This is a club of wealthy people who think big.

Its members include those who once looked at Orange County's citrus groves and saw an opportunity to create cities. Others once eyed a young spokesman for General Electric named Ronald Reagan and saw the next governor of California.

Now, leaders of the Republican Lincoln Club of Orange County envision a new landscape in American politics.

It is the byproduct of a bad economy, anger at government and newly reapportioned political boundaries. Combined, they believe it will give the GOP its best opportunity in decades to wrest control of the legislative branches in Sacramento and Washington from the Democrats.

It's a chance they don't want to miss. So in a break with its past focus on larger races, the Lincoln Club is planning to export at least $250,000 in Orange County contributions to Republican candidates throughout California running for the state Assembly and Congress.

Combined with individual contributions from the club's 300 members, officials said Orange County is likely to generate up to $2 million, much of it going to two dozen Republican candidates in California, all but one outside Orange County.

"We need a fresh look, a fresh vision," said Gus A. Owen, the club's president. "That is why we need a Congress that will work with (President Bush) and a Legislature that will work with (Gov.) Pete Wilson."

Since it was founded in Orange County 30 years ago by a group that included such famous Orange County names as J. S. Fluor and Walter Knott, the Lincoln Club has been a forum for the business elite to participate in politics.

The club grew out of the ashes of the 1962 election, when Richard M. Nixon lost a bitterly fought battle for California governor to Democrat Edmund G. (Pat) Brown Sr.

The founders concluded that the campaigns for governor and other offices were so acrimonious that they split the GOP, wasted money on intraparty primaries and left Republican candidates vulnerable to Democrats. Their answer was to treat politics more like they ran their businesses--they would act as corporate headhunters, recruit candidates and back their choices with the necessary financial investments.

Today, the Orange County Lincoln Club has inspired eight spinoff clubs throughout the state and it generates more money for Republican campaigns than any other club in California.