State GOP Chief Seeks to Run National Party

State Republican Party chief John Herrington confirmed Wednesday that he is in the running for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, the umbrella organization that raises money and dispenses clout for GOP candidates nationwide.

Herrington, 57, has been head of the California Republican Party since February 1995. A businessman from Walnut Creek, he served as secretary of energy in the second Reagan administration and later was chairman of the publishing house Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

The present national party chairman, Haley Barbour, has held the job for two two-year terms but has decided against a third term.

Others said to be vying for the chairmanship are former New Hampshire Gov. Steve Merrill, Republican National Committee general counsel David Norcross and Michigan GOP Chairwoman Betsy DeVos. Other state party chairmen are pondering bids.

The next party chairman will be chosen Jan. 17-19 at a meeting of the Republican National Committee and will take over a political organization that last week saw the defeat of its presidential ticket at the hands of the first Democrat to win a second term since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The party also saw its hold on the House of Representatives shrink, and faces huge internal debates over its future course, caught as it is between competing conservative and moderate flanks.

Herrington has been largely able to tamp down dissent during his tenure in California, but the party suffered as did its national counterpart. Last week, Democrats gained control both of the state Assembly and the California delegation to Congress.

Despite the numerical losses, Herrington said he remains largely optimistic about Republican chances in 1998.

“The country’s agenda has moved more to the right, and there is definitely a very strong Republican base to build off of--36 Republican governors,” he said. “What we need to do is build on that base.”

Much of the party’s internal discussions over the coming year are expected to focus on divisions that have cost the party electoral votes, such as abortion rights. Herrington said that as chairman he would serve as an honest broker and would not take a position on abortion--a point that probably will not please strong-willed forces on either side.

He served a similar brokering role in California, controlling a largely conservative party membership that before his tenure seemed perennially at war with its socially moderate titular leader, Gov. Pete Wilson.

As party chairman, Herrington raised more than $10 million in the last year, including a $1-million contribution from media tycoon Rupert Murdoch that the chairman said Wednesday he personally solicited.

Herrington said that he became acquainted with Murdoch in 1984 when he was director of presidential personnel in the White House.

He said Murdoch, who until the Oct. 7 donation had played virtually no role in California politics, is “very, very supportive of the California Republican Party, me as chairman and the party’s pro-business agenda.”

Times staff writer Kenneth Reich contributed to this article.