Newport GOP sends Riordan stern message

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- A Newport Beach Republican group has taken aim at

gubernatorial candidate Richard Riordan, calling his backpedaling of

support for an El Toro airport a betrayal.

Former Mayor Evelyn Hart, a member of the Newport Harbor California

Republican Assembly, made her displeasure known in a Monday letter to

Riordan.

“As a community, we feel betrayed by your politically motivated

flip-flop,” Hart wrote.

Last year, Riordan backed off earlier support for an airport at the

closed Marine base.

The former Los Angeles mayor has pushed for the expansion of Los

Angeles International and Ontario airports and the addition of commercial

service to the airport in Palmdale.

Riordan has always supported a regional approach to meeting future

aviation demand, a campaign spokesman said Tuesday.

“He supported El Toro to the extent that that is an option,” said

Riordan spokesman Matt Szabo. “What the mayor has said is that decision

needs to rest with the voters.”

On March 5, Orange County voters will go to the polls to vote on

Measure W, which, if passed, would severely jeopardize the chances of an

airport being built at the base.

Instead, it would rezone the base to permit a large park to be

developed.

Airport supporters said Hart’s letter was a warning to Riordan, who is

expected to seek votes in this wealthy bastion of Republican support.

In 1998, Riordan spoke at a Newport Beach luncheon, where he warned

that the “regional solution will fail miserably unless El Toro is opened

as a commercial airport,” the letter said.

Barbara Lichman, the executive director of the pro-El Toro Airport

Working Group, said she attended that luncheon. Lichman agreed with Hart

that Riordan’s change of heart was a political one.

“His decision to become governor has overridden his rationality,”

Lichman said. “I think [Hart] was trying to communicate the displeasure

of his power base with a bad decision.”

Others said the stance was not as important to the gubernatorial race.

Eileen Padberg, an Irvine-based political consultant, said the neutrality

of the stance would probably keep it from being an issue in the campaign.

“I don’t think it’s going to hurt him,” Padberg said. “In the race for

governor, it makes sense.”

The city is, of course, a major GOP fund-raising base.

Newport Beach Republican and airport booster George Argyros, who owns

several large Costa Mesa apartment buildings, was a major fund-raiser for

President Bush’s winning campaign, bringing in about $30 million.

And the New Majority, a fledgling and more moderate Republican group

made up of many city luminaries, raised $3 million.

Argyros has also donated more than $4 million of his own money to the

airport effort.

South County leaders agreed that Riordan’s stance wouldn’t matter to

voters outside of Newport Beach.

“Riordan’s running for governor of California, not Newport Beach,”

said Meg Waters, the spokeswoman for the El Toro Reuse Planning

Authority. “Newport Beach needs to realize it’s not the center of the

universe.”

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

paul.clinton@latimes.comf7 .