COUNTY ELECTIONS / STATE LEGISLATURE : Ex-Councilman Kelly May Declare for Assembly Seat

TUSTIN — After voters overwhelmingly ousted John Kelly from his Tustin City Council seat last April, some folks said his fledgling political career was over.

But after a year of minding the family tuxedo shop, Kelly--a staunchly conservative Republican whose outspoken style was praised by supporters as enthusiastic but denounced by opponents as rude--says he is ready to give politics another shot.

Kelly, 29, whose controversial career included an arrest at an anti-abortion rally where he tried to order the Tustin police chief to stop arresting demonstrators, said he is considering running for the Assembly seat now held by John R. Lewis (R-Orange), the heavy favorite to win the May 14 special election for the state Senate seat vacated by John Seymour’s appointment to the U.S. Senate.

“The 67th Assembly District is very unique in that it has within it the Richard Nixon library,” Kelly said. “There is a story of a man who lost a bid for the presidency in 1960 and came back to California and ran for governor against Pat Brown. He was defeated there and a lot of people thought he was dead in the water and finished in politics forever, but the rest is history.”

Kelly said he has an exploratory team checking out potential support but is fairly certain he will run. The heavily Republican 67th Assembly District includes the cities of Orange, Tustin, Villa Park and Yorba Linda, as well as the Silverado Canyon area.

“I think along the same lines as people in the area and John Lewis’ philosophy is along the same lines as mine,” Kelly said as he sipped Hawaiian hazelnut coffee in the tuxedo shop.

In addition to Nixon, Kelly has compared himself to Abraham Lincoln, using the slogan “Honest John Kelly” in past campaigns, and to Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who said: “I shall return.”

During his 3 1/2-year tenure on the Tustin council, his supporters praised what they said was fresh enthusiasm. But his critics dismissed him as rude and impetuous, citing incidents at public meetings in which he called residents and council members names such as twit and moron .

Kelly waged four campaigns before being elected to the council in 1986 and also made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 1988. His campaigns included riding an elephant down El Camino Real, driving a red, white and blue Cadillac and singing “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” to senior citizens.

While on the council, Kelly raised issues of gun control, flag burning, pornography and abortion--issues his critics said should be dealt with at the state or federal level. Just after losing the election he was arrested and later convicted for his part in an anti-abortion demonstration at a Tustin family planning clinic.

Should Lewis win the special election May 14, Gov. Pete Wilson would be expected to schedule a special election for the 67th District seat sometime in the fall.

Competition for the seat promises to be stiff. Ex-Marine Corps pilot and conservative Republican activist Mickey Conroy, former Garden Grove Assemblyman Curt Pringle and Orange Councilman William G. Steiner are all listed as possible contenders.