Reagan Steals Show at Fund-Raiser for Wilson’s Campaign

There is nothing quite like a Republican dinner starring Ronald Reagan.

Call it Hollywood Squares.

Up on the dais Wednesday night at the Century Plaza were rows of faces you’d expect to see on that game show or on the covers of magazines in the supermarket.

The event--which kicked off a two-month period of campaigning for the 1990 governor’s race by Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson--was Reagan’s first political fund-raiser since he left the White House early this year.

And though he is no longer President, Reagan is clearly still the star for California Republicans.

But he had others with him on the dais. Such as the two guys with big shoulders and lethal hands: Sylvester Stallone and Chuck Norris. And Moses: Charlton Heston in a full beard. The truck drivers’ favorite: Claude Akins. Not to mention Scott Baio, Bruce Boxleitner and Julie Newmar.

Down in the well of the ballroom, more than 700 well-dressed folks ate and watched the famous people eat--as though they really were watching Hollywood Squares.

Mostly the audience stared at Reagan, whose gray hair was the main subject of conversation.

“The Prez looks like a Supreme Court justice all of a sudden--very distinguished,” said Joyce Valdez, who goes back 25 years with Reagan in politics.

Valdez, considered by many to be the national Republican Party’s best fund-raiser, put Wednesday’s event together to round up $700,000 for Wilson’s campaign.

But though the event was for Wilson, the senator was virtually a non-presence.

Not only was he hard to spot among all the star power, when he spoke he did not take the opportunity to outline what he would like to do if elected to the highest office in the state.

Instead, Wilson briefly introduced Reagan and credited his presidency with bringing about the tumultuous changes in Eastern Europe.

Reagan in turn heaped on Wilson the kind of praise that the senator has never heard from the former President.

Not all that long ago, Wilson was shut out of the Reagan circle because he backed former President Gerald R. Ford against Reagan in the 1976 GOP primary.

But on Wednesday night, Wilson was formally handed the torch of the California Republican Party by the man who put that party in the vanguard of the country’s conservative movement.

“As California heads into the 1990s and prepares for the 21st Century,” Reagan said, “we need someone at our helm who believes that our California must be beautiful, safe and prosperous. And since I’ve known Pete Wilson, he’s been that man.”

Reagan reminded the GOP faithful that when he was elected California governor in 1966, “a kid state assemblyman named Pete Wilson” also went to serve in Sacramento for the first time.

Reagan has now accepted Wilson to the extent that on Wednesday night he even used a speech written by the senator’s spokesman, Otto Bos.

Those familiar with Bos’ brand of humor were tipped off right after Reagan began speaking.

“Pete’s not one for raising taxes,” Reagan said, “unlike the Democrats, who look at your paychecks the way Colonel Sanders looks at chickens.”

Bos later confirmed it had been his speech in the hands of the Great Communicator--”I’m on a cloud!” Bos swooned.

For Wilson, Wednesday night’s dinner not only marked the passing of the sword in the California GOP (Gov. George Deukmejian was absent so Reagan got to do it by himself). The event was also the beginning of what Wilson’s advisers hope will be an active two months in the gubernatorial campaign now that the U.S. Senate is in recess.

Because of his Senate duties, Wilson has been trying to campaign from 3,000 miles away, a handicap not faced by state Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp and former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who are battling for the Democratic nomination.

But things began looking up for Wilson right before the Reagan dinner.

His quest for the governorship was endorsed earlier in the day by the National Latino Peace Officers Assn., a group that has backed Van de Kamp twice for attorney general and that last year supported Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis.

And on Sunday, Wilson will begin laying out his “agenda for the ‘90s” in a major address in San Jose.

Meanwhile, as the Reagan dinner showed, the campaign dollars keep rolling in for Wilson. By the end of the year he will have more than $5 million in pocket on his way to what some political insiders predict will be a $20-million war chest.