Maureen Reagan to Run for Congress in New 36th District : Politics: She has the backing of her father, former President Reagan, who did not publicly support her 1982 Senate campaign.

Maureen Reagan, armed with the endorsement of her father, former President Ronald Reagan, said this week that she will run for Congress in a Republican-leaning coastal district stretching from San Pedro to Venice.

In 1982, her campaign for the U.S. Senate was undermined by reports that then-President Reagan did not want her to run. She finished fifth among the 13 candidates in the GOP primary, receiving only 5% of the vote. Her father made no endorsement in the race.

This time, the 51-year-old former talk show host and Republican activist is leaving little to chance.

Rival Republicans are taking Maureen Reagan’s candidacy seriously.

“Maureen Reagan will be a formidable opponent,” said GOP political consultant Allan Hoffenblum, one of whose clients--Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores--has expressed interest in the race for the newly drawn 36th Congressional District. “Her father is an 8,000-pound gorilla in politics, and it’s something we have to address.”

Reagan portrayed herself in an interview as a formidable candidate in her own right, whose posts include co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee from 1987 to 1989 and member of the California World Trade Commission from 1983 to 1985. But she concedes that her father’s endorsement will help.

“I would never have been involved in this campaign if I didn’t have (my father’s) support,” she said, disclosing that the former President has contributed $1,000 to her campaign and has pledged to appear on her behalf at fund-raisers and in public. “I think there is a residual affection for him out there that I’m sure most any candidate would like to have.”

Reagan is among at least five Republicans expected to compete in the 36th District. The new turf, created in a redistricting plan approved recently by the state Supreme Court, includes Venice, Marina del Rey, Westchester, Playa del Rey, the South Bay cities, Lawndale, Lomita, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Avalon, Torrance and most of San Pedro.

The Republican Party’s voter registration edge over Democrats in the district is only 46% to 42%. But political experts in both parties consider it safe Republican territory because GOP voters are more likely to cast ballots and to support their party’s candidates.

“You’d have to have a real fluke of a Republican candidate to lose that district,” said LeRoy Hardy, a Democrat and political science professor at Cal State Long Beach.

Besides Flores, Reagan’s GOP opposition in the June 2 primary is expected to include San Pedro consultant John Barbieri, former Assistant U.S. Atty. William Fahey and Torrance attorney William Beverly, son of state Sen. Robert G. Beverly (R-Manhattan Beach.)

Prompting their interest is a decision by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach)--the incumbent best positioned to win the 36th--to run in a newly drawn district in Orange County instead.

Analysts agree that the GOP primary will probably be hard-fought and expensive. Seeking to portray her as an outsider, Reagan’s rivals point out that until now she has had little involvement in the district.

Congressional candidates are not required to live in the districts they seek to represent. But less than two weeks ago, Reagan moved to Westchester from West Los Angeles, which is not in the 36th District, according to her husband, publicist Dennis Revell.

Reagan dismisses the residency issue as irrelevant. She argues that in Congress she would help solve problems that concern the area’s voters--among them the slump in the aerospace industry, dwindling drinking water supplies and coastal pollution.

Calling herself a conservative on economic issues, she said she would go further than President Bush has proposed in easing the federal tax burden to stimulate the economy.

Such positions appear to dovetail with her father’s philosophy, but her stands on some social issues do not. For example, she said she would firmly oppose a government-imposed ban on abortion.

“I don’t know anybody who is pro-abortion,” Reagan said Wednesday. “But I think that the decision that is made between a woman and her God does not belong in the hands of bureaucrats and politicians.”

Hoffenblum said Flores supports curbs on abortion and plans to alert voters to this and other issues on which Maureen Reagan and the former President part company.

“We have to make sure she doesn’t get a free ride,” Hoffenblum said. “She can’t run a campaign that says: ‘If you like Ronald Reagan, then vote for Maureen Reagan.’ ”