White House Scolds 3 in False Endorsements

Two aides to Assembly Republican Leader Patrick Nolan of Glendale and a GOP direct-mail specialist have been singled out by the White House for being “grossly negligent or recklessly indifferent” to White House procedures when they prepared phony presidential endorsement letters last fall.

The letters were mailed to voters in six Assembly districts just before the Nov. 4 election, but the White House later said that the so-called presidential endorsements were authorized neither by President Reagan nor by any of his aides.

Peter J. Wallison, counsel to the President, complained to Nolan in a letter that the authorization procedures are designed “to preserve the integrity of the President’s signature.” He added that the White House “is highly disturbed by this very serious breach of our approval system.”

Wallison, whose letter dated Dec. 17 was made available on Monday to The Times, urged Nolan to “take all appropriate actions” to prevent such phony endorsements from happening again.

Nolan on Monday declined to discuss the controversy, saying it is “a dead story.” His press secretary, Anne S. Richards, said the GOP leader has taken steps within the Republican Caucus to ensure that any future endorsement letters are authorized. Further, she contended that “human error” by campaign staffers caused the letters to be prepared.

In his letter, Wallison identified for the first time the “relevant individuals” who he asserted should be told “the seriousness of this matter.”

Wallison said they included: Henry Olsen, an aide to both Nolan and Assemblyman John R. Lewis (R-Orange); Richard Temple, director of the Assembly Republican Political Action Committee, which works on behalf of GOP Assembly candidates; and Tim Macy, president of Computer Caging Corp., a Sacramento-based direct mail firm principally owned by state Sen. H. L. Richardson (R-Glendora).

Neither Olsen nor Macy could be reached for comment. Temple referred calls to Richards, Nolan’s press secretary. Richards said that all three received a “tongue-lashing” from Nolan, who declined to detail their involvement with the letters. Richards said the GOP leader is “not comfortable burning them because they’ve still got careers, especially because it was inadvertent.”

Richardson said he does not take part in the day-to-day operations of Computer Caging, but as far has he knows the company would not “put out mail” without approval from its clients. “You know you don’t do mail out of the clear blue sky,” Richardson said.

The White House first learned of the letters after undeliverable copies were forwarded to the return address: “Ronald Reagan, The White House.”

Wallison, in another letter dated Dec. 17 to Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., chairman of the Republican National Committee, asked the party leader to develop “more rigorous procedures” to prevent the repetition of a similar incident.

Further, he said, “While we have considered the possibility of taking legal action, we have decided to forgo such a remedy in this case because it appears that no party engaged in a deliberate effort to circumvent the White House or defraud the public.”

White House officials on Monday declined to comment further on the letters.

The campaigns of three winning GOP Assembly candidates--Bev Hansen of Napa, Richard E. Longshore of Orange and Trice Harvey of Tulare--mailed out the Reagan “endorsement” letters.

Voters also received unauthorized Reagan endorsement letters on behalf of Matt Webb, who lost to Assemblyman Steve Clute of Riverside; Henry Velasco, who lost to Assemblywoman Sally Tanner of El Monte, and Roger Fiola, who lost to Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd of Hawthorne.

The letters sent out on behalf of Fiola accused Floyd of caving in to “the powerful underworld drug industry when he . . . refused to vote on legislation to toughen our anti-drug laws.”

Democrats Clute, Tanner and Floyd have asked the U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento and Sacramento County Dist. Atty. John Dougherty and Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner to investigate the letters. Greg Thompson, a special assistant district attorney in Los Angeles, acknowledged that Reiner’s office is reviewing the letters.