Democrats Give Little to Clinton Legal Fund

Orange County may have its share of wealth, but not for Bill Clinton.

Records released this week show that 179 Orange County residents contributed a total of $12,702 to the president’s defense fund.

That’s 0.0487% of the 367,639 registered Democrats who live in the county. An average of $70.96 per donation. A little less than 3 1/2 cents per Democrat.

Who says Democrats are big spenders?

And while 25 donors across the nation, including many of Clinton’s show business supporters, gave the maximum of $10,000, the most anyone in Orange County gave was $1,000. Others, like Beatrice Rogatz of Laguna Hills, contributed a lot less.

It wouldn’t take a doctorate in political science to figure out why Rogatz and others have contributed to the Clinton Legal Expense Trust.

“I do not agree with Ken Starr, and I feel the president is doing a good job,” said Rogatz, a retired TV and stage producer and director who gave $10 to the cause. “I believe in his work, but I don’t believe in his affairs. This is a separate matter. I just feel we’ve got a president who’s working, and he needs to be taken care of. It’s a token thing to indicate I believe in him.”

Two of the $1,000 donations came from big-deal Democrats Wylie Aitken, an attorney who is Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s campaign chairman, and Roger W. Johnson, former chief executive of Western Digital Corp., who was head of the General Services Administration under Clinton. The other $1,000 donation came from a Mary M. Newman of Irvine, one of 75 women who gave money to the president.

Aitken, who would know everyone who’s anyone in the county party, couldn’t recall Newman. “I’m going to find her now,” he said. “Let me write that down.

The mysterious Newman could not be reached for comment.

Johnson, who switched from the Republicans to the Democrats two years ago, is a trustee of the Clinton Legal Expense Trust.

He said the contributions came from four direct-mail campaigns nationwide. While 2% to 3% of those receiving the solicitation were expected to answer, he said, 7% to 8% have sent money.

“I think consistently the response has been a recognition that the process is something that’s not good for the country,” Johnson said of Clinton’s legal woes.

The trust set a limit of $10,000 per donor and does not accept money from political action committees, lobbyists, corporations or unions. Among those who contributed the maximum were director Steven Spielberg and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, singer Barbra Streisand, entertainment mogul David Geffen and actor Tom Hanks.

The names released included those who had donated through June 30. Johnson said the fund had collected $2.2 million, with an average donation of $123.

In Orange County, 72 of the 109 donors who listed a profession said they were retired.

“I like Bill Clinton. I think Ken Starr should have been fired four years ago,” said one of those retirees, Harold Tieger of Huntington Beach, a former schoolteacher. “He’s squandered $45 million on nothing that has anything to do with the country. Am I being taped? In case Ken Starr wants to subpoena me: Let him play fair.”