DANA POINT, Calif. - If the election-night phone call from President Bush didn't convince Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. of the significance of his win, perhaps the congratulations from Bo Derek did.

The Hollywood actress was among the throng celebrating Ehrlich's victory as the nation's Republican governors gathered at this oceanfront resort to talk politics and policy for the first time since the Nov. 5 elections.

Although Derek was a featured guest at a private Thursday night party thrown by former Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour, Ehrlich has been receiving something of the star treatment himself.

"He got the biggest round of applause" at the first session of the conference, said Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who traded whispered jokes with Ehrlich during a news conference yesterday.

"We're starting to understand some of the larger repercussions of our race now," Ehrlich said. "It's a national story."

Spirits have been high at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort & Spa, where leading GOP figures are celebrating what Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, calls the "triple crown" of politics: Republicans in control of the White House, Congress and a majority of governorships.

"I'm trying to stay in the no-gloat zone," Rowland said.

Ehrlich has been a featured player, fielding questions about what his victory over Democratic Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend means for Republicans nationally, and about how he and Gov.-elect Linda Lingle, Hawaii's first GOP leader in 40 years, crafted campaign messages that appealed to Democrats.

"Anytime you get a Republican governor of Maryland, they automatically have national stature," said Ron Kaufman, an RNC member from Massachusetts and former political adviser to the first President Bush. "You have a guy who upset a Kennedy in a Democratic state, who is in the most important media market [the Washington area] in the country."

But it wasn't all festivities for Ehrlich and the other governors yesterday. Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, homeland security chief Tom Ridge and other Bush administration officials warned of additional terrorist attacks and urged governors to be prepared.

With security a primary discussion topic yesterday, Ehrlich said he was trying to persuade administration officials to build the headquarters of the new Homeland Security Department in Maryland.

"We're going to be lobbying for that," he said before a meeting here with White House officials. "It's in the early stages."

Virginia and West Virginia are also vying for the headquarters, officials said.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson urged Ehrlich and other governors to strengthen state and local health departments in case of bioterrorism attacks.

"This is one area, governors, where you have a chance to build a legacy," Thompson said. "You are going to have the money from the federal government to do it."

In his first public appearance since Congress approved the creation of a Homeland Security Department, Ridge said the new agency will work with states, counties and cities for coordinated responses.

"Same team, same fight, same enemy," Ridge said. "That's what it is all about."

But Ridge alluded to the difficulty of preventing additional attacks. "We have to get it right, 1,000 times a day, every day of the week, every week of the year, forever," he said. "They [terrorists] only have to get it right once in a great while."

With a thousand tasks of his own a continent away - from selecting a Cabinet to preparing a budget and a legislative agenda - Maryland's governor-elect said a visit to Southern California was worth his time.

"There's a collegiality here that's important as a new governor," he said. Referring to the budget shortfalls facing most states, he added: "There's a comfort level when you see everybody in the same boat."

Ehrlich flew on a chartered flight Thursday night, paid for as an in-kind donation by the governors association. He shared the plane with Gov. Bob Taft of Ohio, elected to his second term this month, and the two had a detailed discussion about the job of governing, Ehrlich said.

"We got into the minutiae," he said. "We got into the mechanics."

Kendel Ehrlich was supposed to accompany her husband, but she was being treated for pneumonia and could not make the trip.

Ehrlich said his workload in California was keeping him from one of his true passions: golf. One of yesterday's featured activities was a tournament at the lush hillside course here designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr.

But Ehrlich said he didn't bring his clubs. In fact, a new high-end set of Calloway irons-a gift from professional senior golfer Bruce Fleisher - remained unused in his home in Timonium. "They're sitting there with the rubber bands on them," he said.

"I realized early on that the future of the state was far more important than my handicap," he said.

Instead, Ehrlich planned to spend yesterday afternoon making telephone calls by the pool at the resort halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, where an ocean-view suite costs $1,100 to $5,500 a night and where the lap pool at the luxury spa has sound piped in underwater. He wanted to write thank-you notes to his campaign donors.

"It's actually letting me get some work done," he said. "It's a very working visit."