Two Candidates Tie Race for Congress to Reagan Coattails : Rohrabacher Stresses White House Speech Writer Role

The colorful campaign poster features overlapping images of candidate Dana Rohrabacher, President Reagan and the White House. And it boldly proclaims that “A Reagan Republican” is running for Congress.

The sign sums up the campaign of Rohrabacher, 40, a former presidential speech writer who is counting on his longtime association with Reagan to propel him to victory in the crowded field of Republican candidates running in the 42nd Congressional District.

“I gave my 30s to the White House,” Rohrabacher said. “I want to contribute my 40s to Congress.”

Throughout the campaign, Rohrabacher (pronounced Roar-backer) has portrayed himself as the President’s “strong right arm” and an important player in “formulating economic and national defense policies.”

But on closer inspection, Rohrabacher takes on a different cast--that of a presidential wordsmith on the ideological fringe of the Reagan White House, who was a registered Libertarian in the early days of the Reagan presidency.

Libertarians espouse maximum personal freedom and limited government. And although Rohrabacher says his political beliefs have been tempered by experience, he still maintains “some sympathy for the Libertarian philosophy” that he embraced 20 years ago while a college student.

Although Rohrabacher said he is not running for Congress on the basis of the “excessive idealism of my youth,” his campaign has solicited money in Libertarian circles.

A recent fund-raising invitation cited Rohrabacher’s role in 1969 as “a founding member” of the Libertarian Supper Club. The letter said Rohrabacher’s work at the White House “earned him friends” among Libertarians.

At the White House, Rohrabacher was known as a talented writer and dedicated “movement conservative” who clashed on economic and foreign policy issues with chiefs of staff James A. Baker III and Donald T. Regan.

Associates inside and outside the Administration say Rohrabacher was never in the mainstream of the Administration.

Edward J. Rollins, former White House political director, said the speech-writing unit where Rohrabacher worked was “the most conservative group in the White House. They are sort of known as the true believers.” Rollins is supporting Andrew Littlefair, another Reagan aide, in the congressional race.

Rohrabacher agrees with that label and said his belief in personal freedom and limited government often put him at odds with pragmatic conservatives running the White House.

“I had my share of knock-down, drag-out fights,” Rohrabacher said in an interview. “I’m proud of that. I stood firm.”

Reagan Ties Trumpeted

Rohrabacher’s campaign trumpets his ties to Reagan. Although the President has remained neutral in the contest, the Reagan theme is so strong that Rohrabacher’s first mailer featured five photos of the speech writer at work with the chief executive.

Rohrabacher stresses the role he played at the White House for the past seven years before returning to Palos Verdes Estates last March to run for Congress.

To win the votes of the most conservative Republicans in the district, Rohrabacher is bringing retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North to Long Beach on Wednesday.

Rohrabacher and North, the fired National Security Council aide who has been indicted for his role in the Iran-Contra affair, worked closely on presidential speeches about Central America and international terrorism.

“We are very close friends,” Rohrabacher said. “We stand for the same thing.”

At campaign events, Rohrabacher, an outspoken supporter of “freedom fighters” from Nicaragua to Afghanistan, says: “It’s Congress, not Ollie North that should be prosecuted.”

Rohrabacher’s candidacy has been bolstered financially by contributions from conservative political groups and individuals. He raised $123,076 through May 18 and is counting on North’s appearance to provide a last-minute infusion of funds.

Wieder Disclosure

Although he pledged to run a positive campaign and concentrate on issues, it was Rohrabacher who disclosed this month that the early front-runner, Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, did not have a college degree from Wayne State University in Detroit as she has claimed for the past 25 years.

Wieder later admitted that she had not told the truth about her academic record in various biographies, campaign materials and under oath in a recent legal deposition.

The damaging disclosures rocked Wieder’s campaign and provided an opening for Rohrabacher and others in the race to replace Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach), who is retiring to pursue a legal battle for the state treasurer’s post.

“All I did was disclose information that I thought the people deserved to know,” Rohrabacher said.

Apart from researching his opponents, Rohrabacher’s campaign has been based on a direct-mail appeal to conservative voters in the staunchly Republican district, which runs from Torrance around the Palos Verdes Peninsula across a narrow band of Long Beach to Huntington Beach and northwestern Orange County.

Bask in the Glow

North’s appearance reflects the overall thrust of the Rohrabacher campaign--to bask in the glow of the Reagan presidency while Rohrabacher remains true to his ideological roots. His latest campaign mailer features a picture of Rohrabacher and Reagan in the Oval Office and invites voters to “Meet the Man on the Right.”

Inside, the brochure says Rohrabacher “played an important and highly respected role in the highest levels of our government.”

