GOP picks Silicon Valley lawyer as chair; he vows to unite party

^By ERICA WERNER= ^Associated Press Writer=

SACRAMENTO (AP) The head of a moderate Republican group who won the chairmanship of the state's party promised to unite California Republicans and to focus on winning rather than ideology.

``I want us all to commit to work together to unify this party in a way it's never happened before,'' Palo Alto attorney Duf Sundheim told some 1,400 GOP delegates who elected him Sunday at the Sacramento Convention Center.

The losing candidate, longtime grass-roots conservative and outgoing party Vice Chairman Bill Back, urged supporters: ``Work hard for Duf. Unify.''

Sundheim, 50, chairman of the Lincoln Club of Northern California, replaces Shawn Steel, a polarizing figure who feuded openly with President Bush's top California adviser and resisted White House-backed reforms meant to professionalize party operations.

Sundheim now faces the challenge of reviving a party that lost every statewide office in November for the first time since 1882, lags Democrats in voter registration, and is in the minority in both houses of the Legislature.

The latest divide in the party is over a burgeoning movement to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. Convention delegates voted Sunday to support the recall, even as national party leaders cautioned the effort must not distract from working toward Bush's re-election and unseating Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer next year.

Sundheim said he personally believes Davis should be recalled but his priorities as chairman will be to support the national party's goals. Recall supporters hope to begin collecting the needed 900,000 signatures this week.

Appearing at the news conference with losing candidate Back and Republican leaders from the Legislature, as well as Bush's California adviser, Gerry Parsky, Sundheim said the days of ideological battles under party leaders were over.

``I'm not going to wake up and see something in the Los Angeles Times and write an article, an ideological story,'' Sundheim said. ``My role is to support the policies of the president of the United States.''

Sundheim was viewed as the more moderate candidate, but he had conservative backers and said his campaign bridged the schism between moderates and conservatives that has long divided the party.

Parsky said Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and New York Gov. George Pataki would be visiting California in the next three months to raise money for state party efforts and demonstrate the national party's commitment to California. Al Gore beat Bush in California by 12 percentage points in 2000.

The vote for chairman followed a campaign that was racially charged at times. Back was criticized for circulating a newsletter in 1999 that included an essay suggesting the country would have been better off if the South had won the Civil War. He said he didn't agree with the essay and wasn't endorsing it by including it in the newsletter.

But the revelation about the essay drew a stinging response from the party's highest-ranking black official, party Secretary Shannon Reeves, who said Back should drop out of the race.

The controversy highlighted the party's difficulties in attracting support from minority voters, a goal Sundheim pledged to work on. The newly elected vice chairman, San Clemente businessman Mario Rodriguez, also promised to help.

``Yes, my name is Mario Rodriguez, and do we have diversity in this party? Absolutely,'' he told the news conference. ``It's a new day for this party.''

Sundheim got 666 votes and Back got 489. The party chairmanship is an unpaid two-year post.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)