Both Parties Steer Clear of El Toro

Contentiousness over a proposed international airport at El Toro Marine base has both major political parties in Orange County tiptoeing around the issue as they gear up for the March primaries.

County GOP Executive Director Bill Christiansen cringed when asked if the party would take a position on the airport. He said the Republican central committee has “stayed clear” of debates on El Toro because it is too divisive an issue among longtime GOP activists and elected officials on both sides.

One GOP activist went so far as to call the airport an “A-word” that could rip the party apart, much like the GOP’s often emotional fights over abortion.

The GOP Lincoln Club of Orange County has an unspoken understanding among its membership to avoid getting tangled in El Toro, said President Michael Capaldi, an attorney from Irvine.

“We have a broader agenda,” he said, that includes working toward electing a Republican to the White House in 2000.

The Orange County Democratic Party has skirted the edge of the El Toro debate. It recently passed a resolution, also approved by state Democrats, calling on Gov. Gray Davis to convene a Southern California conference on airport growth. The resolution noted that airports have a corrosive effect on communities and should be built only where they are welcomed.

Local Democratic Chairwoman Jeanne Costales said the vote was viewed as a way of promoting consensus on airports, not as an anti-El Toro statement.

She said Democrats aren’t any more eager than Republicans to wade into the El Toro quagmire. “How you feel about El Toro depends on where you live,” she said.

So far, the political breach over El Toro has been more threat than reality. The bulk of candidates mulling runs for office in South County, regardless of party, are staunchly anti-airport.

But some Republican leaders worry that division over the airport issue could affect political necessities, such as the automatic exchange of endorsements between Republican elected officials north and south. And it could do worse from a candidate’s viewpoint: Dry up money that many GOP candidates have relied upon to flow in both directions.

Assemblywoman Patricia Bates (R-Laguna Niguel) is one elected official who said she will not endorse any candidate next year who supports the airport.

“It’s a defining issue,” Bates said. “It’s about the present and the future for generations in Orange County.”

A glance at Orange County’s registration shows why El Toro contentiousness could prove more troubling for Republicans than Democrats: South County has a higher ratio of registered Republicans than elsewhere in the county. Appealing to the anti-airport passions of GOP voters could bolster a Democratic candidate’s otherwise slim chances of winning in districts with solid Republican majorities.

Elected officials are taking notice.

In recent weeks, Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) and Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) signed petitions for an anti-airport initiative that organizers hope to place on the March ballot. The congressmen said the petition was the only way to restore the voice of South County residents in an El Toro planning process controlled by pro-airport county supervisors.

The endorsements of the Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative delighted Cox’s and Packard’s South County constituents. But they infuriated longtime Republicans in pro-airport Newport Beach. Local newspapers printed a flurry of letters from Republican voters and donors in Newport who threatened to turn their backs on Cox in March. Newport Beach is in Cox’s district.

Divided Along Geographical Lines

The issue divides elected officials across Orange County, generally by geography. Representatives with South County constituencies oppose the airport, while those representing North County cities generally support it.

Only one of Orange County’s three Democrats at the state and federal level has waded into the airport maelstrom: Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Anaheim), who successfully fought anti-airport legislation attempted by Bates.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, an anti-airport Republican whose district includes north and south cities, said the issue is a “sticky one” that affects a “spider web of relationships” among people otherwise committed to supporting GOP candidates and causes.

“It’s almost sacrosanct not to use El Toro as a wedge because of those relationships,” said Spitzer, who is seeking reelection in March.

But many voters opposed to the airport have begun politicizing the issue anyway. As airport planning continues, El Toro foes increasingly are looking to established power structures such as the parties to help in their fight.

At the same time, many South County residents view the Republican Party as a tacit supporter of the airport, largely because of the critical involvement of one man: longtime GOP donor and activist George Argyros.

“Republicans down here are passionate about the issue, and they’ve tried [to get the party involved], but they’ve been steered away,” said Patrick Birkett, vice president of the JFK Good Works Democratic Club in South County. “They’re frustrated, but no one wants to buck the money people.”

Since the base was added to the federal military closure list in 1993, Argyros has spent about $2 million on two ballot initiatives that cemented plans for an airport. He is the primary financial backer of Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, founded in 1994 to promote an airport reuse of El Toro.

Pro-airport Republican consultant David Ellis said airport foes are creating unfounded conspiracy theories when there is a simpler explanation for many Republicans’ support of an airport.

“Republicans stand for business, jobs and prosperity,” Ellis said. “For any Republican to oppose El Toro, they run against the philosophical core of the party.”

El Toro could become “the new litmus test” for many South County voters next year, regardless of the uneasiness of party leaders, political science professor Fred Smoller of Chapman University said.

“Politicians hate these issues, and so do the parties,” Smoller said. “Something like El Toro has no political traction because you can’t use it as a cleavage issue [against the other party]. Only if your party is consolidated on one side, then you’re in great shape.”

At the same time, “this is a real opportunity perhaps for a party to grow,” he said. “El Toro is so divisive and so permanent that it has the potential to reshape county politics forever.”

Some Democrats hope to use the issue to crack 20 years of Republican primacy in South County. Already, party activists are eyeing candidates to challenge GOP incumbents over their anti-El Toro records, starting with Packard.

First elected in 1982, Packard is so entrenched that he didn’t even pull a Democratic opponent in 1998.

Though Packard long has opposed the airport plan, Democrat Peter Kouvelis, a former Marine captain from Dana Point, will argue that Packard, chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees transportation spending, hasn’t done enough in Washington to stop the county’s plans.

Packard didn’t return a call seeking comment.

Democrats say they’ll woo voters with the party resolution, which condemns airport construction as environmentally destructive.

“It’s a quality-of-life issue facing people down here, and that’s not partisan,” said Democratic activist Birkett, of Laguna Beach. “Unlike the Republicans, we haven’t run away from it.”