It’s an Election Year, Prime Time for Political Consultants in OC
It’s campaign season, which means Orange County’s political consultants are once again going into high gear.
The primary season’s most intense local campaign is Measure F, the initiative designed to stop an airport at El Toro as well as jails and toxic waste dumps by requiring they be approved by two-thirds of the voters. Measure F has its own cottage industry of political consultants.
Those on the pro-Measure F (anti-airport) include: Thomas Shepard, president of San Diego-based Campaign Strategies, and the team of Arnold Forde and Stu Mollrich of Newport Beach. Those on the anti-Measure F (pro-airport) include Bruce Nestande of Costa Mesa, Ellis/Hart Associates of Irvine and Sacramento based-Gilliard-Blanning and Associates.
Orange County has a few players working the presidential races, as well.
San Clemente-based Ken Khachigian, well-known for his work advising previous presidents Nixon, Reagan and Bush, is working on strategies for Sen. John McCain. Brian Nestande, son of Bruce Nestande, is McCain’s campaign director for California.
Matt Cunningham, a local consultant, was California’s spokesman for Steve Forbes until he dropped out of the race this month.
George W. Bush has opened a Newport Beach campaign office, which is directed by William Brough, a former staffer of Rep. Chris Cox, R-Newport Beach.
Besides El Toro, Dave Ellis and Scott Hart also are working on Proposition 1A, a constitutional amendment that authorizes Indian tribes to expand their casino operations and run Nevada-style slot machines and card games. The pair worked on a similar measure, Prop. 5, which voters passed in 1998, only to see it thrown out by a judge.
Some of the more high-profile propositions,Prop. 26, which would lower the vote requirement on school bonds from two-thirds to simple majority, and Prop 22, which provides that only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid in California,haven’t provided work for OC consultants.
The race attracting the most money in the March primary, close to $50 million, is the battle over Propositions 30 and 31, which would allow third-party lawsuits against insurance companies. But Orange County consultants are not involved in those campaigns, which are being managed by firms based in Sacramento.
Former Assembly speaker Curt Pringle ran for state treasurer in 1998, but this year, he’s neither a candidate nor a consultant. Pringle, who now has a public-relations firm in Irvine, said his involvement is as a volunteer on a six-member statewide committee to pass Prop. 13, a $1.97 billion bond measure to improve water quality, watershed protection and flood protection.
Meanwhile, the most competitive races among local candidates in the March primary are for the open seats: to replace Dick Ackerman, R-Fullerton, in the 72nd Assembly District; Scott Baugh, R-Huntington Beach, in the 67th Assembly District; and Rep. Ron Packard, R-Oceanside, in the 48th Congressional District. For the most part, these candidates are going outside of OC for help.
Depending on what the candidates want, the consultants handle everything from strategy or direct mail to fundraising and media relations. Some candidates have more than one consultant. While the general public might not recognize their names, they are well known among politicians and political insiders.
What follows is a list of what Orange County’s other key consultants are doing this election season:
n Arnold Forde and Stu Mollrich of Newport Beach, who first gained fame for helping pass Prop. 13 in 1978, are working on anti-airport campaigns by conducting several voter registration drives and multi-piece mailings for South County cities like Irvine and Mission Viejo. Mollrich said the pair also may work on some statewide transportation initiatives on the November ballot.
n Bruce Nestande, a longtime consultant who was responsible for two previous El Toro airport victories, is spearheading the campaign to stop Measure F. Nestande also is involved in the GOP Victory 2000 campaign, a statewide effort to broaden the party’s base.
n State Sen. John Lewis, R-Orange, who is not running for re-election this year because of term limits, is managing the campaign of Bruce Matthias for the 72nd Assembly District. In the November election, he’ll be working for Anaheim City Councilman Tom Tait and Orange Councilman Mark Murphy.
n Adam Probolsky is the de facto head of the Unity 2000 effort, which is aiming to keep Tom Fuentes and his slate in control of the Orange County Republican Central Committee. He’s also doing polling for various campaigns and for the Republican Assembly Political Action Committee, and working for the Ken Maddox re-election campaign in the 68th Assembly District.
n Matt Cunningham heads PoliticalZone.com, a campaign web-site division of Sistonia Corp., a 10-member Orange-based firm that designs corporate web sites and e-commerce applications. Thus far, he’s designed web sites for the Orange County Republican Party, Tait and Matthias.
n Dale Neugebauer, who worked as deputy campaign manager on Darrell Issa’s campaign for U.S. Senate in 1998, is now managing Issa’s congressional campaign for the Packard’s seat. Neugebauer, who lives in Westminster, also is working as a consultant for Jim Righeimer’s campaign for the 67th Assembly District seat.
n Dennis DeSnoo, a registered Democrat based in Santa Ana, does consulting for many local Republicans. He’s managing Fullerton Councilman Don Bankhead’s campaign for the 72nd Assembly District and is managing Ken Ryan’s race for the Yorba Linda City Council.
Here are some of the consultants from outside of OC who are working on local campaigns:
n Jim Nygren, a political consultant well-known in Sacramento circles, is working for Republican Lynn Daucher’s 72nd Assembly District campaign.
n Diane Wiley of Long Beach-based Avenir Communications Group is managing Republican Tom Harman’s campaign for Assembly in the 67th District.
n Dave Gilliard and Natalie Blanning are the owners of Sacramento-based Gilliard-Blanning & Associates, which is advising several OC campaigns, including those of Righeimer, Issa and Lou Lopez in the 69th Assembly District and the anti-Measure F effort.
The firm also has contracts with campaigns that are not facing opposition in the primary: Ackerman for state Senate; Maddox; Pat Bates for re-election in the 73rd Assembly District; Ed Royce for re-election in the 39th Congressional District; and District Attorney Tony Rackaukas, who is promoting six candidates for judgeships.
n David Wolfson, a former staffer of state Sen. Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside, is now the main consultant in Morrow’s congressional race. Wolfson, a native of Orange County, works for Washington, D.C.-based Russo Marsh & Copsey.
While the March 7 election has a handful of exciting races, the bulk of the consultants’ work is expected to come in the fall election.
“November will be big, because you have each of the cities with elections,” said Probolsky. “All the special districts are up. It’s like any general election. You’ve got either two or three members of five-member councils all up for re-election. Everybody’s running a campaign. Turnout will be excessively high because we have a presidential fight, so it heightens interest for all other races.” n
