Forbes Raises Funds and His Profile in County

Millionaire publisher Steve Forbes dropped into Orange County on Tuesday to raise about $25,000 for the local Republican Party, as well as his profile among GOP activists beginning to line up prospects for the 2000 presidential race.

It was obvious by his reception that Forbes has maintained much of the support in Orange County he earned during his previous presidential attempt. A week after dropping out of the race in March 1996, a Times poll showed Forbes nearly even with eventual nominee Bob Dole among county GOP voters.

“The question before us today is very simple,” Forbes said in a speech filled with populism, patriotism and optimism at the skyline home of Safi Qureshey, chairman emeritus of AST Research Inc.

“Will we realize our glittering opportunities or will this be known as the era of missed opportunities?” Forbes said. “We have an enormous challenge before us.”

The popularity of Forbes’ message--delivered during a 1996 campaign in which he spent about $30 million of his own money--has bumped him to the top of the list of potential contenders for the 2000 Republican ticket. He chided the GOP in August for being “badly off-message” by ignoring its conservative tenets.

This month, he announced plans for 90-second radio “chats” he hopes to syndicate nationally.

As in 1996, the theme that brought Tuesday’s audience of 200 who paid $125 each to its feet focused on a familiar nemesis: the Internal Revenue Service. Forbes ran for office on a theme of scrapping the tax code and replacing it with a flat tax.

Forbes also attacked the international treaty on global warming, negotiated this month in Kyoto, Japan, which seeks to limit greenhouse gases.

“There is absolutely no justification for what they’re proposing,” Forbes said. He called the treaty “a huge infringement on our sovereignty” because it fails to exempt the U.S. military. He said that could mean the U.S. would need United Nations approval for large-scale military exercises because of fuel use.

“This is a power grab, pure and simple, by people who don’t like the fact that socialism is dead and want to find a new way to control our lives,” he said. “We can’t let it happen.”

Ken Grubbs, editor of World Trade magazine in Irvine, said Forbes is “playing it smart” with his presidential aspirations by building a grass-roots base of support well before the election. That Forbes isn’t as polished as some candidates could work to his advantage, Grubbs said.

“There are times when it’s to one’s political advantage to be acharismatic,” he said. “People have had it up to here with slick. Notwithstanding the silver spoon he was born with, Forbes comes across as a searching intellect. He’s seriously looking at the Oval Office, and he should.”