, in part, by the battle the city of Garden Grove fought against many of its residents.
The city in 2002 tried to include a large neighborhood of single-family homes in a redevelopment area, with the goal of using eminent domain to clear away the houses to make way for a theme park or other anchor development.
All five council members eventually did the right thing, and voted to exclude the area from the redevelopment zone in the face of protests and media condemnation. Leyes was a driving force behind saving the houses, Tran a reluctant follower. Since then, Leyes has been an advocate for promoting real property rights protections in the city to keep other homeowners from having to go through the same ordeal. Tran has been lukewarm to such proposals.
Tran talked like a conservative during a recent Register editorial board meeting, and was convincing on his support of the Second Amendment (he was even packing iron!), but it's a hard sell. A real conservative officeholder should have a long list of conservative accomplishments, or at least a long list of efforts to promote a conservative agenda.
What are Tran's accomplishments?
After watching the two men on the Garden Grove City Council, I am convinced that Tran would go with the flow, and would be much like Spitzer, Harman and Daucher -- usually voting in concert with the GOP leadership, but rarely leading the charge for reducing government and its abuses. Leyes, by contrast, would be an activist for property rights, redevelopment reform and other issues.
Tran has been endorsed by the left-wing AFL-CIO, but he also has racked up endorsements from conservatives including Reps. Darrell Issa, Dana Rohrabacher and Ed Royce.
Why the conservative support? Because of his past conservative associations and because the GOP is eager to have a Vietnamese Assembly member. That's not enough of a reason.
(Parts of this article not dealing with the 68th District omitted here - for the full text, read the PDF version of the article)
If Pacheco, Tran, Wilson and Cristich win, and join Spitzer, Daucher and Harman in Sacramento, Orange County will not have a single conservative to lead the charge in the Assembly. It will be a cage full of RINOs.
Conservatism in Orange County won't die, but it would lose its energy and voice in the Assembly.
CONTACT THE WRITER: sgreenhut@ocregister.com or (714) 796-7823
