Warhorse Bill Roberts Pushes On for Horn

Veteran political consultant Bill Roberts, who is managing the congressional campaign of Stephen Horn, former Cal State Long Beach president, recently described one of Horn’s opponents as a “warhorse.”

Though he didn’t mean it kindly, Roberts probably wouldn’t mind if the same term were applied to him. A veteran of dozens of campaign battles, including gubernatorial races for Ronald Reagan and George Deukmejian, Roberts’ career stretches over three decades of Republican politics.

But now Roberts, 63, is slowing down. In the past year, both his legs have been amputated and his kidneys have failed, all due to diabetes. Horn’s campaign, he said, may be his “last hurrah.”

“It’s difficult to get used to the idea of having no legs,” Roberts said recently. He was sitting with his wheelchair tucked behind his desk in the Westwood offices of The Dolphin Group, the firm Roberts formed after he and longtime partner Stuart Spencer went their separate ways.

“I’m trying to keep my life together and keep doing things,” he added. “I find laying in bed not a good idea.”

Roberts was in a hospital last fall recovering from a second leg amputation when Horn called to ask for advice on whether to run for the seat being vacated by Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach). Roberts and Horn are longtime friends who met when Horn was a legislative aide to former U.S. Sen. Thomas H. Kuchel (R-Calif.).

“I’ll help you all I can,” Roberts said he told Horn, who clearly has an uphill battle for the GOP nomination against Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder in the heavily Republican 42nd District, which straddles Orange and Los Angeles counties. The district includes the Los Angeles County areas of Torrance, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, parts of San Pedro, a narrow strip across Long Beach and Signal Hill. The Orange County portion consists of Seal Beach, Cypress, La Palma and parts of Huntington Beach, Westminster and Garden Grove.

Nationwide Reputation

Once at the hub of Republican politics in California, Roberts’ widely known firm of Spencer-Roberts built a nationwide reputation for innovative, well-run, tough campaigns. It also had a few losses--most notably the 1970 reelection campaign that U.S. Sen. George Murphy (R-Calif.) lost to Democrat John Tunney.

Though it is hard to imagine now--when it seems there are more political consultants than candidates--Spencer-Roberts was one of the first firms ever to do full-time consulting. Previously, advertising and public relations firms handled most campaign business.

Politics started changing, though, in the 1960s as the number of high-profile races and initiatives escalated and professional advisers proliferated. Spencer-Roberts set the tone.

“At that time, everything was new,” said political consultant Eileen Padberg, western states coordinator of George Bush’s presidential campaign. “Both Stu and Bill were role models to all of the people now who are in the business. . . . They were in the driver’s seat when campaigns started using direct mail, computerized direct mail, targeted mail. . . . They helped develop all that.”

Along the way, the pair made it look like fun. At seminars held to educate a new generation of consultants, Spencer and Roberts were “like a comedy team,” Padberg said.

“Stu is more of a cutup. Bill is more serious,” she said. “The two of them together were hysterical. . . . They used to play off each other.”

Spencer and Roberts still kid around.

“Once I made him real mad. I introduced him as the world’s tallest midget,” Roberts said of the shorter Spencer. “He never forgave me for that.” Roberts chuckled as he recounted how Spencer, in the teasing manner of longtime friends, got his revenge after Roberts’ leg operations. According to Roberts, at a shared speaking engagement, Spencer said: “Finally I’ve gotten even. Now I’m taller than you.”

Spencer and Roberts broke up their partnership in 1973, when Roberts left the campaign business. He came back a couple of years later to assist Spencer in Gerald Ford’s presidential primary in Florida. Since then, Roberts has conducted many campaigns, including the one that ousted California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird in 1986.

“I decided what the hell, this was the only thing I knew how to make a living at,” Roberts said.

Roberts said the high point of his career was managing Reagan’s entry into politics in the 1966 California governor’s race. The low point was Deukmejian’s 1982 gubernatorial campaign, from which he was asked to resign just three weeks before the November election.

Deukmejian banished Roberts after Roberts told reporters that an anti-black vote is “a fact of life in a political campaign where a candidate is black” and could be a decisive factor in an election. Deukmejian’s opponent, Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who is black, accused Roberts of injecting racism into the campaign.

Though he has said little publicly about the forced resignation since then, Roberts said recently: “I don’t think I deserved it. I think I could have been admonished, but not thrown out the window.”

“There was a lot of feeling . . . that he had been mistreated, that he was, in effect, taking a fall in the best interests of the campaign,” said Bob Nelson, another political consultant who called Roberts “one of the founders of the modern political consulting business.”

But, Roberts said, “time heals a lot of things.” During Roberts’ most recent illness, Deukmejian called with get-well wishes, and Roberts occasionally calls the governor to talk over something.

These days, Roberts’ daily life is an effort. Once independent, the never-married Roberts needs help to get to work, or even to take a bath. Because his kidneys have failed, he undergoes dialysis three times a week. He recently had cataracts removed from his eyes.

Roberts said he finds his thoughts turning more and more to death. But, typically, he doesn’t dwell on it morbidly. He believes dying ought to be as “spectacular an event” as being born. He’s even thinking of making a tape recording to be played for his family and friends at his funeral.

“I want to tell them how glorious it’s been for me,” Roberts said.

Even now, as he develops strategy for his umpteenth campaign, Roberts said he finds it “exciting.” As always, he tries to keep a sense of humor, or else “this business becomes an unbelievable drag.”

He also faces things more more philosophically than he used to.

“I guess I’m a nicer person,” he said. “I know I only have a few minutes’ time, and I want to make the most of it.”

BILL ROBERTS’ BIGGEST CAMPAIGNS

1960 -- Rep. Alphonso Bell (R-Santa Monica) (Won)

1962 -- U.S. Sen. Thomas H. Kuchel (R-Calif.) for reelection (Won)

1964 -- Nelson A. Rockefeller’s California presidential primary. (Barry Goldwater won narrowly)

1966 -- Ronald Reagan’s governorship. (Won)

1970 -- Gov. Ronald Reagan’s reelection. (Won)

1970 -- U.S. Sen. George Murphy’s reelection. (Lost)

1978 -- George Deukmejian’s attorney general’s race. (Won)

1982 -- George Deukmejian’s gubernatorial race. (Roberts left campaign three weeks before general election.) (Won)

1986 -- Campaign to oust California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird. (Won)