GOP HOLDS OUTREACH TO LATINOS; OXNARD RALLY STRESSES SIMILAR VALUES, GOALS.

Byline: Gloria Gonzales Daily News Staff Writer

Republican leaders from throughout California converged Saturday as part of a statewide election-year effort aimed at wooing Latino voters into the GOP.

``We hear that by the year 2020 in California the minority will be the majority, and some people respond by saying, Oh my God, that's going to change us,'' state Attorney General Dan Lungren told about 200 Latino and GOP leaders at the Tri-County Hispanic Summit.

``I say that given the values of the Hispanic community - family, service, hard work - it can only change us for the better.''

Lungren, who is running for governor, also said the GOP would best expand its base in the Latino community through grass-roots efforts aimed at educating voters about Republican positions on crime, welfare and business - areas where Latino and Republican values converge, Lungren said.

Congressman Elton Gallegly, R-Oxnard; Assemblyman Nao Takasugi, R-Camarillo; Santa Maria Mayor Abel Maldonado; and Mike Schroeder, chairman of the California Republican Party, joined Latinos from Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties in a show of support for Lungren and other Republicans.

``We're here today to craft grass-roots messengers. . . . We know that on many issues, the Republican Party is much more in line with the Latino voter,'' said Michael Madrid of Moorpark, political director of the California Republican Party.

Madrid also said the GOP would encourage Latino Republicans to seek seats on city councils, school boards and other local bodies in order to increase their ranks in the lower political echelons - the wellspring of future state Assembly and Senate seats.

The Oxnard summit is the second in a series of eight regional Latino summits that Republicans are holding throughout California in an attempt to win over the traditionally Democratic voters.

``We have an affinity on the issues, but it's a voting block that has been moving further and further away from us,'' Madrid said, noting that the party wants to lure back Latinos who voted in great numbers for Ronald Reagan in the 1984, but whose support lagged for George Bush and Bob Dole in subsequent presidential elections.

``How can we correct that problem? By crafting the message and sending out grass-roots messengers,'' Madrid said.

Southern California Democrats, most busy with Vice President Al Gore's visit on Saturday to Los Angeles' newly designated federal empowerment zone, challenged the notion that the GOP held strong appeal for Latinos. In 1996, they noted, 70 percent of Latinos voted for President Clinton, while 21 percent voted for Dole, down from 34 percent of who voted for Bush in 1988, according to post-election field polls.

``The real Republican outreach to the Hispanic community over the past year and a half has been its attempt to remove (Rep.) Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) from office,'' said Bob Muholland, a state Democratic Party adviser, of challenges to Sanchez's victory over Republican Bob Dornan.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) State Attorney General Dan Lungren speaks in Oxnard.

(2) Lupe Anguiano speaks on education issues at the Republican-sponsored Tri-County Hispanic Summit in Oxnard.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News