THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 26, 1994 TAG: 9409260083
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ORANGE COUNTY, CALIF. LENGTH: Long : 166 lines
In this conservative fund-raising mecca just south of Los Angeles, Oliver L. North is credited with helping to rid Nicaragua of communism, with the election of two local congressmen and with the marriage of Charles S. DeVore.
DeVore, a lanky Republican activist who sells computers, says he was in the Army reserves at Fort Bragg in 1987 when North was wowing the nation with his televised testimony on the Iran-Contra affair.
``I was sitting in an officers' club, when in walks this tall, beautiful woman with an Oliver North pin on her chest,'' he recalled. ``Naturally, I was intrigued, so I went up to her and asked her what she thought of North. She said, `Contras, Hooowaaa!' and I knew right then and there that she was for me.''
Five months to the day later, Chuck and Diane DeVore were married.
Why should Virginians care?
DeVore says he has sent about $100 this year to help North get elected to the U.S. Senate. He's a foot soldier in an army of fans from Orange County who have mustered at least $100,000 for the cause. No other locality outside Virginia has given as much to a campaign that has already raised more than $10 million.
In Virginia, critics of North have made much ado about his heavy reliance on out-of-state support. Democratic incumbent Sen. Charles S. Robb has gotten 71 percent of all his $200-plus contributions from outside the commonwealth; for North, the comparable figure is 85 percent. Public interest groups have questioned whether this means that North is national in scope, and that concerns unique to Virginia will receive scant attention if he's elected.
In Orange County, North supporters have a blunt answer. ``This election has national implications,'' said Tom Fuentes, chairman of the county's Republican Party. ``The senator from Virginia has as much to say about raising my taxes as anyone we elect from California . . . I'm excited about Oliver North. He's the most genuine candidate of our time.''
Conservative politics are not just a philosophy in this affluent county of 2.6 million suburbanites, which stretches along the Pacific Coast from Los Angeles County to San Diego County. They are a way of life.
Orange County is where Richard Nixon was born, and the site Ronald Reagan chose to kick off his two successful presidential campaigns. It is home to two Marine bases. Three of the county's four largest employers are defense contracting firms. Its airport is named after another conservative former resident - John Wayne.
Republican candidates from across the nation flock to Orange County each year to tap the wealth of local business leaders, who contributed $46 million to political causes between 1987 and 1992, according to the Orange County Register newspaper. But few have roots deeper than North's.
``Ollie is a special friend,'' said Buck Johns, a wealthy real estate investor and key Republican fund-raiser. ``He's gotten a lot of people elected out here and we owe him a debt of gratitude. He's a real hero in my mind, sort of like a short John Wayne.''
North's status as a kingmaker stems from a 1988 appearance he made on behalf of two long-shot Republican candidates in local congressional primaries. North had never given a campaign speech before. Both of the candidates - Dana Rohrabacher and Chris Cox - were former Reagan staffers whom North had befriended when he worked at the White House.
Orange County crowds paid top dollar to see North. In two days of campaigning, he raised more than $100,000 apiece for Rohrabacher and Cox and gave them much-needed exposure on television news. A week later, Rohrabacher and Cox won stunning upsets in the Republican primaries. The two went on to defeat token Democratic opponents in the fall elections.
Rohrabacher and Cox are still in Congress. ``What Ollie did was give me instant credibility as a true conservative candidate,'' Rohrabacher recalls. ``It's possible I would have won without him, but I wouldn't bet on it.''
North learned from the trip that he was a powerful campaigner. ``If you've got the gift, you've got to use it,'' he said in an interview.
North has returned to Orange County an average of three or four times a year since, bestowing his gifts on Republicans running for everything from senator and governor to the state legislature to city councils.
``It's an honor to stand on the podium with him,'' said state Assemblyman Mickey Conroy, who recently sponsored unsuccessful legislation that would have allowed California judges to order that graffiti artists be spanked with a paddle. ``I'd walk to hell and back for him.''
What North has sought in return has little to do with fire and brimstone. He has asked his allies in Orange County for contributions to his campaign and for their mailing lists of financial supporters.
