GOP to Pay Legal Fees in Guards Case : Pringle Says Panel OKd Defense Costs for Party Activists

Orange County Republican officials have agreed to pay legal defense fees for party activists sued over the use of uniformed guards in Latino election precincts, Assemblyman-elect Curt Pringle said Tuesday.

The use of the guards, who carried signs warning against voting by non-citizens, has prompted calls by some groups for the resignation of county GOP Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes. Fuentes has said he authorized the payment of $4,000 from party funds for security guards who were to serve as poll watchers.

But there was no criticism of Fuentes at a meeting Monday night of the Orange County Republican Central Committee. In fact, “I Tom” stickers were handed to everyone entering the room and an agenda item about ballot security was passed over.

“If you ever imagined Jonestown, that’s what it was like,” said a veteran party member, referring to the 1970s religious cult headed by Jim Jones in Guyana. “It was clear that had there been a call for a vote of confidence, people there were prepared to give it to Fuentes because it was his crowd.”

Fuentes did not return The Times’ phone calls Tuesday.

On Friday, five Latino residents filed suit in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana seeking to overturn the results of the hotly contested 72nd Assembly District race in which Pringle narrowly defeated Democrat Christian F. (Rick) Thierbach by 867 votes out of 66,831 votes cast.

The five plaintiffs alleged that the security guards harassed them, although they all voted anyway.

Pringle said Tuesday that the issue of legal fees was raised at a meeting of the county GOP executive committee last week. “Legal assistance did come up as a topic of discussion, and there was a consensus that the party would pay to defend anyone named in a lawsuit,” Pringle said.

The full County Republican Central Committee was not informed of the executive panel’s decision, Pringle acknowledged. “That’s a decision within the role of the executive committee,” he said.

Defends Actions

During the executive committee meeting last week, Fuentes defended his actions after former County Supervisor Bruce Nestande strongly criticized them, according to party officials who attended the session. Nestande chaired the local George Bush presidential campaign and was a member of a GOP get-out-the-vote committee.

Nestande declined comment Tuesday on what happened at the executive committee meeting.

But others who attended the session said Nestande presented documents showing that GOP officials had not discussed the use of party funds for a security guard operation before the election. “It’s unfortunate when participants in a (get-out-the-vote) committee are blind-sided by events like this,” Nestande said Tuesday.

Fuentes told executive committee members that Orange County businessmen Peter Muth and Johnny Crean had offered to help pay for legal assistance, according to people who attended the session. Muth and Crean, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1982, were unavailable for comment Tuesday afternoon.

‘Positive Meeting’

Pringle said at Monday night’s full committee meeting that “not one word was mentioned of any criticism” of Fuentes. “It was a very positive meeting,” Pringle said. “There was a lot of post-election exuberance.”

Julie Froeberg, aide to state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), said the issue of the security guards was not brought up because the structure of the meeting did not allow for it. “Raising the issue would have been very difficult to do,” she said. “There was a feeling that this was Tom’s last meeting, and that those who may be hoping for a change in leadership were not ready to act at this time.”

Froeberg also said committee members generally felt that the guard issue was raised mostly by Democrats for partisan purposes and reflected “sour grapes” about the GOP victory in the 72nd Assembly District.

Fuentes’ term as chairman of the central committee ends in January. He has not announced publicly whether he will seek reelection.

“It was clear that the guard issue would not be raised during the meeting,” said Nestande, who attended the Monday night session. “If he (Fuentes) wanted to raise it, I would have been pleased to talk about it. But I respected the integrity of his wanting to run a meeting the way he wants to.”

Silva Outraged

But Raul Silva, a longtime Republican activist and unsuccessful Assembly candidate, said he was outraged by the central committee’s failure to discuss the guards.

If central committee members don’t believe that Fuentes and Pringle did something wrong in hiring the uniformed guards, Silva said, “then I really feel for them.”

“They have violated everything this party and this country stand for,” Silva said, “and the central committee is condoning it.”