Election Endorsement Letters Investigated

Just before the Nov. 4 election, at least four Republican Assembly candidates sent voters endorsement letters “signed” by President Reagan, but neither the President nor any of his aides ever authorized the mailings, a White House official said Monday.

Although there actually “were a number of (Republican) candidates in California” Assembly races who used endorsement letters bearing Reagan’s signature in their campaigns, none were ever approved or even submitted to the White House for approval, said Ceci Cole, special assistant to the President for political and intergovernmental affairs.

The presidential aide, who was interviewed by telephone from Sacramento, said the White House legal counsel is looking into the matter in an effort to determine who was responsible for the phony presidential letters, which were made to appear as if they were written on White House stationery.

Endorsement Letters

In the days just before the election, voters received Presidential endorsement letters urging the election of Republican Trice Harvey of Bakersfield, who ultimately defeated Bakersfield attorney Tom Fallgatter by 3,665 votes, and three other GOP candidates who wound up losing to Democratic incumbents.

The phony presidential endorsement letters also were mailed out on behalf of losing Republican candidates Matt Webb, who ran an extremely close but unsuccessful race against Democratic Assemblyman Steve Clute of Riverside; Henry Velasco, who lost decisively to veteran Democratic Assemblywoman Sally Tanner of El Monte, and real estate appraiser Roger Fiola, who lost big to Democrat Richard E. Floyd of Hawthorne.

Presidential aide Cole said that Assembly Republican Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale is cooperating with the White House investigation into who is responsible for the letters, which carried a reproduction of Reagan’s signature at the bottom.

But the revelation by Cole that none of the GOP candidates nor their campaign consultants had ever even asked for a presidential endorsement conflicted with a written statement issued last Thursday by Nolan after Assembly Republican officials initially were asked about a “Reagan” letter attacking Floyd and endorsing his opponent.

In that statement, Nolan contended that the “Reagan” letter accusing Floyd of caving in “to the powerful underworld drug industry” merely had been “a modified version” of a White House “endorsement letter of general support” for the GOP candidate.

Cole said: “We know that Pat Nolan had no hand in it and we know that President Reagan wanted Republican candidates to win.” And she said the endorsement letters were all sent on behalf of GOP candidates whose elections Reagan might have urged had he been asked. But she added:

“The procedure is important. There are legal rules regarding the President’s signature. . . . As with all the President’s remarks, it goes through the clearance process. It is a very complicated process (that) takes at least a month.”

Consultants Blamed

Cole said in some instances the letters sent to California voters on behalf of Assembly candidates were similar to drafts that had been submitted for use in Congressional campaigns. She said it is conceivable that state legislative campaign organizations “were perhaps under the impression (the congressional letters) were OK for use” in Assembly campaigns.

“But they were not,” she emphasized.

Nolan, in a written statement issued last week to explain the letter sent on Fiola’s behalf, blamed the supposed mix-up on “campaign consultants” and “campaign workers.”

Assemblyman Dennis Brown (R-Signal Hill), who managed Fiola’s campaign, said last week that the endorsement letter sent out for Fiola was an inadvertent mistake by Computer Caging, a Sacramento mailing house owned by State Sen. H. L. Richardson (R-Glendora). Computer Caging mailed out the presidential endorsement letter on behalf of Fiola.

But another Republican Assemblyman, who asked not to be identified, said it is a common practice throughout campaigns “to play fast and loose with letters from the White House because most of the time, it would never come to their attention.”

Cole said presidential aides first became aware of the letters because postal authorities sent to the White House hundreds of Fiola endorsements that could not be delivered to addresses on the envelopes. The letters had been mailed by first-class postage and arrived in South Bay households the day before the election. The return address was the White House.

Unlike that letter, which attacked Floyd for allegedly being soft on drugs, the other three generally were upbeat, praising the Republican candidates’ character and commitment to conservative principles. In those letters, “Reagan” told citizens he would regard a vote for the GOP candidates “a personal favor.”

Assembly Republican leaders have been unavailable since Nolan’s statement was distributed late last week, as have spokesmen at Computer Caging. Richardson’s press secretary on Monday said that he was also declining comment because “he had nothing to do with it.”

“We are really confident we’ll be able to straighten this out,” Cole said. “But we want to make very clear that what happened won’t happen again. . . . We are still awaiting some more information.”