ELECTIONS ’88 : ORANGE COUNTY : Rohrabacher Counting on Reagan Connection

The colorful campaign poster features overlapping images of candidate Dana Rohrabacher, President Reagan and the White House. And it boldly proclaims that “A Reagan Republican” is running for Congress.

The sign sums up the campaign of former presidential speech writer Rohrabacher, 40, who is counting on his longtime association with Reagan to propel him to victory in the crowded field of Republican candidates running in the 42nd Congressional District.

“I gave my 30s to the White House,” Rohrabacher said. “I want to contribute my 40s to Congress.”

Throughout the campaign, Rohrabacher (pronounced Roar-backer) has portrayed himself as the President’s “strong right arm” and an important player in “formulating economic and national defense policies.”

But on closer inspection, the self-described Reagan Republican takes on a different cast--that of a presidential wordsmith on the ideological fringe of the Reagan White House who was a registered Libertarian in the early days of the Reagan presidency.

Libertarians espouse maximum personal freedom and limited government. And while Rohrabacher says his political beliefs have been tempered by experience, he still maintains “some sympathy for the Libertarian philosophy” that he embraced 20 years ago while a college student.

Although Rohrabacher said he is not running for Congress on the basis of the “excessive idealism of his youth,” his campaign has solicited money in Libertarian circles.

A recent fund-raising invitation cited Rohrabacher’s role in 1969 as “a founding member” of the Libertarian Supper Club. The letter said Rohrabacher’s work at the White House “earned him friends” in the Libertarian community.

At the White House, Rohrabacher was known as a talented writer and dedicated “movement conservative” who clashed on economic and foreign policy issues with chiefs of staff James A. Baker III and Donald T. Regan.

Associates inside and outside the Administration say Rohrabacher was never in its mainstream.

Former White House political director Edward J. Rollins, a supporter of Andrew Littlefair, the other Reagan aide in the race, said the speech-writing unit where Rohrabacher worked was “the most conservative group in the White House. They are sort of known as the true believers.”

Rohrabacher agrees with that label and said his belief in personal freedom and limited government often put him at odds with pragmatic conservatives running the White House.

“I had my share of knock-down, drag-out fights,” Rohrabacher said in an interview. “I’m proud of that. I stood firm.”

To win the votes of the most conservative Republicans in the district, Rohrabacher, who returned to Palos Verdes Estates last March to run for Congress after seven years at the White House, is bringing retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North to Long Beach Wednesday.

Rohrabacher and North, the fired National Security Council aide who has been indicted for his role in the Iran-Contra affair, worked closely on presidential speeches about Central America and international terrorism.

“We are very close friends,” Rohrabacher said. “We stand for the same thing.”

At campaign events, Rohrabacher, an outspoken supporter of “freedom fighters” from Nicaragua to Afghanistan, says, “It’s Congress, not Ollie North, that should be prosecuted.”

Rohrabacher’s candidacy has been bolstered financially by contributions from conservative political groups and individuals. He raised $123,076 through May 18 and is counting on North’s appearance to provide a last-minute infusion of funds.

Although he had pledged to run a positive campaign and concentrate on issues, it was Rohrabacher who disclosed this month that the early front-runner in the race, Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, does not have a college degree from Wayne State University in Detroit as she had claimed for 25 years.

Wieder later admitted that she had not told the truth about her academic record in various biographies and campaign materials, or under oath in a deposition taken in a civil lawsuit.

‘People Deserved to Know’

The damaging disclosures rocked Wieder’s campaign and provided an opening for Rohrabacher and others in the race to replace Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach), who is retiring to pursue a legal battle for the state treasurer’s post.

“All I did was disclose information that I thought the people deserved to know,” Rohrabacher said.

Rohrabacher’s campaign has been based on a direct-mail appeal to conservative voters in the staunchly Republican district, which runs from Torrance around the Palos Verdes Peninsula across a narrow band of Long Beach to Huntington Beach and northwestern Orange County.

His latest campaign mailer features a picture of himself and Reagan in the Oval Office and invites voters to “Meet the Man on the Right.” Inside, the brochure says Rohrabacher “played an important and highly respected role in the highest levels of our government.”

The mailer contains a copy of a letter from the President accepting with “deep regret” Rohrabacher’s resignation from the Administration, as well as testimonials from such noted conservatives as commentator William F. Buckley Jr., economist Milton Friedman, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick.

What the mailer does not say is that Rohrabacher could not vote for Ronald Reagan in the 1980 California presidential primary because he was registered as a Libertarian in Los Angeles County from December, 1979, until July, 1981.

Rohrabacher worked as an editorial writer for the Orange County Register from 1979 to 1980, then as assistant press secretary for the Reagan presidential campaign, joining the White House as a speech writer in January, 1981.

Despite his change in party registration, Rohrabacher said, he remains sympathetic to the Libertarian philosophy, particularly favoring a sharp reduction in the federal government’s role in the economy and the personal lives of Americans.

Parallel Philosophies

“Libertarian and conservative philosophies run parallel,” Rohrabacher said. “Both stress individual freedom, low taxes, limited government. Ronald Reagan’s philosophy runs parallel as well.”

When he joined the White House staff, the student newspaper at Cal State Long Beach recalled that Rohrabacher had been an activist for “conservative and Libertarian causes” during his campus days in 1967-69. He went there after graduating from Palos Verdes High School and Harbor College. He later received a master’s degree in American Studies from USC, where his oral exam was on freedom as a theme in American literature.

In 1969, he founded the Future of Freedom Conferences and, a year later, helped to establish the Libertarian Supper Club in Southern California.

The conservative Washington Times said recently that Rohrabacher still is “highly regarded by Libertarians.”

“I have some sympathy with a lot of Libertarian things,” Rohrabacher said, such as the privatization of public agencies in the manner of the Postal Service, limited government and low taxes. “There are a lot of things I agree with them on, and there are a lot of things I disagree with them on.”

‘Dose of Realism’

Rohrabacher said he has added “a good dose of realism” to his political philosophy over the past 20 years and has tempered his belief in unlimited personal freedom.

“I’m a mature man now, not some young man shouting slogans,” he said. “I call myself a Reagan Republican, a positive conservative.”

He said he no longer believes that marijuana should be decriminalized because it has been shown to be “a dangerous threat to people.”

On pornography, Rohrabacher said, “adults have a right to read what they want to read,” but he wants to ensure that children are “neither exposed to or exploited by pornography.”

He believes that regulation of prostitution, like control of adult bookstores, should be “left to the local community and reflect local community standards.”

After much soul-searching, Rohrabacher said, he has concluded that he would support a constitutional amendment banning abortion.

Asked his overall political philosophy today, he said, “Government should be restricted in what it does in terms of honest people, and government should be powerful in terms of stopping the criminal element. Honest people should be able to live their lives as they see fit and not be overregulated.”

Libertarian Leaning

Chief presidential speech writer Anthony Dolan, a friend of Rohrabacher since Reagan ran for governor of California 22 years ago, acknowledged that there is a division in the White House between more traditional Republicans and Libertarians and that “Dana has leaned toward the Libertarian side.”

Dolan praised Rohrabacher as a defender of freedom who was responsible for some of the best moments of the Reagan presidency. “Dana was a powerful force here, a tremendous influence,” he said.

In his campaign literature, Rohrabacher portrays himself as formulating economic and defense policies. But others inside and outside the White House had another view.

Former White House political director Rollins said Rohrabacher overstates his role.

“He was one of several speech writers. Obviously he didn’t set policy. He wrote the words,” Rollins said. “He wasn’t the principal speech writer. To say that he set economic and defense policy is an exaggeration.”

DANA ROHRABACHER

Office sought: 42nd Congressional District representative. The district includes Seal Beach, Cypress, Rossmoor, La Palma and parts of Huntington Beach, Westminster and Garden Grove in Orange County, as well as the Palos Verdes area, Signal Hill and parts of Long Beach and Torrance in Los Angeles County.

Occupation: Presidential special assistant.

Party Affiliation: Republican.

Age: 40

Residence: Palos Verdes Estates

Public office previously held: None.