Taking issues with this attack

Talk about your hard-hitting issues: Who did you support for

president in 1996?

Seem a bit irrelevant today? Seem even more irrelevant in a race

for an Assembly seat?

And yet, at this point, whether it was Bob Dole or Bill Clinton is

the main issue in the contest to replace Assemblyman John Campbell

(who’s seeking higher office in the state Senate).

Chuck DeVore, a long-time member of the core of the Orange County

Republican Party, has made the one-time Democratic leanings of a

rival, Corona del Mar’s Cristi Cristich, his out-of-the-box attack.

One of his first press releases included this political whopper:

“[The] endorsement comes after the revelation of a Los Angeles Times

1996 photograph showing opponent Cristi Cristich standing on stage in

front of a wall of ‘Clinton/Gore’ banners as she publicly endorsed

the Clinton/Gore ’96 team against GOP nominees Bob Dole and Jack

Kemp.”

Cristich, who didn’t switch parties in 1996, has admitted her

support of Clinton--made for his economic policies and moderate

social policy--was a mistake, given the scandal that erupted in his

second term regarding a certain White House intern.

And it is a mistake now to make it an issue in this race. Voters

should decide who will replace Campbell based on what they will do

for the district and the state. In other words, on real issues.

Focusing on anything else raises one last question: Do you stand for

anything now?