Wilson to Stay in Public Eye as a Private Citizen

At 65, Gov. Pete Wilson is contemplating his first days of unemployment since he left the U.S. Marine Corps in 1958.

He said he is not certain exactly what the future holds when he leaves the governor’s office Jan. 4. But he is not planning to just fade away.

Wilson expects to join at least one think tank, perhaps the Hoover Institution at Stanford, where other scholars formerly in government have advised his administration. He also plans writing projects, including a possible book or newspaper column.

Wilson also recently incorporated the Bear Flag Forum as a nonprofit foundation that will finance his continued involvement in California--and perhaps national--public policy.

The forum has assets of about $143,000, according to financial reports it filed this month. Nearly half of the money is left over from previous Wilson political committees and the rest was contributed by four longtime supporters, including the Irvine Co. in Orange County.

Legally, the forum is restricted from participating directly in political campaigns. But it can finance the travel, staff and publicity the governor might need to stay active as a speaker and participant in a variety of political organizations.

The forum’s mission statement reflects its broad interest in promoting state and national Republican themes, including a revisit of the controversial debates on illegal immigration and affirmative action.

“This organization will contribute to the common good,” the statement says, by “advocating . . . the promotion of job growth, free market competition and sound fiscal policies, the expansion of health care opportunities, the promotion of education reform, the curtailment of excessive government regulation, the support of America’s military as well as its military and economic allies, the critical distinction between legal and illegal immigration, the notion of equality of opportunity which is tied to merit-based reward systems, the firm moral establishment of individual and family responsibilities, the advancement of individual savings, the prevention of crime and the protection of constitutional freedoms.”

The president of the forum is Charles G. Bakaly Jr., a Pasadena lawyer and old friend of the governor.

Other past Wilson allies make up the forum’s nine-member board of directors, including John Seymour, the Orange County Republican appointed in 1991 by Wilson to fill his seat in the U.S. Senate, and two former state finance directors who served in the Wilson administration--Tom Hayes and Russ Gould.

Because the nonprofit forum cannot contribute to partisan campaigns, Wilson said he will also form a political action committee. He said the PAC will help finance ballot measures or candidates who promote issues he supports.

In coming weeks, the governor said he will decide whether to wage a second bid for the White House in 2000.

He has made it no secret that he would like to be president. The question, he said, is whether he can raise the $25 million he expects it would take to run a presidential campaign.

In the meantime, Wilson said, he considers his work with the Bear Flag Forum “as really unrelated to that.”

Next month, Wilson will move into a new home in Century City and start his new assignment in the same office tower and floor where former President Ronald Reagan maintains a desk.