The enthusiastic response has been felt in Virginia.
In 1991, for example, North started a political action committee to fund his campaign travels around Virginia with a $50,000 donation from Clifford S. Heinz, an Orange County philanthropist and an heir to the Heinz Ketchup fortune. Heinz declined requests for an interview.
The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon - a noted evangelical activist in Orange County - also is helping out. Sheldon is chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, a national lobbying organization for 31,000 churches. Through Sheldon's contacts, North has been arranging appearances before several black congregations in Virginia.
``Ollie stands for great American values,'' Sheldon said. ``When he was on trial, we all were on trial. When he is maligned, we all are maligned.''
Rohrabacher has sent opinion pieces to Virginia newspapers in defense of North. U.S. Rep. Robert Dornan, a tough-talking Orange County Republican who calls President Clinton ``a nerdy little flower child'' and once derided women who attended an abortion-rights rally as ``lesbian spear chuckers,'' will be guest speaker at a Roanoke fund-raiser for North on Oct. 7.
And the Orange County crowd turned out handsomely last June when North, just one week after winning the Republican Senate nomination, attended a $500-a-plate fund-raiser in nearby Pasadena. The dinner netted $43,000 for his campaign coffers.
North, who is sensitive to reports about his out-of-state support, downplays his Orange County connections. ``I'm constantly amazed by the support I've found everywhere I go,'' he said. ``What's important to keep in mind is that I also have a lot of support in Orange County, Virginia.''
But influential fund-raisers here say North maintains more than a passing interest in their California community.
``Ollie's not shy about asking for money,'' Johns said with a chuckle. ``Ollie will call you up. He'll get on the other end of the phone and harass you; he'll say `Why aren't you guys doing a better job out there?' He's an inspirational type of guy. I probably talk to him once a month.''
Like Johns, most of the big hitters here achieved their wealth through real estate. In 1950, Orange County was mostly undeveloped farmland, with 216,000 residents. Today, its $76.7 billion-a-year economy is the 35th-largest in the world, outstripping countries such as Poland, Greece and Israel.
The median price of a house here is $243,000 - the most expensive market in the nation.
Johns, who says he has contributed $205,000 to political causes from 1989 to 1992, is not a huge hitter by Orange County standards. The Irvine Co., which owns 25 percent of the land here, made $3.2 million in political donations during the same period, according to state and federal disclosure records.
``We're renegades out here,'' said Johns, who is a director of the Lincoln Club, a powerful political action committee for Orange County's conservative business interests. ``Most of the people came here because they believe in free enterprise and self-determination. We don't like government standing in our way. We don't like government, period.''
Fuentes, the local Republican chairman, is proud of Orange County's role in politics. ``The liberals go up the road to Hollywood for their money,'' he said. ``The conservatives know to come here.''
It's not just the wealthy, however, who are backing North's campaign. Federal records, which list the names of only those individuals who have given $200 or more to a campaign, detail $43,000 in Orange County contributions to North through June. North campaign officials, who focus their national fund-raising efforts on smaller patrons contacted through direct mail, privately acknowledge that the actual total from Orange County may be three or four times that amount.
Many of the smaller contributors are retired people enamored not only of North's politics, but of his chatty fund-raising letters that often include news about his family, pictures and autographs.
``I like Oliver North because he's a good Christian man,'' said Anna Woods, a retired schoolteacher who sent the campaign $25. ``I know he lied to Congress, but it was for an important cause. Haven't you ever lied to your family?''
Some complain that North's direct-mail solicitations have become a little heavy-handed. ``There's always some gimmick,'' said Jacquie Thomas, a retired librarian who has sent about $15. ``The other day I received a certified letter that I had to sign for, asking for contributions for television commercials. That's really a little much.''
Not that Thomas is complaining. ``I really don't want to sound negative about Oliver North,'' she said. ``I've read all his books and I think he's a good man. He's very popular out here.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Oliver North
Color map
California: Orange County
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE CANDIDATE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS by CNB