California Roots : Kemp Is Out to Tackle State’s Forgetfulness

Republican presidential contender Jack Kemp, in town on a fund-raising tour, said Monday that he will try to exploit his California roots as he campaigns around the state but conceded that many voters do not recall his football glory days.

The New York congressman, a native of Los Angeles and a graduate of Fairfax High School, said that when he held a fund-raiser in San Diego Sunday night, at least half of those in attendance were unaware that he had played quarterback for the San Diego Chargers during the 1960s.

“I was in San Diego last night, and my wife and I were surprised at how few people remembered,” Kemp told reporters at a breakfast session. “The fact that I’m not as well known in California does not at this point particularly bother me. . . .”

“As a good politician, I would exploit every advantage,” he said. “I know I’m not Steve Garvey, but on the other hand, I think there’s some good potential there to remind people of my roots.”

But Kemp, who also served as an aide to then-Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1967, would prefer that one old rumor about his past remain forgotten by the voters.

Homosexual Scandal

Over the years, Kemp’s name has occasionally been linked to a homosexual scandal that shook the Reagan Administration in 1967. At the time, two Reagan assistants quit amid rumors of a homosexual party at a Lake Tahoe ski cabin. Kemp said in a 1985 Newsweek article that he had purchased a house in Lake Tahoe with one of the aides as an investment but had never visited it.

Asked by reporters Monday how much of a factor the episode would be in his campaign for the presidency, Kemp said it is “an old story and a canard” that has been kept alive only by politics.

“It has been denied and it has also been looked into, and there isn’t anybody that’s ever made a charge,” Kemp said. “There are innuendoes and rumors and gossip about everybody who has ever run for national office and, if you know who you are and you feel good about what you are and what you’re trying to do, you just plow forward and allow it to fall aside as part of the flotsam and the jetsam of a political campaign.”

Kemp, who worked for Reagan during the 1967 off-season, played for the Los Angeles and San Diego Chargers from 1960 to 1962 before he was traded to the Buffalo Bills. He called the trade “a blessing” because it allowed him to play football for eight more years and led to his successful run for Congress in 1970.

‘Supply-Side’ Economics

As a politician, Kemp is perhaps best known for his support of “supply-side” economics and for helping to engineer a 1981 federal tax cut, the centerpiece of President Reagan’s economic policy.

In his bid for the presidency, Kemp has generally been running third in public opinion polls behind Vice President George Bush and Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas by substantial margins.

Kemp conceded that his campaign is in debt but said he has just paid to send out a million-piece fund-raising mailer that he hopes will put money in the bank.

Casting himself as a “new guard” Republican, Kemp said the Iran- contra affair will not destroy Bush’s political future. But he predicted, nevertheless, that the Republican vice president would not be able to nail down the GOP nomination.

“While I feel the Iran- contra affair is a stain on the Reagan presidency, I don’t think it is fatal,” he said.