Staubach visit rallies GOP team

Alex Coolman

COSTA MESA -- For the last three weeks, several days a week, Phyllis

Croxton has been coming to a ragged warehouse on Fischer Avenue, where

pipes swaddled in insulation hang low from the grimy ceiling.

For hours at a time, Croxton does nothing but stamp glossy brochures

with a stamp that says “Postage Paid,” toiling alongside dozens of others

who are doing the same thing.

It’s not glamorous work, but the Irvine resident says she enjoys doing

it: She’s helping prepare a massive mailing for the Republican Party, and

she says she knows she’s participating in something big.

“I think it’s an important election. It’s the one that will decide

whether it goes in the socialist direction or back in the direction of

freedom,” she said.

On Thursday, Croxton and her fellow GOP volunteers at the mailing

headquarters received a visit from former Dallas Cowboys quarterback

Roger Staubach, who was there to rally the troops on behalf of Texas Gov.

George W. Bush.

“It’s just to keep people fired up,” said David Padilla, the assistant

director of the Santa Ana Republican headquarters, who was escorting

Staubach around for the day. “It’s hot up here [in the mailing office].

It’s not a nice, plush environment,” so the party makes an effort to keep

workers enthusiastic.

The face of the former football great, who now serves as chairman and

CEO of the real estate firm The Staubach Co., didn’t ring any bells for

Croxton. But Mission Viejo resident R.D. Meyer, who was sitting across

the work table from Croxton, was thrilled with the visit.

“He made a lot of fourth-quarter saves for Dallas,” Meyer said. “And

he and [late Cowboys coach Tom] Landry had a great relationship.”

As for the mild-mannered Staubach, he shook hands with a few

volunteers, smiled, and spoke affectionately of the Republican

presidential candidate.

“He has such decency as a human being,” Staubach said. “He’s got a

vision and he’ll get strong people.”

The possibility that Bush might not be quite the expert on some

subjects that his Democratic opponent is didn’t bother Staubach.

“Great leaders, they don’t have all the answers,” he said. “They’re

the ones who attract strong people.”

As the party volunteers toiled, workers served up more stacks of

fliers from massive, plastic-wrapped pallets of mailing supplies. Just

outside the office, huge crates of postal mailing bags waited to ship the

stamped fliers to their destinations.

Padilla said the party hopes to send 10 million pieces of campaign

mail out to California voters before election day. The massive program,

he said, is a key component of Bush’s strategy for winning the state.

All that mailing -- and all the elbow grease required to get the

millions of fliers flowing -- requires more than just good spirits,

Croxton noted.

“I have to take a day off now and then to recuperate,” she said.