Opponent Dares Littlefair to Spurn Regan’s Support

In the increasingly bitter 42nd Congressional District race, two former White House staffers publicly clashed Monday over whether one of them should disassociate himself from the support of their one-time boss, former White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan.

Dana Rohrabacher, who helped write speeches for President Reagan, challenged former White House advance man Andrew Littlefair to spurn Regan’s support because of Regan’s newly released book about Reagan and his wife, Nancy. Regan has contributed $500 to Littlefair’s campaign.

In his book, Regan portrayed Mrs. Reagan as a conniving woman who manipulates the President. The book also disclosed that the President’s schedule is determined after Mrs. Reagan’s weekly consultations with a San Francisco astrologer.

“In light of fact (that) Andy Littlefair makes such a big deal of his association with the Reagan White House, I’m challenging Andy to totally disassociate himself with Donald Regan, who has proven himself disloyal and has done great damage to Ronald Reagan,” Rohrabacher said.

In response, Littlefair said, “No one ever questioned my loyalty to Ronald Reagan.” He added that Rohrabacher “has a burr under his saddle because he doesn’t enjoy the support of Donald Regan.”

Rohrabacher and Littlefair are among eight Republican candidates vying for the heavily GOP district represented by Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach), who is leaving office to continue a legal battle over his confirmation as state treasurer. The district is divided between Orange and Los Angeles counties.

On another front, Rohrabacher also suggested to reporters that the citizenship of the front-runner in the race, Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder, be checked out. As a consequence, Wieder, who was born in Canada in 1920, produced naturalization papers dated Dec. 9, 1942.

Rohrabacher last week revealed that Wieder did not have a college degree as she had claimed on various resumes issued over the last 25 years of public life. Wieder admitted that she had compounded an error made by someone else by continuing to cite the degree because she was “ashamed” of not having a college education.

But when she learned that Rohrabacher had questioned her citizenship, Wieder went on the attack herself.

“(This) is the latest in a series of planned smear tactics designed to destroy me politically,” Wieder charged Monday.

Both Wieder and Littlefair pointed out that about eight years ago, Rohrabacher had been registered as a Libertarian and thus had not voted for his political idol, Reagan, in the 1980 Republican primary.

Rohrabacher explained that he “wasn’t a political activist at that time” and that for about two years he registered himself as a Libertarian because it appeared that the Republican Party was headed toward being “a stand-for-nothing, middle-of-the-road party with no principles.” He said he returned to the GOP with the Reagan presidency.