Republican Party California

Forget the puffed-up speeches about the nation's future and the raging fights over some obscure and not-so-obscure points in the party platform. Led by the Californians, 8,000 Republicans did what most self-respecting natives do on a sunny Sunday afternoon here--they headed to the beach. It was all part of a California Republican Party fund-raiser and a perfect California welcome for the out-of-towners.

Taking sharp aim at opponent Bill Clinton and vowing to "compete and fight for every vote in this country," Republican candidate Bob Dole kicked off the fall campaign Friday with a boisterous rally and a biting tone perhaps foreshadowing a fierce fight ahead. "I would say to our opponent, this is the kickoff," a tanned and exuberant Dole told several thousand supporters here in the heart of Republican California. "Our convention's over. Their convention's over. We're in very fertile ground here.

With Gov. Pete Wilson a lame duck with a diminished political star, a new generation of Republican leaders has emerged in California, led by state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren and San Diego Mayor Susan Golding. Lungren, 49, came out of this month's Republican National Convention with an enhanced image as a national political comer and the GOP heir apparent to Wilson, who cannot seek reelection because of term limits and who now says he will not run for the U.S. Senate in 1998.

We're serious about California. . . . Elizabeth said she would move out here, if that would erase any doubt. --Bob Dole * The floats and marchers are queuing up this foggy Fourth of July morning in Huntington Beach, preparing to strut. The guest of honor has yet to arrive, but she is anxiously awaited by fans pondering the morning's thorny question: Who do you like better, Elizabeth Dole or Bob?

Assembly Republicans have violated the state Constitution by illegally handing out retroactive pay raises to dozens of their staffers, a taxpayer lawsuit charged Friday. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of a San Francisco community organizer and a Los Angeles health care worker, was prompted by a Times story on raises that reported that at least 118 legislative staffers had been given raises that were made more than a month retroactive.

Trying to evoke images of old-time whistle-stop campaigns, Republican leaders traveled down the California coast in an 11-car, 15-hour train ride Saturday, touting presumptive GOP nominee Bob Dole's new running mate, Jack Kemp, and bashing President Clinton. "Our candidate in California is called 'Tax Cut,' and their candidate is called 'Tax Increase,' " declared House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who joined the train in San Luis Obispo en route to the GOP national convention in San Diego.

Ho Chung personifies diversity and entrepreneurship. That probably explains why Gov. Pete Wilson tapped the 62-year-old Garden Grove resident to represent the 46th Congressional District at this week's Republican convention in San Diego. The South Korea native, who came to the United States 35 years ago, runs his own insurance agency and was elected to the City Council in 1992. Two of his four college-educated daughters are married to the descendants of Portuguese and Japanese immigrants.

Carrying a passenger list that read like a Who's Who of past and present Republican leaders, a locomotive bound for San Diego made a brief stop here Saturday for a political rally that drew hundreds of supporters and a few dozen detractors. Evoking a tradition as old as the party itself, the "Victory Express" train departed from Oakland before dawn for a whistle-stop tour of the state as it headed south to the Republican National Convention in San Diego.

Trying to evoke images of old-time whistle-stop campaigns, Republican leaders traveled down the California coast by train Saturday, stopping in GOP strongholds such as Orange County to tout presumptive GOP nominee Bob Dole's new running mate, Jack Kemp, and bash President Clinton. "Our candidate in California is called 'Tax Cut,' and their candidate is called 'Tax Increase,' " declared House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.

Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren led the California delegation's welcome for Jack Kemp at their hotel near the convention center earlier this week, then hustled outside and down a walkway to the yacht harbor. There--aboard a 110-foot vessel called the Dandeana--donors past, present and potential gathered over a late breakfast of scrambled eggs, hash browns and fresh fruit to greet and fete the state's latest rising Republican star.