Santa Ana Mayor Breaks Ice With an Endorsement : Gephardt Gains Ground in County

Santa Ana Mayor Dan Young, a redhead, Thursday became the first Orange County public official to endorse Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), a fellow redhead who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“There’s only one person in this enormous pack of contenders that I feel has the depth, the intellect, the personal ability and the track record to pull this off,” said Young, referring to the large number of Democratic candidates vying for front-runner status since former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart withdrew from the race.

“Fortunately, he’s a redhead,” Young quipped.

Raised $25,000

The announcement came at a $25,000 fund-raiser for Gephardt, who thanked Young and jokingly told the crowd of about 70 people that they had learned a “real lesson in politics today--you now understand the importance of hair color.”

On a more serious note, Gephardt laid out his major campaign themes for the group, which was brought together at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach by 22 local Democratic activists, including lawyer Frank P. Barbaro, Mercury Savings Chairman Leonard Shane and Michael Ray of the Irvine-based J. Ray Construction Co.

Gephardt answered questions about the so-called “Gephardt amendment,” a measure adopted by the House of Representatives which would set up sanctions against countries with big trade surpluses against the United States. He insisted that it was not “protectionism”--a catchword that he has been trying to avoid--but an attempt to force countries like Japan to open their markets to the United States. He also spoke of his plan to put America back on strong economic footing.

Gephardt is expected to be one of two major beneficiaries of support in Orange County--the other is Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis--in the wake of Hart’s withdrawal from the race. Hart, who pulled out of the race three weeks ago as a result of news stories that he had spent the weekend with a Miami model, had been the county’s favorite Democratic candidate.

Since then, many of Hart’s strong supporters have been “shell-shocked,” as Democratic activist Stuart Karl put it at the fund-raiser for Gephardt. Karl, who had been for Hart, joined Young in announcing that he will now back Gephardt.

‘Solidify Support’

Young said his endorsement “is the start of what I hope will be an intensified effort” to solidify support for Gephardt in Orange County. “We needed to get Gephardt out here to get everybody excited,” Young said. “I’m going to be talking to elective officers all over the county, and we’ll try to start bringing them in.”

Ray, chairman of the Democratic Foundation, a $1,000-a-year support group, said the event, at $250 a ticket, brought in about $10,000 more than expected and even attracted some Republicans.

Gephardt met with the group as part of a three-day swing through California, during which he hoped to raise $100,000 for his campaign. Recent polls have shown him running ahead of all other Democratic candidates in Iowa, where the Democratic delegate-selection process begins next February.