Joyce Anderson Valdez; Major GOP Fund-Raiser

Joyce Anderson Valdez, major fund-raiser for Republican politicians including three former presidents and two former California governors who was respected professionally and revered personally for her tenacity and charm, has died. She was 70.

Valdez, who served as state GOP finance director for many years, died Wednesday at her Arcadia home after a long illness.

Pete Wilson, who benefited from Valdez’s expertise in his campaigns for both the U.S. Senate and California governor, considered her a longtime close friend.

“With the exception of Ronald Reagan, Joyce Valdez is probably responsible for more of the successes of the Republican Party in California than anyone else in history,” Wilson said in a statement after her death. “She never had an event that wasn’t a huge success because she simply refused to accept failure.”

He ended his accolade warmly: “She lightened our hearts as she lightened our pockets. Advice to St. Peter: Don’t even try to hang onto your wallet. With Joyce’s energy and charm, you don’t have a chance!”

When major donors reversed the tables and threw a salutary black-tie dinner for Valdez at Jimmy’s in 1985, Interior Department Western representative Carol Hallett telegraphed knowingly: “When Joyce gives the last supper, you can be sure she’ll have a cash bar.”

From the early 1960s to mid-1980s, the effervescent Valdez organized dinners and other events that raised more than $100 million for Republican candidates, among them Presidents Reagan, Gerald Ford and George Bush and Govs. Wilson and George Deukmejian. Many considered her the party’s best fund-raiser not only in California but nationwide.

Not all of her candidates were successful, even with the money she funneled to their campaign coffers. Among those were GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole and Senate candidate Ed Zschau.

Occasionally, Valdez lent her talents to favored Democrats for “nonpartisan” offices such as Los Angeles City Council members John Ferraro and Joan Milke Flores. She also raised campaign money at the local level for the late Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block.

Valdez told The Times in 1982 that she often relied on celebrity guests to attract paying supporters to her fund-raising dinners, cocktail parties or coffees.

“There are so many fund-raising events, and people get so tired of going out night after night,” she said. “A star will draw them out to actually attend the event.”

Frank Sinatra was a favorite, she said, and Wayne Newton, and especially her longtime friend Ronald Reagan.

“The prez looks like a Supreme Court justice all of a sudden--very distinguished,” she said proudly in late 1989 when she booked him as centerpiece for a dinner that netted Wilson $700,000.

When he was governor, Reagan appointed Valdez as a commissioner of the state’s Industrial Welfare Board. She had also helped Block set up his Sheriff’s Youth Foundation and served on its board.

Born in Supreme, Ala., Valdez lived much of her adult life in the Los Angeles area, where she became a nationally top-ranked amateur golfer.

Valdez, widowed by the death of her husband of 48 years, Frank Valdez, is survived by four children, Dennis Valdez, Valinda VanderWerff, Vicky Vangeison and Valerie Iida; a brother, Monte Anderson; three sisters, JoAnn Scott, Vivian Whitaker and Gloria Alerich, and 10 grandchildren.

Services are scheduled at 11 a.m. today at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier.