1988 Republican National Convention : At New Orleans, Right-Wing Dornan Will Be Front and Center as Bush Ally

At first blush, Robert K. Dornan and George Bush seem an unlikely pair.

The flamboyant, red-haired congressman from Garden Grove, long a voice of the conservative wing of the Republican Party, would seem to have little in common with Bush and his button-down political style.

But in fact, Dornan has turned out to be one of Bush’s strongest advocates and most hard-working surrogates in his campaign for the presidency.

And because of his work for the campaign and his friendly relationship with Bush, Dornan, 55, has been given a significant role in the Republican National Convention that starts Monday in New Orleans. Along with state Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights), Dornan is co-chairing the 175-member California delegation to the convention. And he will give a prime-time seconding speech--immediately after Bush’s son, Jeb--for Bush’s nomination Wednesday night at the Superdome.

“Three years in the vineyards for George Bush has not gone unrecognized, mainly by George Bush,” said Dornan, a former talk show host who made his reputation grabbing headlines with attacks on abortion, pornography and communism.

While other conservatives preferred New York Rep. Jack Kemp or television evangelist Pat Robertson, Dornan from the beginning tied his star to Bush.

In mid-1985, Dornan said, he talked it over with his chief of staff, Brian Bennett.

“We just made the assessment that he deserved it and that nobody could take it away from him,” Dornan said. A few months later, Dornan told President Reagan of his decision. Reagan, he said, “smiled from ear to ear” and called Bush “the best vice president I ever could have hoped for.” Dornan became the first member of Congress to endorse Bush.

It was not long before Bush’s staff called him with a request to represent the vice president at the Conservative Political Action Convention in Washington. Many other appearances, in many states, followed.

Eileen Padberg, the Laguna Niguel political consultant who was Bush’s Western states campaign coordinator through the June primary, said Dornan “has been very significant in holding the conservative voters for George Bush across the country.” In California, Padberg said, “literally, without Bob Dornan, we would not have had the big breakthrough we had in the conservative vote.”

As Dornan has campaigned for Bush, the two men have become friends. Bush recently called Dornan on the spur of the moment and invited him to join him and his sons for a beer and a game of horseshoes.

Rides in Bush’s Limo

Now, when Bush runs into Dornan on campaign stops, he invariably calls Dornan over to ride in his limousine.

“There’s hardly anybody in the world who would have the nerve to walk over to the motorcade and open the door and get in,” Padberg said. “(Dornan) knows he can do that. It cracks me up.” She said she “was always afraid he was going to get shot” by the Secret Service.

Padberg remembers the time Dornan flew a restored World War II torpedo bomber--a Grumman Avenger, the same model flown in combat by Bush--to an air show in San Diego to amuse the vice president. Cutting through the red tape, Dornan co-piloted the plane into the air show, wearing a brown leather bomber jacket, a red neck scarf flying. “The vice president’s face lit up like he got his first Christmas present,” Padberg said.

Bush campaign director Lee Atwater said Dornan has “been out there long and hard for the vice president. He’s got a national following. He did a good job in early primaries, on Super Tuesday and in New Hampshire. He has a constituency in every state. He’s invaluable.”

Dornan said his “happiest moment” working for Bush was on June 7 of this year when Bush, who was waiting out the California primary results with Dornan and other Republicans gathered at the Doubletree Hotel in Orange, said:

“Nobody, no surrogate nationwide, has been in more states campaigning for me early on right up to this present moment than Bob Dornan. And I am grateful to him, and I’ll never forget him.” Dornan has it on videotape.

Because the Dornan-Bush link is seen as so unlikely, there has been talk in Republican circles that Dornan is doing it only because he wants a foothold in the Bush Administration, if there is one. The spot Dornan--who earned the nickname “B-1 Bob” when he became a leading supporter in Congress of the B-1 bomber--most covets is secretary of defense, he admits.

But he also says he does not believe he has the national stature that Bush would need for that spot.

“Not even on my wish list am I conjuring up any images of that,” Dornan said.

What Dornan does see in his future are two more terms in the House of Representatives and then maybe another try for the U.S. Senate. Originally elected to a coastal congressional district in 1976, Dornan’s tenure in the House of Representatives was interrupted when his district was reapportioned and he unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1982. He later moved to Garden Grove and ran for Congress in the 38th Congressional District in 1984.

In Bush, Dornan said, he sees a chance for “a continuation of the Reagan years.”

He calls Bush “a ‘Reaganaut’ of highest order.”

Bennett, Dornan’s chief of staff, said Bush has sent Dornan numerous letters of thanks, most of which end simply with: “Thanks, pal.”