When he called last week for the local beachfront to remain open amid the coronavirus crisis, the Newport Beach mayor argued that his city\u2019s infection rate was lower than any of its beach-city counterparts in L.A. County, where the sands have been off-limits from Malibu to Long Beach.<\/p>\n

Despite a scolding from the governor<\/a> chagrined by news photos that seemed to show unsafe clusters of beachgoers the weekend before, many of who had driven in from L.A., Newport Beach leaders voted 5-2 to keep the beach open. \u201cWe can truly trust the vast majority of people to do the right thing,\u201d said Mayor Will O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n

Then Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, ordered beaches closed <\/a>in Newport Beach and the rest of Orange County. It has unleashed a torrent of criticism from elected officials, in a county that is no longer a conservative bastion but still tilts heavily Republican along the affluent coastal cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout speaking to a single local official in Newport Beach, Governor Newsom has put politics over data, and substituted his will for our judgment from 428 miles away in Sacramento,\u201d O\u2019Neill tweeted Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Said Sheriff Don Barnes: \u201cThe governor\u2019s decision to single out Orange County by closing our beaches is wrong and fails to recognize the sacrifices made by our 3 million residents.\u201d <\/p>\n

Supervisor Don Wagner said news photos had given a misleading impression of densely packed weekend visitors to Newport Beach who, in reality, mostly adhered to social-distancing rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe telephoto lens distorted what was going on at the beach,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cIt is not wise to make policy from Sacramento based on a couple of photographs out of a local paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Huntington Beach, the city north of Newport Beach, protesters gathered Friday to denounce the governor\u2019s action, and the city has announced it will sue the state to keep its beaches open. <\/p>\n

The anger over the Sacramento-mandated beach closures comes amid growing unrest in a county known for years as a bastion of \u201ccowboy capitalism,\u201d a political philosophy emphasizing free markets, low taxes and an aversion to big government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always been an Orange County-Sacramento friction,\u201d said Fred Smoller, an associate professor of political science at Chapman University. \u201cParticularly in the wealthier cities, they just don\u2019t want liberals or a Democratic legislature telling them what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coupled with that is a resentment of perceived \u201cnanny state\u201d overreach, the idea that \u201cwe\u2019re gonna do what\u2019s best for you, whether it\u2019s telling you not to wear helmets or smoke cigarettes,\u201d Smoller said.<\/p>\n

Beach city residents are aware, and like to point out, that they live in a travel-poster landscape where others journey many miles just to visit. And for many in Orange County, Smoller added, it \u201cis definitely seen as a reward for hard work and a life of sacrifice and accomplishment.\u201d <\/b><\/p>\n

Orange County was the birthplace of Richard Nixon<\/a> and a stronghold of the John Birch Society. It remains the place where a swaggering statue of John Wayne greets visitors at the airport bearing his name, and where a statute of Ronald Reagan waves jovially to strollers on the Balboa Island bay front.<\/p>\n