By Steven Greenhut

If you wonder why the GOP is having such hard times, one need only look at the goings-on in Orange County, where Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh is pulling out all the stops to ensure the election to the board of supervisors of Todd Spitzer, the former Assemblyman who is a close union ally and someone who proudly increased pensions for his deputy sheriff union friends and then stood by that action right until he started getting political heat for doing so.

Baugh declared that no Republican who gets union support will get his or the party’s support, yet he is lending much support to Spitzer who continues to funnel past union money into his current election account. That technicality is enough for Baugh to turn a blind eye to a candidate who spent his career doing all the things that Baugh rails against. Baugh likes Spitzer and dislikes his board opponent, Deborah Pauly, so he is helping Spitzer.

But hypocrisy and lack of principle have a way of backfiring. Baugh recently sent out a letter to the GOP Central Committee making this case in another race:

“There has been significant activity in the 74^th Assembly District where our endorsed incumbent Allan Mansoor is running for re-election.  … It seems that Allan’s opponent, Leslie Daigle, has not been honest with us or the voters.  Do you remember when she came to our party asking for an endorsement for her city council race in Newport Beach?  At the time, she represented that she did not vote for 3@50 in Newport Beach, and she said that she supported defined contribution plans – not defined benefit plans.  Interesting . . . we actually learned that she voted for retroactive 3@50 defined benefits plans for firemen!  That wasn’t enough for her.  She turned around and then gave the same retroactive 3@50 defined benefit for lifeguards.  That’s right – two different votes supporting 3@50.  …”

Certainly, I agree with Baugh that Daigle is a liberal, tax-hiking, pension-spiking candidate and Mansoor is a pretty solid guy. But how can Baugh be so angry at Daigle for doing something even less egregious than that done by his close ally, Todd Spitzer? After all, Daigle voted for non-retroactive pension increases and Spitzer led the charge for a county-wide retroactive pension spike. Spitzer, by the way, is atrocious on civil liberties issues, a law-and-order, big-government guy with at least as much baggage as Daigle, although they are nightmares in different ways.

The OC Register editorial board noticed this as well. (Although I write a column for the Register and have written occasional editorials, I did not have anything to do with this one.) Wrote the Register:

“It is reassuring, after so many years of sounding alarms about the looming carnage pensions can inflict on government budgets, that more people are holding elected officials accountable for misguided votes, but the criticism should be consistently applied.”

Actually, Baugh is not being unprincipled, he seems to be applying this basic principle: If he likes you or dislikes your opponent, he will forgive any past votes and even current indiscretions. If he dislikes you or likes your opponent, he will hold you to a very high standard.

Welcome to the modern OC GOP.

MAY 20, 2012

Regardless of whether one agreed with Tom on most things or not, there is little question he was the conscience of the Orange County Republican Party. I still remembered his recalcitrance when the Arnold Schwarzenegger juggernaut was heading toward Sacramento. Tom issued warnings and was largely ignored but proved to be right. Schwarzenegger was just another in a long line of power-seeking phonies. Tom always did put principle over politics. He played politics and played it well, but we all knew that his core issues were non-negotiable. He was the leader of a political party and a gentleman, so he rarely berated an official in public. But everyone knew where he stood — and he stood like a rock. He had a long-term view of the party and of the conservative movement.

On a personal level, Tom often offered me advice and counsel. He was accessible, blunt-spoken and kind. I will miss his friendship. I recall once a trip we took with a small group to Rosarito Beach, Mexico. We stopped in Tijuana at the home of a family Tom had been helping for years. He was a good man and not just a political animal.When he left the party’s leadership, many of the big-money givers were happy. But as the local and state party has moved further from any guiding principle, so, too, has the party increasingly fallen on hard times. Too bad the party didn’t heed many of his lessons.

I’ll miss Tom’s friendship, his leadership and his rock-solid principles.

MAY 20, 2012