Reagan legacy felt

Alicia Robinson

Since former President Ronald Reagan died Saturday at 93, the media

accounts have been full of how his leadership changed the world.

Local political leaders said he left his stamp on Huntington Beach as

well.

Surf City Congressman Dana Rohrabacher launched his political

careers working for Reagan.

“He was a guy who taught me how you could be true to your

principles and still be a nice guy,” said Rohrabacher, who began

volunteering as a teenager for Reagan’s campaigns, then served as

assistant press secretary in 1976 and 1980 and later was a White

House speechwriter.

“There’s nobody who’s influenced my life more than my own father

other than Ronald Reagan,” Rohrabacher said. “My dad was No. 1, and

Ronald Reagan was No. 2 in my life.”

Tearing down walls

Most people today remember Reagan for his strong stand against

Communism and they remember his speech instructing Soviet leader

Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” But Reagan also was able

to tear down walls within his own political party and open it up to a

wider audience, said Tom Fuentes, who was Orange County’s GOP

chairman for 20 years.

“He realized that we needed more than just country club

Republicans,” Fuentes said. “We needed what they called Reagan

Democrats and the religious right and blue collar Americans. We

needed very broad-based outreach.”

Reagan’s platform of strong family values and anti-abortion stance

also attracted Latino Americans to the Republican party, Fuentes

said.

“That crafted a winning majority, and it was that model on which

we built for these past decades a successful party in Orange County,

where there’s a role for people of color, there’s a role for people

of working class background as well as for those who happen to be

wealthy,” he said.

Orange County Supervisor Jim Silva helped with Reagan’s

presidential reelection campaign in 1984. The former president often

visited Orange County, both while he was governor and later in his

career, Silva said.

“I think that he, as governor, was able to bring in a lot of

business,” Silva said, adding that while Reagan was in the governor’s

office the technological powerhouse of Silicon Valley was born.

Reagan also helped continue the building of freeways to serve the

state’s growing population, Silva said.

For all Reagan’s accomplishments, there were things he wasn’t able

to do. While his domestic policies led to economic growth, they also

raised the federal deficit, which sits today at its highest level

ever.

“I think that he wanted to reduce spending more than he was able

to do,” Rohrabacher said. “He was able to bring down the level of

taxation, which was important to our prosperity, and he was able to

eliminate the threat of Communism, but he never was able to decrease

the size of government even by 10%, which probably would have been

his goal.”

Fuentes remembers something Reagan said to him before a 1984

campaign rally at Cal State Fullerton where Fuentes was acting as

emcee. He expressed his appreciation to Reagan for his strong

leadership against abortion, but Reagan wasn’t satisfied.

“He said, ‘Tom, we still have much to do,’” Fuentes said. “I

imagine there were issues [like that] that he held deeply and he knew

there was more yet to work on.”

An encouraging candidate

Local political activists have been most touched by Reagan’s

kindness and personal attention to people, and they’ll think of what

he did for them.

When Rohrabacher left his job as Reagan’s speechwriter to run for

congress in 1988, Reagan wrote him a letter full of praise for his

work in the White House that Rohrabacher used during his campaign.

As a candidate Reagan was very encouraging and gracious to young

people who worked for the GOP, Fuentes said.

Although Reagan’s health and memory were in decline over the last

decade due to Alzheimer’s disease, Nancy Reagan carried on with her

husband’s social graces. Upon Fuentes’ retirement in April after 20

years as chairman of Orange County’s Republican Party, he received a

personal letter congratulating him and expressing thanks for his

service to the party. It was signed by Nancy Reagan on behalf of

herself and her husband.

“That’s just the kind of attention to courtesy and detail that she

and he have always had for those of us who have been volunteers for

the cause,” Fuentes said.

Reagan also was known for his humility and respect for others

throughout his life, qualities that Silva said he noticed in their

numerous meetings.

The supervisor recalled a visit he and his son paid to Reagan in

1994. Silva’s son was coming home from the U.S. Air Force Academy,

and Reagan’s office called to request that he wear his military

uniform to the meeting.

“When we got there [Reagan] said, ‘I wore that uniform for you

during World War II and now you wear that uniform for me, and for

that I salute you.’ And he saluted my son,” Silva said. “I’ll never

forget that.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.