Another Voice Slams Kelley’s Reagan Book

IRVINE —  Political consultant Stuart K. Spencer, who has managed Ronald Reagan’s campaigns and has known the Reagans since 1965, added his voice Thursday to the chorus of denunciations of Kitty Kelley and her unauthorized biography of Nancy Reagan.

Spencer, who is quoted several times in the book, said he never talked to Kelley. Others apparently did talk about events in which Spencer was involved, but he said some of the quotes attributed to him are “completely inaccurate.”

Kelley’s book hit the bookstores a week ago and has quickly become a national bestseller.

In the days since its publication, the book has been roundly denounced by Reagan supporters as scurrilous gossip. Several people mentioned in the book said they never spoke with the author, although she cites numerous other books and publications about the Reagan presidency.

The Irvine-based consultant, who worked for President Gerald Ford in 1976 when Ford beat Reagan for the Republican presidential nomination but returned to work for Reagan in 1980, said Kelley’s assertion that Nancy Reagan told him to “get Geraldine Ferraro” in the 1980 campaign was completely wrong.

“Sure I was checking out Geraldine Ferraro--you check everybody out (that you run against) from the date of their birth,” he said. “But at no point in time did that (‘get Ferraro’) discussion take place.”

Spencer said that he and the former First Lady speak frequently on the telephone, and he plays golf with Ronald Reagan every now and then. They have another golf date set for May 1.

While he would not divulge what Nancy Reagan thinks of Kelley or of her book, he said that the former First Lady has not read it.

“I haven’t read it either,” he said.

“The book is overkill. It’s not a serious piece of work about Nancy Reagan. It’s a tabloid type of thing about Nancy Reagan. . . . Like the part about the affair with Frank Sinatra. . . .”

He said the Reagans have not asked him to either talk or not talk publicly about the book.

“As a friend, you just listen, and the sooner this goes away the better,” he said. “Both of them are fine right now. They’ve been through a lot. They understand. They’ve been public figures all their lives, so they understand.”