Florida GOP Irked by Rohrabacher-Cox Role in Primary

A foray into Florida politics by two Orange County congressmen has ruffled the feathers of Sunshine State Republicans, who have advised their California colleagues to kindly mind their own business.

Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Lomita) and C. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) piqued the Floridians when the congressmen endorsed a conservative, Cuban-American businessman, Carlos Perez, in an important Aug. 1 primary.

Perez was associated with the Reagan Administration; both Rohrabacher and Cox were members of the Reagan White House staff.

The Florida primary will pick the GOP standard-bearer in a special election to fill the Miami-area House seat left vacant by the death in May of Rep. Claude D. Pepper, a liberal Democrat.

In a letter to House Republicans, all 10 of Florida’s GOP congressmen said they had purposely refrained from endorsing any candidate in the hotly contested primary.

“We have now been placed in the untenable position of remaining silent while other members, from outside the state, and not being conversant with the local political situation, have allowed their names to be associated with one of the Republican candidates,” the Florida congressmen wrote.

“The Florida delegation would greatly appreciate no further interference by outsiders in this Republican primary,” the letter concluded.

Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. of Fort Lauderdale, who wrote the letter, said Tuesday: “We had decided probably the best thing to do was let that particular race run its course. . . . Our whole approach was somewhat derailed, or at least got off on a bumpy track, when we found out Mr. Rohrabacher had spearheaded an effort to get congressional endorsements” for Perez.

Rohrabacher persuaded 12 congressmen, including Cox, to endorse Perez.

Rohrabacher and Cox said they were simply standing up for an old friend.

“I think it’s standard operating procedure that when somebody has a friend, or an ideological soul mate, running someplace for Congress, that they help them out,” said Rohrabacher, who was a speech writer in the Reagan White House. “I had no idea that it would cause anybody any problem anywhere.”

Had it not been for the support of members of Congress outside of California, Rohrabacher said, he might not have won his first congressional race in the fall.

Cox, formerly a senior assistant White House counsel, was less actively involved than was Rohrabacher in soliciting support for Perez, according to aides to several Florida congressmen.

“My endorsement of Carlos Perez is based upon my personal friendship with Carlos and is not in any way a comparative evaluation,” Cox said. “I wanted to be sure that Carlos was heard, that he was taken seriously.”

Perez, a millionaire fruit importer, arrived in the United States nearly 30 years ago as an impoverished immigrant fleeing Fidel Castro’s revolution in Cuba. He was once mentioned by President Reagan in a State of the Union address as an example of the success that immigrants can achieve.

During the 1984 presidential race, Perez headed a Latino-oriented campaign organization called Viva Reagan. He is also chairman of the Concerned Citizens for Democracy, organized in 1987 to raise money for medical treatment for anti-government forces in Nicaragua.

In the Republican primary in Florida’s 18th Congressional District, Perez is challenging front-runner Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida state senator who is also a Cuban American and a political conservative.