Gilchrist against the league

On the day before the first candidate forum for the 48th Congressional District seat vacated by Chris Cox, Jim Gilchrist, representing the American Independent Party, announced that he would boycott the meeting in protest of the "far-left agenda" of the League of Women Voters, which was one of its sponsors.

In support of his decision, Gilchrist offered a prepared statement saying that the league "supports taxpayer-funded abortion up to the day of delivery, new and expanded gun-control laws, higher taxes on working people, socialized medicine and unrestricted legal immigration." He stopped just short of accusing them of coming out against baseball and motherhood.

The following week, a letter appeared in the Pilot from Christina Lucey, president of the Orange Coast League of Women Voters. Although the timing of her letter was clearly in response to these charges, it never said so. It was polite, reserved, factual and general, spelling out the principles and policies by which her organization operates.

That left Gilchrist's rant hanging in the rhetorical air.

I've been waiting ever since for someone to pick up on this exchange, but the locals seem so traumatized by the dispute over where, when and if the city of Newport Beach is going to build a new City Hall that little else is in their vision. So in this void, I called Christina Lucey. Now, I would like to add a postscript to her letter.

I find Gilchrist's charges reprehensible on three counts in particular. Lucey dealt only with the first when we talked: his use of labels too broad to counter, combined with inaccuracy when he got specific. For starters, the league is pro-choice, along with the majority of our citizens. It affirms the constitutional right of privacy of the individual to make reproductive choices. It has no stated policy on "abortion up to the day of delivery."