Disciples Spread the Reagan Gospel From Cramped Santa Monica Base

President Reagan’s White House days may be dwindling, but his conservative political ideals will endure--in liberal Santa Monica, of all places.

The city is home to Citizens for the Republic, a decade-old political action committee founded by Reagan and passionately committed to his agenda.

Acting Chairwoman Wendy Borcherdt, a former White House aide and Reagan family friend, said the organization hopes to “keep the Reagan revolution alive” long after he leaves office. It has funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to candidates who support the President’s views.

“We maintain the principles and policies of Ronald Reagan and we will continue to do so,” Borcherdt said. “We will never be anything but his.”

Reagan’s imprint is all over Citizens for the Republic, even though he has not had an active hand in the organization since he became President in 1980.

Cramped Headquarters

Committee stationery bears the words Ronald Reagan-Founder/Chairman Emeritus, and its cramped headquarters atop a computer software store on Wilshire Boulevard is a virtual photographic shrine to the First Family. The committee’s newsletter routinely carries pleas for support for Reagan’s policies.

Unlike the President, however, the group is strictly low-profile. Citizens for the Republic is hardly known outside tight political circles, though it ranks high nationally among organizations that raise money for political candidates.

“When the White House asks for help we are there,” said Borcherdt, 51. “But we don’t hold press conferences and tell the world how neat we are.”

Yet members are nothing if not zealous. In 1985, Citizens for the fund-raising appeal that targeted 71 Democratic congressional candidates for defeat, telling supporters how much it would cost to capture each seat.

Citizens for the Republic also tends to wear its conservatism on its sleeve. The group reluctantly supported Republican Ed Zschau, a moderate, when he ran against Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston in the California senatorial race last year. And it won’t have anything to do with Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. (R-Conn.), who is regarded as a renegade in some Republican circles.

Bob Schmermund of the Republican National Committee said Citizens for the Republic is one of several organizations that supports conservative political candidates at the state and federal level. It lacks the financial muscle of a group such as Sen. Jesse Helms’ (R-N. C.) National Congressional Club, which raised more than $15 million for the 1986 elections, he said. But it also enjoys the advantage of being known as Reagan’s committee.

Joe Irvin, communications director for the California Republican Party, said GOP officials frequently consult with the committee on policy issues.

“They are like a quasi-Western White House,” Irvin said. “We give them a call when we need something, even if it’s just a picture of the President.”

Reagan formed Citizens for the Republic with the $1 million left over from his unsuccessful 1976 presidential campaign. Through fund-raising, the organization helped him capture the White House in 1980.

The close ties between the President and the group may grow even stronger when Reagan returns to Los Angeles in 1988. Borcherdt said the president will probably use the committee’s headquarters as his “political home base.” The group has remained in Santa Monica, where it started, because the Reagans are expected to settle nearby.

Borcherdt said she likes Santa Monica, despite its liberal leanings. The committee tries to keep its hand out of local politics, but she added that it does have a policy of contributing to any GOP candidate who runs against Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), the anti-war activist of the 1960s.

“What he (Hayden) believes is alien to this country,” Borcherdt said. “He stands in opposition to all of the principles that Ronald Reagan personifies.”

Committee members take obvious pride in their personal relationship with the Reagan Administration. A sign in their offices proclaims that “This Is Reagan Country,” and the White House stories in their newsletter, Closed Circuit, often begin with the words “Closed Circuit has learned . . . “

‘Symbol of Presidency’

Political director Lou Barnett said the committee has never disagreed with Reagan on anything, including his handling of the Iran- contra affair. “We are a symbol of his presidency,” Barnett said. “We defend what he believes.”

Members also take some of the heat when the president and his aides get into trouble, however. The committee was criticized for sponsoring a controversial memorial service for the late CIA Director William Casey, a key figure in the Iran-contra affair. And they lost their chairman, former presidential aide Lyn Nofziger, when he was indicted on ethics charges in the Wedtech Corp. probe.

Barnett said that those and other setbacks, such as the loss of the GOP Senate majority in 1986, have had little financial impact on the committee. The group takes in about $500,000 a year. Citizens for the Republic has about 52,000 regular contributors on its mailing list, and has access to the names and addresses of hundreds of thousands of people who supported Reagan’s last two presidential campaigns.

Michael Rae of Common Cause, a Washington-based organization that monitors campaign spending, said Citizens for the Republic raised nearly $2.4 million during 1985 and 1986, and contributed $540,000 to candidates. They ranked 20th nationwide among all political action committees and 12th among groups that are not tied to corporations, labor unions or trade associations.

List of Contributors

Contributors named on the group’s campaign finance reports have included former Lt. Gov. Mike Curb, former Reagan aide Michael K. Deaver, beer baron Joseph Coors, actor James Stewart, the McDonnell-Douglas Corp.’s James S. McDonnell III, philanthropist Brooke Astor, automobile magnate Henry Ford II, restaurateur Carl L. Karcher, actor-turned-businessman Fess Parker, the Marriott Corp.’s J. Willard Marriott, Texas millionaire Ellen Garwood and the late Alfred Bloomingdale.

But Terry Michael of the Democratic National Committee said the supporters may be more influential than the group itself.

The Citizens for the Republic “have not been active in pushing issues and they do not publish an influential newsletter,” Michael said. “They are nothing more than a blip on the political radar screen. . . . If they have been doing anything it has been so low-key that few people in the Democratic Party have noticed it.”

Peggy Connolly of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee gave the group more credit. “I wouldn’t put them in the same league with some other groups,” she said, “but any activity on behalf of candidates is helpful.”

Barnett said some people underestimate the organization’s strength because it operates so quietly. Some are even surprised to hear it still exists.

“People sometimes ask me if we are still here,” Barnett said. “I tell them that he (Reagan) never told us to go away.”