Pols forgo Obama event

After not getting an invitation Wednesday to see President Barack Obama speak in Costa Mesa, a city in his own district, local Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has no hard feelings.

The White House neglected to send him an invitation to the town hall meeting that Obama held at the Orange County Fair & Event Center, and when the congressman appeared on a local AM radio show to talk about it, the White House “bent over backward to apologize,” said Rohrabacher spokeswoman Tara Setmayer.

One of the first things Obama did during the meeting was apologize personally for the oversight and ask the crowd to give Rohrabacher a round of applause. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel also called the congressman.

“[Rohrabacher] saw the president’s gesture as an overture of apology and bipartisanship. Frankly, so far, he feels that this administration has been treating him better than the last one,” Setmayer said.

Rohrabacher was one of many local representatives that for one reason or another didn’t come to see the president speak during his first trip to California since his election.

Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor decided not to attend the event, saying that it would have been “frustrating” to hear the president expound on policies that he felt were fiscally irresponsible.

“The only reason I would have gone is to ask him why he’s borrowing and spending far more than [President] Bush did and how he ever proposed that future generations would be able to repay it,” Mansoor said. “It wasn’t meant to be disrespectful.”

Councilwoman Katrina Foley, the only one of the five council members to show up and the sole Democrat, said it was disrespectful of Mansoor not to come. She chided the mayor for not taking the opportunity to talk with the president about the city’s shovel-ready projects that could benefit from stimulus funds.

“It’s the president of the United States,” Foley said. “We should have all been there [regardless of how we feel about him]”

The mayor of neighboring Santa Ana, Miguel Pulido, was recognized, along with many other local dignitaries in the audience, by the president during his introductory remarks. Council members Eric Bever, Gary Monahan and Wendy Leece did not give reasons for their absence. Efforts to reach Bever and Monahan for comment were unsuccessful.

The city’s state assemblyman, Van Tran, left his affairs in Sacramento to try to see the president. He got a ticket to the event, but didn’t end up on the list of dignitaries allowed to enter through the private gate, he said.

When he drove to the other side of the fairgrounds to enter through the public entrance at 3 p.m. it was too late, Tran said.

Dave Everett, who handles the assemblyman’s scheduling, said the White House apologized for the oversight, but he is not so sure that it was an honest mistake.

“You don’t want to think it’s partisan, but I guess I get paranoid when everything is OK, then I set something up press-wise and we’re not on the list,” Everett said, referring to a news release he issued Wednesday morning telling media that Tran would be available to comment on the president’s speech after the fact.

Costa Mesa’s representative in the state senate, Tom Harman, stayed in Sacramento during the speech to handle business, staffers said.

“He had previously scheduled legislative duties here in Sacramento that he had to attend to,” said legislative aide Megan Doyle.

Reporter ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.