The mailer contains a copy of a letter from the President accepting with “deep regret” Rohrabacher’s resignation from the Administration, as well as testimonials from such noted conservatives as commentator William F. Buckley Jr., economist Milton Friedman, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick.

The brochure says Rohrabacher wants to preserve the Reagan legacy after the President leaves office next January. Voters are told that “there is no one better qualified to articulate his legacy . . . no one better able to vigorously champion and carry on the fight than Dana Rohrabacher . . . a Reagan Republican for Congress.”

Though he lived in California, Rohrabacher could not vote for Ronald Reagan in the 1980 Republican presidential primary because he was registered as a Libertarian in Los Angeles County from December, 1979, until July, 1981.

Rohrabacher worked as an editorial writer for the Orange County Register from 1979 to 1980, then as assistant press secretary for the Reagan presidential campaign, joining the White House as a speech writer in January, 1981.

A one-time Reagan campaign official, who asked not to be identified, said “Rohrabacher became a Republican to look right working for Ronald Reagan in the White House.”

Remains Sympathetic

Despite the change in registration, Rohrabacher said he remains sympathetic to the Libertarian philosophy, particularly a sharp reduction in the federal government’s role in the economy and the personal lives of Americans.

“Libertarian and conservative philosophies run parallel,” Rohrabacher said. “Both stress individual freedom, low taxes, limited government. Ronald Reagan’s philosophy runs parallel as well.”

When he joined the White House staff, the student newspaper at Cal State Long Beach recalled that Rohrabacher had been an activist for “conservative and Libertarian causes” during his campus days in 1967-69. He had gone there after graduating from Harbor College and Palos Verdes High School. He later received a masters degree in American Studies at USC, where his oral exam was on freedom as a theme in American literature.

In 1969, he founded the Future of Freedom Conferences and, a year later, helped to establish the Libertarian Supper Club in Southern California.

The conservative Washington Times said recently that Rohrabacher still is “highly regarded by Libertarians.”

“I have some sympathy with a lot of Libertarian things,” he said in an interview this week, including the privatization of public agencies such as the Postal Service, limited government and low taxes. “There are a lot of things I agree with them on and there are a lot of things I disagree with them on.”

Rohrabacher said he has added “a good dose of realism” to his political philosophy over the past 20 years and has tempered his belief in unlimited personal freedom.

“I’m a mature man now, not some young man shouting slogans,” he said. “I call myself a Reagan Republican, a positive conservative.”

He said he no longer believes that marijuana should be decriminalized because it has been shown to be “a dangerous threat to people.”

On pornography, Rohrabacher said “adults have a right to read what they want to read” but he wants to ensure that children are “neither exposed to nor exploited by pornography.”

He believes that regulation of prostitution, like control of adult bookstores, should be “left to the local community and reflect local community standards.”

When it comes to abortion, Rohrabacher said that after much soul-searching he has concluded that he would support a constitutional amendment banning abortion.

Asked his overall political philosophy today, he said: “Government should be restricted in what it does in terms of honest people, and government should be powerful in terms of stopping the criminal element. Honest people should be able to live their lives as they see fit and not be over-regulated.”

Division in White House

Anthony Dolan, chief presidential speech writer and a friend of Rohrabacher since Reagan ran for governor of California 22 years ago, acknowledged that there is a division in the White House between more traditional Republicans and Libertarians, and that “Dana has leaned toward the Libertarian side.”

Dolan praised Rohrabacher, his former associate in the speech writing office, as a defender of freedom who was responsible for some of the best moments of the Reagan presidency. “Dana was a powerful force here, a tremendous influence,” he said.

David R. Gergen, former White House communications director and now editor of U.S. News and World Report, said Rohrabacher was “one of the front-line speech writers. He was a conservative. He wrote a lot of copy the President liked.”

In his campaign literature, Rohrabacher portrays himself as formulating economic and defense policies. But others inside and outside the White House hold another view.

Rollins said Rohrabacher overstates his role.

“He was one of several speech writers. Obviously he didn’t set policy. He wrote the words,” Rollins said. “He wasn’t the principal speech writer. To say that he set economic and defense policy is an exaggeration.”

Another Reagan speech writer, who asked not to be identified, said, “Dana articulated rather than formulated policy. Speech writers are never supposed to make policy. They give it flavor, nuance, spirit and fullness.”

Rather than writing major policy addresses, Rohrabacher for a time was assigned to write the President’s welcoming remarks for visiting heads of state and toasts for state dinners. Dolan sought to put that duty in a favorable light. “The toasts are some of the most important remarks that are made during any visit,” he said.