GOP Communicators: The Reagan Legacy

By Rhodes Cook
CQ Senior Staff Writer

It has been eight years since Ronald Reagan left the White House, but his shadow still extends across the national political stage.

Not only do Republican presidential aspirants of all stripes continue to audition as his political heirs -- "I'll be another Ronald Reagan if that's what you want," the party's presumed nominee, Bob Dole, told a GOP audience last year. But it was Reagan -- first elected at age 69 -- who raised the age bar high enough that a presidential bid by the 73-year-old Dole this year was even thinkable.

Yet, the most lasting legacy of the "great communicator" may be the gradual shift that appears to be under way in the type of candidates who run for public office.

While this year's GOP presidential field was well-stocked with the usual complement of elected officials, it also included three candidates whose careers, like Reagan's, were tied to some sector of the communications industry.

Patrick J. Buchanan was a speechwriter and commentator. Malcolm S. "Steve" Forbes Jr. was the scion of his family's publishing empire and a regular contributor to Forbes magazine. Alan Keyes was a radio talk-show host, writer and lecturer.

And when this year's Republican primaries were completed, they had finished second (Buchanan), third (Forbes) and fifth (Keyes) in the number of GOP primary ballots won.

Running in their wake were candidates with long years of high-profile governmental experience, including the chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee (Indiana's Richard G. Lugar), the chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee (Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter), the senior senator from Texas (Phil Gramm), and the California governor (Pete Wilson).

The results reflect a combination of two trends, says University of Virginia political scientist Larry J. Sabato. "There is a popular revulsion against experience in public office, which used to be the primary qualification for candidates." And increasingly, says Sabato, there is a "command of communications skills needed to run for public office."

The need for these skills is underscored daily by the laconic Dole, who had the money and establishment support needed to wrest the GOP nomination but whose campaign of late has been stalled by a difficulty in communicating.

With their communications skills, Forbes, Buchanan and Keyes were able to craft crisp, clear messages that resonated in large sectors of the GOP electorate. The messages were quite different, from Buchanan's "peasants with pitchforks" appeal to Keyes' stridently pro-family, anti-abortion litany to Forbes' call for a flat tax.

To be sure, Forbes profited during the Republican primaries by his ability to spend freely out of his own pocket -- more than $30 million for his entire campaign, roughly $4 million for a media blitz in Iowa alone. Yet tire-and-wheel manufacturer Maurice "Morry" Taylor also tapped a personal fortune but could win barely one primary vote for every 70 cast for Forbes.

Each of the three "communicators" demonstrated a staying power that other Republican contenders except Dole did not. Buchanan and Keyes are still in the race and apt to win delegate votes in San Diego. Forbes returned to the world of publishing in mid-March but has maintained a fairly high profile, from appearances on news talk shows to a spot as guest host on NBC-TV's "Saturday Night Live."

Forbes' presidential run this year was not unique. There have been other occasions in American history when leaders in the print media have mounted bids for the nation's highest office. Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Tribune, was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for president in 1872; publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst made a lavish but losing bid for the Democratic nomination in 1904; and James M. Cox, the architect of the Cox communications empire, won the Democratic nomination in 1920 but lost that fall to a small-town publisher from his native Ohio, Warren G. Harding.

With his background in motion pictures, Reagan adapted a way to communicate politically in the television age -- one that combined crispness and clarity with the appearance of openness and accessibility.

While the membership of the 104th Congress, like earlier Congresses, is loaded with lawyers and businessmen, an increasing number of members reflect the Reagan influence, including GOP Rep. Sonny Bono of California (Cher's one-time singing partner), and GOP Sens. Rod Grams of Minnesota (a former TV news anchorman) and Fred Thompson of Tennessee (a movie actor as well as a lawyer).

And there is apt to be more like them in the future. According to Sabato, many of his students who express interest in political careers also take courses in communications. He says they know such courses are as necessary for a political career as "public administration and policy."

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