Countywide : Buchanan Supports Sister, Opposes Taxes

President Bush is at risk of losing the conservative support that helped him into the White House unless he holds the line on taxes and sends a stronger message to the Soviet Union on the Baltic republics’ independence, said conservative Washington commentator and former Reagan Administration adviser Patrick J. Buchanan on Tuesday.

“He’s now coming to a fork in the road in his administration,” Buchanan said at a fund-raiser at the Santa Ana Country Club for his sister, state treasurer candidate Angela (Bay) Buchanan.

“He’s going to have to choose whether he stands with those of us who stood with him in 1988 against Dukakis when . . . he said, ‘No new taxes.’ ”

Buchanan said Bush’s recent decision “to put everything on the table” in budget discussions with Democrats--including taxes--was “a mistake.”

“He has not explained the nature of the crisis being so severe that you should immediately throw aside the most important pledge he made,” Buchanan said.

Buchanan’s appearance Tuesday evening was one of eight scheduled stops on a three-day Southern California swing he is making on behalf of his sister, a former U.S. treasurer who is now locked in a tough battle for the Republican nomination for state treasurer with incumbent Thomas Hayes.

The Democrat who will face the winner of the Republican primary is another woman with a famous brother--Kathleen Brown, a member of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works and the sister of former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.

About 120 people attended the $200-per-person reception, and Ken Rietz, one of Buchanan’s consultants, said her brother’s appearances should bring in about $200,000 for the campaign.

“People like to talk to him,” said Rietz. “They may not always agree with him, but they like to hear him.”

Said Bay Buchanan: “He brings some attention and some excitement to the campaign.”