Lewis Called Shrewdest Mind in Legislature

Assemblyman John Lewis, accused Tuesday of forging Ronald Reagan’s signature on a campaign hit piece, is described by friends and associates as a soft-spoken bundle of nerves who thrives on political strategy.

The 34-year-old from Orange has been the Assembly GOP’S chief political strategist since he rose to power in 1984 with one-time college classmate Patrick Nolan, the former Assembly minority leader.

Lewis introduces few bills and rarely speaks during floor debate. Not many members know him well. But his voice carries weight in the back rooms where political campaigns are plotted. Nolan once called him “the shrewdest political mind in the Legislature.”

The heir to a dog food fortune, Lewis is independently wealthy. Yet for much of his life he has tirelessly worked trying to build a Republican majority in the Legislature, which he hopes one day will implement the conservative positions he espouses.

“He is a very private person,” said Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach). “He doesn’t need this job, and he certainly doesn’t need this grief.”

A native of Los Angeles, Lewis attended Valencia High School, where he was a leader in the Young Americans for Freedom. At USC, Lewis met Nolan and Dennis Brown, now an assemblyman from Los Alamitos. He was also close to Assembly Republican Leader Ross Johnson of La Habra and state Sen. Edward R. Royce of Anaheim, who attended college at nearby Cal State Fullerton.

Lewis at age 20 was a member of the state Republican Central Committee. Two years later, he was a Ronald Reagan delegate to the 1976 Republican convention, where Reagan lost the GOP nomination to President Gerald R. Ford.

After helping Nolan and Brown win Assembly seats in 1978, Lewis served as Brown’s administrative assistant. Two years later, he stunned the Republican Establishment by winning the party primary against Beverly Nestande, the favorite of GOP leaders and the former wife of then-incumbent Bruce Nestande.

After his primary election victory, the county GOP Central Committee took the unusual step of censuring Lewis for sending a last-minute mailer giving the misleading impression that Lewis had Reagan’s endorsement when he did not. A party ethics panel cited a Lewis campaign brochure urging voters to “join me at the Reagan/Lewis Victory Party.”

Once in the Assembly, Lewis helped form a cadre of Republicans who were known as “cavemen” for their conservative views. They have advocated cutting taxes and spending, and freeing private enterprise from government regulation.

Lewis has pushed for the elimination of the California Coastal Commission and introduced legislation last year to wipe out county offices of education and put the money spent on those agencies directly into the schools.

In a statement released by his office Tuesday, Lewis said his most “satisfying legislative achievement” came last year when he helped negotiate a compromise ending a decades-old boundary war between the Placentia Unified School District and the Yorba Linda Unified School District.

But Lewis, installed in 1984 by Nolan as chairman of the caucus’ election committee, has been best known for devising political strategies and then working feverishly to implement them.

He has played a key role in the elections of more than half a dozen state lawmakers, including Nolan, Brown, Royce, Ferguson and Assemblymen Nolan Frizzelle (R-Huntington Beach) and Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove).

“Many officeholders are not concerned with trying to change the landscape,” Royce said. “They may wish it to happen, but they’re not willing to put forth the effort and the time it takes to go out and do it. John is.”

Assemblyman William P. Baker (R-Danville) said Lewis has a “sixth sense” for politics. Nolan said Lewis has a knack for “looking at a poll and making the numbers come alive.”

“It’s more of an art than a science,” said Bill Saracino, deputy director of the state Commerce Department and another USC classmate of Lewis. “It’s something he was born with.”

According to his most recent financial disclosure reports, Lewis owns stocks, bonds and other investments worth at least $794,000 and perhaps four times that amount. He was the nephew of D.B. Lewis, owner of Lewis Foods, manufacture of Dr. Ross’ dog food, and inherited much of the elder Lewis’ fortune.

But Lewis, chunky and boyish-looking despite his graying hair, does not flaunt his wealth. He drove an old Firebird until it rolled up 120,000 miles, finally trading it in on a BMW. He maintains a comfortable yet modest life style, living in condominiums in Sacramento and Orange. A fisherman and avid sports fan, he is engaged to marry an Orange County woman he met through politics.

Friends and associates say that Lewis’ quiet exterior conceals a bundle of nerves.

“I’ve never seen anyone as high-strung,” a fellow assemblyman said. “He’s coiled like a spring.”