Qualified Approval : Goldwater Says Ocean Drilling OK

Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) gave a qualified endorsement Monday to offshore oil drilling but said the issue more properly concerns coastal residents and not a senator from a landlocked state.

In a press conference before attending a reception held by the 400 Club of the Orange County Republican Party, Goldwater said that because his state possesses neither oil nor shoreline, the question of drilling offshore “doesn’t bother me too much.”

“If it didn’t create ugly beach, ugly waters, I couldn’t find any fault with it,” Goldwater declared. But the senator said he prefers that the search for oil be conducted on land and that it is up to the people along the coast to express their opinion, adding: “It’s their baby.”

The reception sponsored by the 400 Club, a fund-raising arm of the county Republican Party, included as guests congressmen on both sides of the debate over the announcement last month by Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel that he would open some waters off the California coast, including a portion off Orange County, to oil exploration.

Rep. Robert Badham (R-Newport Beach), an opponent of the drilling, and Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Long Beach), a supporter, attended.

Goldwater, who has long joked that “I carried five states and Orange County” in his unsuccessful race for President in 1964 against Lyndon Johnson, said there was no chance that Congress would pass a tax reform bill this year and rated the task just as difficult in 1986, an election year.

Looking ahead to the 1988 presidential elections, Goldwater said his current favorite is George Bush, who “has done a whale of a good job” as vice president. But the senator said he also likes Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N. Y.) very much.

Goldwater said he doesn’t agree with criticism of Bush by some conservatives that the vice president is not sufficiently supportive of their cause. He said there will always be liberals who find a liberal candidate too conservative and conservatives who believe a conservative candidate is too liberal.