Attorney Makes Room for Public Service Aspirations

Some people enter politics for the power and others for a cause, but those who know Dana W. Reed say he is motivated by a fascination--if not an obsession--with the process of how government works.

Reed has been a lifelong engineer in the machinery of California politics. His fascination began when he was a 12-year-old at the 1956 Republican National Convention in San Francisco, where he watched the nomination of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

By the time he graduated from high school in Palo Alto, Reed was so active in Republican campaigns that he decided to skip college to work full time in politics. Just a few years later, at the age of 25, his activity was rewarded by Gov. Ronald Reagan when he was chosen to be California’s deputy state controller.

“Dana has a need to be there,” said Vigo (Chip) Nielsen Jr., Reed’s former law partner and longtime friend. He is a “public policy junkie . . . who, in his spare time, would probably read the state budget while we read the sports page.”

Reed, 46, never did get a college degree, but he passed an equivalency test that allowed him to attend Loyola University’s law school, earning a degree in 1974. As an attorney, Reed continued to work in the political backfield, including a stint as the undersecretary for business, transportation and housing in Gov. George Deukmejian’s Administration.

He also launched his own law firm and became one of California’s most prominent attorneys in the specialty of election law. In political circles, Reed’s work is most known for its association with developers and the causes of big business. Reed says that’s a function of location because he happens to be headquartered in rapidly growing Orange County.

Reed also capitalized on his transportation expertise gained in Sacramento with an appointment in 1988 to the Orange County Transportation Commission. And last year, he combined his expertise in politics and transportation to be a major player in the county’s successful effort to pass Measure M, a half-cent sales tax for new roads and transportation services.

Earlier this year, Reed decided it was time to test a lifelong dream and step into the public spotlight as an elected official. When he entered the recent special election to replace former Anaheim state Sen. John Seymour, he thought his chances were so good that it was almost his race to lose.

He was able to cash in on connections made during 30 years of serving Republican causes and candidates by raising more money than any of his opponents, as well as gaining the endorsement of key county leaders, including three members of the Board of Supervisors whom he helped to elect.

But during the special primary last March, Reed finished in fourth place, so far behind the leaders that he has had to rethink his perception of the political playing field.

“I have to be realistic,” he said. “I really have to assess my own qualifications as a candidate. I don’t have any doubts about my ability to do a job, but I think it’s entirely possible that I don’t have the right demeanor or the right mentality to be a candidate.

“It’s just a guess, but I probably will never be elected to public office, and I have been in government all my life,” he said.

Reed’s candidacy also brought out a controversial side to his politics. He separated from many county Republicans by supporting abortion rights. And he made some powerful enemies by challenging incumbent Assembly members who were backed by key GOP leaders, including county Chairman Thomas Fuentes.

“I don’t know what makes him tick,” Fuentes said recently. “I always esteemed him as one of the most knowledgeable political law experts in Orange County. . . . It was an earnest candidacy, but it was very costly and poorly conceived and out of tune with conservative Republicans in Orange County.”

Reed has also considered the possibility of running for county supervisor--he launched a committee to explore a run in 1990 for the South County seat held by Thomas F. Riley. But there, too, he was a controversial candidate because his work has identified him so closely with the interests of big developers.

“I am concerned about his kind of person,” said Orange County activist Shirley Grindle, who helped draft a campaign finance law for supervisors. “I fear the day that he would get elected to the Board of Supervisors.”

So what’s next for Reed?

He might seek Riley’s seat again in 1994. “That’s three full years away,” he said. “There are just so many things that can or might or will happen between now and then.”

And, as a current member of the Orange County Transportation Commission, he is seeking a seat on a newly formed transportation authority that will replace the commission. But, he does not have the votes necessary at this time to secure that position.

Reed was also interviewed, but passed over, recently for a high-level transportation job in Gov. Pete Wilson’s Administration. Still, he thinks an Administration job might be attractive.

“I think public service is something definitely in the future for Dana Reed,” he said. “If that doesn’t mean elected office, then it means appointed office.”