Reagan Campaign Paid GOP Group for Rally Costs

President Reagan’s 1984 reelection committee paid a local Republican group more than $7,000 for its expenses for a campaign rally at the County Administration Center last year while it ignored a bill for almost $16,000 in county government costs for the same event, the treasurer for the Republican group confirmed Monday.

Local Democrats, who have been pressing the county Board of Supervisors to collect the President’s campaign debt, said the disclosure adds new credence to their claim that the county has been negligent in letting the Reagan-Bush committee off the hook for the unpaid bill for lost county employee time.

Chris Miller, treasurer for Victory ‘84, a group set up by Republicans to stage the Reagan-Bush rally and perform other tasks, said Reagan’s campaign committee reimbursed the group for renting a grandstand and providing supplies and postage for the October, 1984, rally.

Miller said payments of $4,500, $2,410 and $337 were made to Victory ’84 by the Reagan-Bush campaign in November and December of 1984. Miller said the group, which also staged campaign events in support of a state initiative on reapportionment, raised more than $24,000 and ended its work with a $9,000 surplus, which it contributed to the San Diego County Republican Central Committee.

The county billed the President’s campaign for $17,191 in November, 1984, but the Reagan-Bush group paid only $1,222, arguing that the rest of the costs stemmed from a Secret Service order to evacuate the County Administration Center during the rally.

County supervisors, divided along party lines, voted Oct. 2 to quit trying to collect the debt. The vote came after Lloyd Harmon, county counsel, told the board that the cost of collecting the bill might exceed the amount collected.

In response, three Democrats filed suit in Superior Court last week alleging that the county’s decision to give up on the delinquent bill amounted to an illegal gift of public funds to the Reagan-Bush campaign.

The Democrats’ attorney, Michael Aguirre, said Monday that the Republican Central Committee ought to pay the county the $9,000 it received from Victory ’84.

“At the same time as the county was being stiffed on its bill by Reagan-Bush, this Victory ’84 committee was transferring $9,000 in contributions to the local Republican Central Committee,” Aguirre said. “That money could have gone and should have gone to reimburse the county.”

But Robert Schumann, local Republican Party chairman, said the central committee is not about to turn over $9,000 to the county.

“This is a fight between the campaign and the county,” Schumann said. “It’s a legitimate disagreement between those two entities, and it has nothing to do with the party.”