Ronnie and Nancy_ Their Path to the White House - Bob Colacello [210]
These men constituted the original nucleus of what would come to be known as the Kitchen Cabinet, though they would not actually be called that until after Reagan’s election.101 As William French Smith explained,
“We had social contacts and political contacts, and the relationships just grew. I think what is now referred to as the Kitchen Cabinet was not known by any title. It was just a group of friends that became an executive committee. And I think that group of friends probably may be unique in the annals of American political history, because it started with him, and at least the nucleus has been with him ever since. I don’t know of any other situation where it has been quite like that, people are both social friends and then became active politically in furthering his candidacy.”102
From the beginning, Tuttle, Salvatori, and Rubel were determined not to repeat the mistakes of Goldwater’s narrowly based campaign; they saw Reagan as someone who could unify the party. One of their first and wisest moves was to seek out the political consulting firm of Spencer-Roberts, which had run Rockefeller’s campaign in the 1964 primary. Stuart Spencer, a former parks-and-recreation director, and Bill Roberts, a onetime television salesman, had been active in the L.A. County Young Republicans in the 1950s and started their own business in 1960. In six years, Lou Cannon notes, “they had won 34 of 40 congressional races with Republican candidates of various views.” These successful candidates included Betty Adams’s first husband, Alphonzo Bell, a moderate, and John Rousselot, whom they refused to handle for reelection when his John Birch Society 3 3 8
Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House membership was revealed. Even Goldwater grudgingly admitted to Tuttle that they were the best.103
Spencer-Roberts had also been approached by Reagan’s likely opponent, George Christopher, the moderate former mayor of San Francisco.
As Stu Spencer told me, he first met with Tuttle, Mills, and the Cook brothers at the Cave de Roy, a Hollywood key club. “Then we met with the Reagans several times at their home. It was a really big decision for the company. George Christopher was the odds-on favorite, not this guy coming out of Hollywood who had given a great speech for Goldwater.
We spent quite a bit of time talking to him. He then went over to see his in-laws in Phoenix, and he called us from there and said, ‘When the hell are you guys going to make your minds up?’ We said, ‘We’re not finished checking yet. We don’t want to find out you’re a Bircher or something.’ So we had one more meeting. I’ll never forget, we got to the house, and he’s sitting there with these big bright red socks on. It was his sense of humor.
We agreed to do it.”104
In May the exploratory committee launched Friends of Ronald Reagan, with Rubel, who at seventy was the oldest of the original triumvirate, as chairman of its executive committee. Their first move was to hire Spencer-Roberts to set up the “test-the-waters” tour at a reported fee of $50,000.105
A few weeks later Friends of Reagan sent out a mailing with requests for donations, which quickly brought in $135,000, enough to cover expenses through the end of the year, when Reagan agreed to make his decision final. Among the forty-one names on the letterhead were James Cagney, Walt Disney, Robert Taylor, and Randolph Scott, as well as Nancy’s friend Anita May, who had been predicting for years that Ronnie would run, and who was the only woman included in meetings of the Kitchen Cabinet’s inner circle. Although Jack Wrather, Bill Wilson, Earle Jorgensen, and Alfred Bloomingdale were not actively involved at this point, they were early contributors. “I remember saying, ‘But Ronnie’s an actor. An actor can’t be governor,’” Betsy Bloomingdale told me. “‘Well,’ Alfred said, ‘you just wait and see.’”106
Marion Jorgensen recalled how Tuttle got her and Earle to contribute.