Alicia Robinson
Orange County Republicans are hoping a new policy of making
endorsements in nonpartisan races will help them win more seats in
upcoming elections, and even Democrats expect the endorsements to
make a difference in local races as early as this fall.
As part of an overall strategy to boost the party's power, Orange
County Republican Central Committee members recently changed their
bylaws to create an endorsement committee that can recommend
candidates to endorse in nonpartisan races, Orange County GOP
Chairman Scott Baugh said.
The party has done it a handful of times before but had to suspend
the bylaws to do so. Now if two thirds of the endorsement committee
votes in favor of a candidate, it recommends that candidate to the
entire central committee, which also must give two-thirds approval
for an endorsement.
"What we've done is streamline the process," he said. "We
basically create energy from each city and a connection to the county
party."
For years, political parties have used local nonpartisan offices
as a farm team for state and federal offices, so there is often party
identification among nonpartisan candidates, UC Irvine political
science professor Mark Petracca said. Candidates for local offices
also will subtly communicate party approval by touting endorsements
from well-known officials who are in partisan offices.
Party affiliation was dragged into the open in a 2002 council
race, when a Republican-backed phone poll pointed out that Costa Mesa
City Council candidate Katrina Foley was a registered Democrat. Foley
lost the election.
"I don't know if that's the reason why I didn't win the election,"
Foley said. "There was a lot of response from the people who got the
calls that they made it partisan.... I think that people voting for
City Council care about whether or not that person cares about our
community and what they are going to do to make our neighborhoods
nice and keep our finances healthy."
Foley represents one of two schools of thought that seem to fall
along party lines. Local Democrats said some nonpartisan offices deal
with issues that are important to everyone regardless of party, like
getting trash collected or educating children.
"I basically just don't see where school boards and city councils
and water districts get into political philosophy," Orange County
Democratic Party Chairman Frank Barbaro said. "I think that it is
just basically pragmatic problem solving that they deal with."
